HD $B 31 7MD Cvj ^ eg o GIFT F ziv.s V.T. . t- it rru l 2 problems! tn Jltnneapoltsi ^relimtnarp Snbegttgation Ctbtc & Commerce &ggoctatton I Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association Housing Committee The Housing Problem in Minneapolis A Preliminary Investigation made for THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSING of the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association ow -s / n cT A Officers Douglas A. Fiske, President E. P. Wells, Senior Vice President C. C. Webber, Vice President Industrial Division N. F. Hawley, Vice President Civic Division F. E. Kenaston, Vice President Traffic Division Henry Doerr, Treasurer Howard Strong, Secretary Housing Committee E. H. Hewitt, Chairman Harry W. Jones Allen D. Albert Stiles P. Jones F. H. Bass H. N. Leighton E. N. Best A. U. Morell E. H. Brown W. B. Morris Geo. C. Christian M. D. Shutter Fred B. Chute Stephen C. Tooker J. G. Cross Paul Von Kuster Luther H. Farrington Jonas Weil J. T. Gerould John Wahlquist D. P. Jones Phelps Wyman Otto W. Davis, Secretary Sub-Committees Housing Code E. N. Best E. H. Brown, Chairman W B. Morris H. N. Leighton ';'!, , V : Wi. ?. Shutter Jonas Weil . .,,,.......... John Wahlquist New Sub-DivisibnV Workingmen's Homes Phelps^Wyman, Chairman Rarry w ]Q ^ Fred' Chute Geo. C. Christian D.P.Jones { * ^ SS ,. A TT TUT 11 J- T. Gerould A. U. Morell 1. _ _ D. P. Jones Publicity j ohn Wahlquist Allen D. Albert, Chairman CONTENTS PREFACE By Douglas A. Fiske INTRODUCTION The Nature and Purpose of the Survey Housing Problem the Universal Result of Unguided City Growth Apartment Houses of the Well-to-do Some Day to be Tenements of the Laboring People Bad Housing is Widely Distributed in Minneapolis The Investigation Occupied Several Months Types and Location of Bad Housing Structures Dilap- idation Frequently Found Number of Stories and Apartments. Pages 11 to 17. Chapter I THE RESULTS OF INADEQUATE HOUSING REGULATION Excessive Lot Occupation, Basement Habitation, Dark Rooms, Kitchenette Problems, Lack of Ventilation, Inadequate Toilet Facilities, Absence of Bath and Hot Water. Excessive Lot Occupation Prevalent May Still Cover En- tire Lot Yards Usurped by Stairways Two Kinds of Conges- tion Evident A Dismal Prospect for the Future Chicago Try- ing to Lower Percentage of Lot Covered Filthy Stables on Tenement Lots A Population Below Ground Families in Base- ment Homes City Has Hundreds of Basement Apartments Basement Apartments Usually Dark Basement Apartments Usually Damp Basement Occupation Should Be Regulated if Not Prohibited Janitors' Quarters in Basements A Population in Darkness A Thousand Dark Tenement Rooms in Minneap- olis Dark Rooms in the Making Dark Rooms in Dwellings Many Dark Rooms in Basements Dark Rooms as Sleeping Rooms Amendment Passed Inadequate Shame of Dark Rooms in New Structures Dark Rooms Legalized The Kitchenette Problem Kitchenettes are Ill-Ventilated Unsanitary Possi- 393441 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION bilities of Kitchenettes A Population without Sufficient Air Lack of Ventilation Prevalent Impressive Example of Non- Ventilation The Window Which Cannot Be Opened 111- Ven- tilation Due to Narrow Courts, Inadequate Vent Shafts, and Absence of Windows Present Ordinance Inadequate Narrow Courts Cut Off Ventilation Narrow Courts Gather Filth A Population Without the Common Decencies Shameful Lack of Toilet Facilities Excessive Number of Families Per Closet Contamination from Closets Evils of Diffused Responsibility Alarming Lack of Sanitation Enclosed Plumbing Means Filth An Unwashed Population Absence of Bath Rooms and Hot Water Are Bath Tubs a Necessity or a Luxury. Pages 18 to 61. Chapter II PERILOUS NEGLECT Water Supply, Slop Disposal, Garbage and Ashes Disposal, and Dilapidation. Insufficient Water Supply - Wells and Cisterns Supply Many Families Water a Precious Commodity Unsanitary Disposition of Kitchen Slops The Back Yard as a Slop Sink- No Water Means No Sink Ashes and Garbage, An Eyesore and a Menace For Lack of a System Dilapidation Repairs Neglected. Pages 62 to 77. Chapter III DANGEROUS TENDENCIES The Tendency Toward Crowding, Toward Apart- ment House Life, Toward Houses on Our Back Yards, Attention to City Planning Needed, Kinds of Housing Demanded. President Taft on "Back Yards" Room Overcrowding Fourteen People in Four Rooms The Lodger Evil Has Ar- rived Crowding of Sleeping Rooms a Serious Evil Bohemian Flats Population Not Averse to Crowding Light Housekeeping Problem Serious Tendency Should Be Opposed The Menace of the Apartment House Apartment Houses Dangerous 6 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Housing Problems of New York and Chicago Impending Here The Apartment House Craze Its Effect The Apartment House a Social Problem Also an Economic Problem Parasitic Apart- ment Houses Low Density Per Acre High Density Per House Only Average Proportion of Dwellings to Families Minne- apolis Low as a City of Homes The Drift Toward Tenement Life Rear Housing Increasing Shall We Give Up Our Back Yards Alley Housing Gripping the City Prophetic Develop- ments on Shallow Lots A Young Ghetto Attention to City Planning Needed Adapt Platting to Character of Neighbor- hood Shortcomings of Stereotyped Building Modern City Self-DestructiveKind of Housing Demanded. Pages 78 to 108. FOREWORD The following report is submitted, not as a complete survey of all the conditions that enter into the providing of homes for our citizens but as a preliminary investigation undertaken for the purpose of finding out whether the sub- ject of good housing should receive the con- sideration of those interested in the present and future welfare of Minneapolis. PREFACE A problem with which we, like every growing city, are sooner or later brought face to face, is that of seeing that the men-and women who toil in our stores and in our mills, who lay our sewers, pave our streets, and in any way whatever contribute to the de- velopment of all that makes Minneapolis the great city that it is in which to live and do business, are housed in such a way as will give them and their families homes in fact as well as in name. Minneapolis has been wonderfully fortunate thus far in the generous proportions of the home of the laboring man as well as his employer. The following investigation, however, shows plainly that conditions have begun to appear which seriously threaten the home life of thousands whose welfare and happiness are absolutely essential to the future progress of our city viewed from the industrial, moral, and every other standpoint. Minneapolis is destined to grow and grow rapidly. It is vastly more important to every business man that Minneapolis be prepared to comfortably house and care for a population of 1,000,- 000 twenty-five years hence than that the industries to support such a population be secured. If we can make our city a place where labor is contented and happy, then the efficiency of labor will be so greatly increased that industries are bound to come and will be glad to remain. The possibility of affording the best type of housing for all her population seems to be more open to Minneapolis than to any other city of her size in America. The accomplishment of this is of such importance that a strong Committee has been appointed which I hope will be able to work out a solution which shall bring increasing blessings to our city in this and succeeding genera- tions. DOUGLAS A. FISKE, Sept. 15, 1914. President. INTRODUCTION Nature and Purpose of the Survey Housing Problem the Universal Result of Unguided City Growth Neither Minneapolis nor any in America has yet learned the art of growing, of which fact the housing problem, present in some form or other in every large city and in hundreds of the smaller ones, is one of the inevitable results. Inevitably, too, the burden of bad housing falls most heavily upon the working man and his family, whose health, happiness, and general well-being are now more than ever No. 1. In the first "third" of this building are 6 apartments of 5 rooms. Each apartment contributes 3 to the total of 18 dark rooms in the building. For floor plan see Plate III, page 38. before recognized as being essential to the moral, social, and in- dustrial welfare of the community. Quite properly, then, the ob- ject of this investigation has been to determine as precisely as possible the nature of the housing problem which faces the aver- age laboring man's family in Minneapolis. No attempt has been made to cover lodging houses or hotels. Light housekeeping apartments have been touched upon as they affect the character of housing in some buildings occupied in part by the more normal sort of households. 11 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Apartment Houses of the The reason for including facts relative Well-to-do Some Day to to new apartment houses inhabited by Be Tenements of the the well-to-do is found in the fact that Laboring People. the experience of all older cities indi- cates that within twenty-five years many of these apartments will become the heritage, and the un- wholesome heritage, of the laboring population. Bad Housing Is In most cities there exist well defined Widely Distributed "slum" areas where examples may be found in Minneapolis. of nearly all the varieties of bad housing. Minneapolis does not possess any such area. Credit for this is chiefly due to the general high standards prevailing here and to the able work of our present Inspector of Buildings whose foresight has prevented many of the housing ills from which other cities suffer. There remain, however, many bad conditions, mostly in old, but some in fairly new buildings, which neither he nor the Commissioner of Health has power to remedy. The 31 tenements and 65 dwelling houses covered by this investi- gation are distributed rather widely over the city and form nuclei from which the full-fledged slum is certain to develop unless something to prevent it is done. The additional 119 dwellings covered for water supply, slop disposal and dilapidation are found throughout a considerable portion of North Minneapolis. The Investigation A period of several months was required to Occupied Several complete this inquiry. The methods used Months. were the accredited methods of scientific housing investigation, involving housing cards, upon which the information procured was checked in accu- rate and uniform fashion. Copies of these cards may be found in the appendix. All measurements were made in feet and tenths of feet. A preliminary study of the city revealed the general location of unsanitary tenements and dwellings. The Associated Charities and other social agencies aided by giving information concerning blocks of bad housing. Subsequently the city was divided into two districts, the second comprising the Unity House locality, bounded by Hennepin Avenue and Twentieth Avenue North, and Sixth Street and the river, the first including all other portions of the city. Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to Unity House and especially to Homer W. Borst for work done in secur- ing the detailed information and preparing it for our use. 12 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Types and Location of Bad Housing Structures. Everybody wonders in what part of Min- neapolis bad housing exists. The answer is, in both tenement houses and single dwellings scattered pretty well over the entire city. The tenements, for the most part, have exterior waits of brick veneer, are highly inflammable, and often in poor repair. Some are built entirely of wood. Others have been converted to house several families in the space formerly thought necessary for the comfort of one. Some of the wood and brick veneer tenements are three stories or more in height. This construction, in case of fire, is exceedingly dangerous, and was one of the first offenses No. 2. Minneapolis brown stone fronts. In these buildings are 89 in- habited basement rooms; 50 dark rooms, 22 in basement apartments; 25 rooms with no windows of any sort; 30 damp sub-basements, 6 having unsanitary toilet facilities in them. Once considered the fashionable place to live. against safety to be prohibited in this city. The three story tene- ment must now have solid brick walls, and all tenements more than three stories in height must be fireproof.* Dilapidation The dwellings were almost without excep- Frequently Found tion in a bad state of dilapidation. Sagging floors, windows too warped to open, crum- bling foundations, and rotting stairs abound. Examples of simi- lar conditions in the tenements are represented by the buildings *An amendment passed Sept. 11, 1914, limits all frame buildings to 2y 2 stories. 13 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION as * . 03 V .11 l! 14 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS in Illustrations 2 and 3. These are settling very badly on their foundations ; the walls are cracked and many doors will no longer swing. In another row, the apartments open in the rear upon a flat roof formerly designed to be used in lieu of a yard by the tenants. Now, however, this roof has been placarded as unsafe^ and the tenents cannot step outside the door and remain on their own premises. Illustration 4 gives an example of the unsightly sheds, unpainted walls, sagging roofs, and general unkempt ap- pearance characteristic of hundreds of the houses occupied by families of our workingmen. No. 4. Housing over Northeast. A row of once uniformly con- structed but now uniformly dilapidated laboring men's houses, illus- trating tendency of row housing to degenerate. Toilets are outside vaults, water is procured from wells often three or four houses distant. Number of Stories and Apartments. Fortunately, the older Minneapolis tene- ments are not high. Of the 31 investigated, only one had four stories. There were 26 having three stories, and 4 having two stories. Stores often oc- cupy the first floors. While fireproofing requirements have kept most of the new tenements down to three stories, a considerable number of higher fireproof buildings have been erected. One of the buildings investigated contained 30 families. (Illus. 5) ; another contained 28; two had 18 families; two more sheltered 15 families. The number of apartments contained in all the tenements examined is shown in Table 1. 15 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION i a a 13 16 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS TABLE 1. HOUSES BY NUMBER OF APARTMENTS CONTAINED. Number of Apartments i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 19 + Total Tenements Percentage 1 % 1 R 2 6 2 6 7 22 5 in 4 12 1 R 1 3 2 6 2 6 3- 15 ai 100 Dwellings Percentage Total ;10 77 10 9 14 Q 5 8 fi 1 1 9 9 9 7 5 /I 1 1 9 9 3 65 100 96 Percentage 512 10 6 2 2 2 8 5 4 1 1 2 2 3 100 17 Chapter I RESULTS OF INADEQUATE HOUSING REGULATION Excessive Lot Occupation, Basement Habitation, Dark Rooms, Kitchenette Problems, Lack of Ventilation, Inade- quate Toilet Facilities, Absence of Bath and Hot Water. pllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllilllllllllllW AN IDEAL WORTH STRIVING FOR ==: EEI: "I picture in my mind a city in which trie child, yet unborn, will feel in its being the stimulus of sunshine and fresh air; in which the babe will be born into a house fit to receive the gift of heaven; in which the child will never know the burden of the slum, but through normal development will come to manhood ready, joyfully, to do his share in the work of the world and qualified to assume a worthy citizenship. Chas. B. Ball, Chief Sanitary Inspector, Department of Health, Chicago B mini Excessive Lot The question of how great a proportion Occupation Prevalent, of the lot may properly be covered by a tenement touches the housing problem at one of its vital points. In greatly congested cities one finds very little of the area of building lots preserved for the use of the tenants in yards and courts. Crowded New York permits 90 per cent of a corner lot and 70 per cent of an interior lot to be built upon. In Chicago, 85 per cent of a corner lot and 75 per cent of an interior lot may be covered. Other cities such as St. Paul, De- troit, Louisville, Grand Rapids, Columbus and Duluth have con- siderably reduced these percentages (See Table 2) and several states have passed codes which preserve much more of the land for the courts and yards which are essential to the proper lighting and 18 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ventilating of the buildings, and the health and comfort of the tenants. The standard which these more enlightened codes ap- proach is 75 per cent for a corner lot and 60 per cent for an in- terior lot. Without stopping to consider her much less dense population, Minneapolis adopted the Chicago standard, and thus~ allows a greater lot occupation than do Baltimore, Columbus, De- troit, Duluth, Grand Rapids, Louisville, St. Paul, Seattle and the States of Indiana, New Jersey and New York (for cities of the Second Class), and exceeds the percentage for interior lots of even New York City itself. TABLE 2. Percentage of Lot which may be Occupied. Corner Lots Massachusets (Town Law) Columbus Street on 3 sides Duluth Street on 3 sides Detroit Louisville Seattle, On 2 streets On 2 streets and alley On 3 streets On 4 streets Chicago Street on 3 sides Grand Kapids Street on 3 sides MINNEAPOLIS When fireproof Indiana Street on 3 sides New York (2nd Class Cities) Street on 3 sides Baltimore Milwaukee Pittsburgh Street on 3 sides St. Paul California Connecticut New Jersey New York (1st Class Cities) Pennsylvania Street on 3 sides Washington, D. C. Less than 75 ft. deep and not over 50 ft. wide 100% Providence 95% 65% 75% 80% 75% 80% 80% 80% 83% 85% 87% 100% 85% 90% 85% 90% 85% 90% 85% 90% 85% 90% 90% 90% 90% 100% 90% 90% 90% 90% 90% 90% 100% 90% Interior Lots Massachusetts 50% Grand Eapids Not over 60 ft. in depth 60% 60-105 ft. 50% 105- 40% Columbus 60% Duluth 60% New York (2nd Class Cities) More than 60 ft. 60% Less than 60 ft. 70% Indiana 65% New York (1st Class Cities) More than 105 ft. 65% 70-105 ft. 70% Baltimore 70% Detroit 70% Louisville 70% St. Paul 70% Seattle, On 1 street 70% On 1 street and alley 75% On 2 streets 77% Connecticut More than 60 ft. 70% Less than 60 ft. 75% New Jersey 70% Chicago 75% Milwaukee 75% MINNEAPOLIS 75% California 75% Washington, D. C. 75% Pittsburgh 80% Providence 80% Pennsylvania 80% 19 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION No. 6. Drying the family wash in a one-room light housekeeping apartment. No. 7. New apartment house covering entire lot. Our ordinances permit some tenements and apartment houses to cover entire lot area depriving tenants of all yard space whatsoever. 20 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS This investigation, however, has revealed conditions even worse. Prior to 1908 in this city there was no limitation what- ever regulating this fundamental question, and consequently one finds throughout the whole city example after example of tene- ments upon corner lots that approach 100 per cent of the area, and buildings upon interior lots which exceed 75 per cent. One out of every eight of the tenements investigated covers the entire area of the lot upon which it stands. In more than one-third, a greater proportion than 80 per cent is covered. More than two-thirds, or 69 per cent, of the tenements, occupy more than 64 per cent of the ground. When the restrictive ordinance was finally passed in 1908, it was in this respect a copy of the Chicago law, and thus represents a standard set by the second largest city in America, a city which is so densely populated in some districts that were that density continued throughout the city area, one-third of the popu- lation of the Western Hemisphere could be housed within its limits, astounding as this appears. May Still Cover The worst, however, has not yet been stated. Entire Lot. Under certain conditions, every square foot of ground area may still be built over. For in- stance, if the first story is occupied by stores, it is not required that there be any real yard, but only a pretext for one upon the roof over the rear of the first story. When there are streets upon two or more sides of the lot, and there is a certain proportion of front- age, 100 per cent of the lot may again be built over. In these buildings, one steps out of his door directly into street or alley, or at best upon a roof that serves as a makeshift for a yard. Un- der these conditions the practices of drying wet clothes in living rooms, and driving children into the street to play must continue for a long time in our city. (Illus. 6 and 7.) Yards Usurped Again, if perchance a strip of ground is left by Stairways. unbuilt upon at the rear of a tenement, four feet of it may be occupied by the rear stair- ways and balconies. Chicago makes a somewhat similar provi- sion to cover fire escapes. Minneapolis allows long rear plat- forms and wooden stairways to suffice for fire escapes in tene- ment buildings, subject to certain conditions, and then makes applicable to them a privilege granted by Chicago to the more slender and less extensive construction characteristic of fire es- 21 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 22 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS capes. The result is the covering of the lot in Minneapolis to an extent which is not only more extreme than is permissible in larger cities, but is absolutely unwarranted upon the grounds of hygiene, sanitation, or economic necessity. Two Kinds of In considering the above facts about lot occupa- Congestion tion, it must be borne in mind that there are just Evident. two types of congested population in cities, namely, that due to lot overcrowding, and that due to room overcrowding. To anyone acquainted with the broad areas of Minneapolis, the idea of overcrowding of any sort seems strange. It is perfectly evident from our investigation, however, that the foundations for both lot overcrowding and room over- crowding are being securely and rapidly laid. There are, today, many apartment houses and tenements cut off from proper light and ventilation because of insufficient open spaces. There are many more which, when three and four story buildings spring up around them, will be deprived of light, air and space, necessities that have thus far been afforded them because of the unoccupied condition of the adjoining land. There is with us a rapidly grow- ing foreign population among whom the evils of overcrowding already demand regulation. A Dismal Prospect Furthermore, in 1912 there were construct- for the Future. ed under the present inadequate regula- tions, 1,202 tenement apartments, which, at the rate of four and one-half persons each, will accommodate 5,409 people. Presuming the life of these buildings to be at least 50 years, we realize the possibility of affecting 270,450 people for one year of their lives by the tenements constructed in 1912. As the result of the buildings erected in this single year, if we allow 35 years to a lifetime, we have the possibility of compelling a city of 7,727 people to live out their lives subject to the ill effects of too great lot occupation. Chicago Trying to Chicago is realizing that the percentage of Lower Percentage lot occupation now customary there is too of Lot Covered. high. Chas. B. Ball, Chief Sanitary In- spector, speaking before the City Club, March 19, 1913, proposed a zone system of lot percentages to supersede the present Chicago regulations. He favored preserv- 23 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION w I 16 ' Sg 24 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ing the present regulations only upon a portion of the waterfront and in the centre of town, which districts were to constitute Zone I. In Zone II, which was to comprise territory between Zone I and the outskirts of the city, the percentages were to be decreased to 65 and 80, while in the newer sections, Zone III, percentages of 50 and 70 were to obtain. Whether or not Mr. Ball's proposal is sound in detail need not be decided here. The point seems well taken by some who oppose it, that if 75 per cent of an interior lot is ever too great, it is too great precisely where Chicago would, under the proposed system, permit it, namely, in the already con- gested down-town districts. The policy suggests a concession to expediency. All the more necessity is therefore laid upon a city not yet compelled by great economic pressure to make such concessions, to adopt what is evidently Mr. Ball's ideal, namely, the 75 and 50 per cent regulations. Surely it is not too much to ask that Minneapolis be concerned as Chicago is concerned over the possibilities of these regulations. Filthy Stables Finally, Minneapolis has no suitable regu- on Tenement Lots, lation governing the housing of animals on tenement areas. Illustration 8 shows a dilapidated stable on the rear of the Flat property. It is occupied by five horses and constitutes a reeking nuisance. Illus- tration 9 is of a group of stables on the rear of a tenement on Mar- shall Avenue Northeast. They house horses varying in number from three or four upward, and a large number of chickens besides. Columbus, Duluth, and other cities have prohibited such occupa- tion of tenement areas within 15 feet of the house. The same regulation also applies to dwellings. A visit to a few of many back yards we have seen in this city would convince the most skeptical of the need for similar regulation here. A POPULATION BELOW GROUND Families in The ordinance of 1908 forbids the building Basement Homes. or fitting up, in apartment or tenement houses, of living rooms or sleeping rooms, the floors of which are more than two feet below the grade of the lot upon which the building stands, except for the use of the jani- tor, in which case the rooms must meet the requirements of ven- tilation and dryness. So far as is known this law has been uni- 25 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 26 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS formly enforced in the new buildings, but the building department has not sufficient funds to enable it to properly detect violations in old ones. In one of the tenements investigated, a basement apartment was fitted up during the winter of 1912. The apart- ment contains five rooms, entrance hall, clothes closet, and toilet. Three of the rooms are toward the front of the building, and re- ceive light from five windows of fair size. (Illus. 10.) The re- maining two rooms and the toilet, all situated in the rear, are- dark, and are in fact cellar rooms. The toilet ventilates into a cel- lar, or still unfinished portion of the basement. The only ventila- tion these cellar bed rooms have is through a doorway into the rooms in front. There is no damp-proofing in either floor or walls. The soft wood floor soon buckled because of the damp. No janitor lived in this basement cellar, but a Polish family of six, and their eight lodgers. Each of the rear rooms as well as the front rooms had two double beds and these were occupied double shift, day and night, as some of the men worked nights, sleeping during the day. See Plate VI, page 42, for floor plan. City Has Hundreds of Basement Apartments. From Table 3 (page 27), it will be seen that 136 rooms, or 9 per cent of the tenement rooms, are basement rooms more or less like the ones described above. Of the 265 tenement apartments investigated, 22, or 9 per cent, are in base- ments. This does not give an adequate idea of the seriousness of the situation, because 21 basement apartments in the Flats, and four in another tenement row, are not included in the above figures, due to the fact that they were let to light housekeeping TABLE 3. GENERAL ROOM ANALYSIS BY DWELLINGS AND TENEMENTS. Ventilation Windows Rooms JU !a Exterior c c c 00 J Q Possible 1 o Z .2 O o Windo o cts 1 I! pa 1 1 2 i i-S z (/) Obu 1-1 Tenements 1055 463 1012 506 595 445 94 238 122 24 1382 136 1518 Per cent 70 30 67 93 40 29 6 15 8 2 91 9 100 Dwellings 364 12 271 105 191 160 20 2 376 376 Per cent 97 3 72 38 50 42 5 1 2 100 100 Total 1419 475 1283 611 786 605 114 940 125 24 1758 136 1894 Per cent 75 25 68 32 42 33 6 12 6 1 92 8 100 27 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION families, or let to single roomers, or used in conjunction with up- per apartments. The fact is that living in basements is an inex- cusably prevalent practice in Minneapolis. Basement Apartments Usually Dark. Plate I shows a plan representative of six basement apartments in a row of flats on Fifth Street South, near Cedar Avenue. It illustrates the darkness that so often prevails in base- ments. One bedroom is entirely deprived of light; the kitchen and dining room are only dimly lighted by one window each, these Plate I. Floor plan of one of a series of basement apartments in building shown in Illustration 11. The dark room on the right, measuring 3x7 feet, was used for sleeping purposes. 28 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS No. 11. Flats with dark room basements. Two buildings contain 46 dark rooms, 23 in basement apartments. In further building were old-fashioned long hopper closets, situated in basement and each used by three families. No. 12. Building has 23 apartments, each with dark toilet ventilat- ing into living room. Sixteen apartments have from one to four dark rooms. Six garbage chutes, smeared their entire length with filth, add another unwholesome feature to the environment. 29 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION opening upon a narrow rear court. There are also two dark', closets, the one on the right serving to illustrate a principle which must always be borne in mind in the study of housing, namely, that bad housing is in general occupied by just those people who can emphasize the unwholesome features to the highest possible degree. For instance, this closet, three feet by seven in area, we found occupied by a laboring man as a sleeping room. When we asked him whether he did not find his quarters pretty close, he replied, "Yes, sometimes I do, especially when there is company No. 13. Basement apartments said to flood during severe rains. in the other room and I have to close the door." This tenement is the further one in Illustration 11. Both buildings contain bad basement apartments. A side view of a tenement on Twelfth Street South shows windows opening into the basement apart- ment at the end. (Illus. 12.) This particular end apartment has but one dark room, but beyond it are four other basement apart- ments having three dark rooms each. While the 23 apartments in this building have each a toilet, none of the toilets are venti- lated save as they ventilate into the living room. In addition, 16 of these apartments have from one to four dark rooms each. 30 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS No. 14. Combination toilet and bedroom entirely dark located in basement. Flashlight photograph. Bed blurred through nearness to camera. 31 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Basement Apartments Six apartments shown in Illustration 13, Usually Damp. on Eleventh Street South, are in the basement. Only one out of the six toi- lets is ventilated, and that insufficiently. The tenants complain that the wall paper does not remain for any length of time upon the walls because of dampness. We could find but one tenant who had remained in the basement during more than one spring. It was her testimony that hard rains often flooded her kitchen floor, and sometimes the whole of the apartment. She told of the backing of sewage up into her bath tub, and indicated how the whole building was settling through the action of water. One absolutely dark basement room in another building was found to be serving the double purpose of toilet and bed room. A picture of it is shown in Illustration 14, the bed being so near the camera that it is blurred. Equally disgusting is the practice of locating toilets in dark, damp, sub-basements, situated beneath basement apartments. Six of these were found in one row of buildings. A sickening odor, aggravated by the perpetual dampness, fairly stops your nostrils as you enter. In one such sub-basement a woman wintered her chickens among piles of debris and filth. In some of them, ancient open cisterns contribute their quota of dampness and mustiness to the apartments above. No. 15. New apartments below level of sidewalk, but not below level of lot, permitted by present ordinance. 32 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Basement Occupation It seems only reasonable to suppose that Should Be Regulated if it is an offense against good housing If Not Prohibited. practice to allow the construction of basement apartments with all of the modern precautions to insure ventilation and dryness, it would be only proper to prohibit such places as are here described frorrr being lived in at all. Minneapolis has no regulations applicable to basements constructed and arranged prior to 1908, and these, as has been shown, are precisely the ones which most need regu- lation. Even New York City and Chicago require that when basement rooms are occupied for living purposes, they shall be nine feet high, with damp-proof floors and walls, having ceilings four feet six inches above the adjoining ground, and the windows must be equal to one-eighth of the floor area. Other cit- ies have even more strin- gent regulations; in some, construction of new base- ment apartments is pro- hibited entirely. It is in- excusable that anyone in Minneapolis should be per- mitted to construct base- ment apartments in a new building such as those in the further building shown in Illustration 15. Although some one may protest that these apartments are all right, the fact remains that they are precisely the type of basement rooms which flourishes in Gault Court, Chicago, otherwise known as Little Sicily, or Little Hell, perhaps the worst housing in Chicago, and by some de- clared to be as bad as any in the world. Illustration 16 shows a serious example of this sort of basement in Minneapolis. No. 16. Unwholesome type of apartment below street level, permit- ted under present ordinance. 33 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION No. 17. Windowless wall. Apartments lighted only by windows in front and rear. Buildings contain 25 dark rooms. No. 18. A tenement in the Slavic section. Ten dark bedrooms illus- trate evils of alcove. 34 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Janitor's Quarters Minneapolis allows one basement apartment in Basements. to be constructed in new buildings for the use of the janitor. The logic of permitting the janitor to occupy apartments which are forbidden to others because of their deleterious effect is not clear. Janitors, so far as is generally known, are neither peculiarly worthless members of society, nor exceptionally proof against the ills of the flesh. But further still, it is a known fact that the clause allowing a base- ment apartment to be constructed for a janitor permits of such apartments being occupied by other tenants. A possible case in point is found on Lyndale Avenue, where a group of four flat buildings have recently been erected. It is possible for one jani- tor, occupying one basement apartment in one building, to care for all, and this may easily be the arrangement. This will permit of the basement apartments in the other three buildings being rented out. Again, in the case of four-flat houses, plans are con- stantly submitted providing for a janitor's flat in the basement. Such provision is so superfluous in the case of most four-flat houses that it immediately suggests to everyone that the builder intends to accommodate, not a janitor, but a pay tenant. The course taken by the newer codes in absolutely prohibiting the occupancy of basements in new buildings is not without reason, and in such a policy lies the only safe method of dealing with this particular phase of the housing problem. A POPULATION IN DARKNESS A Thousand Dark The people of Minneapolis will be astounded Tenement Rooms to learn that the tenements already existing in Minneapolis. in Minneapolis have within them more than a thousand dark rooms, rooms without an outside window, rooms without ventilation, rooms into which the light of the sun never enters, some of them veritable dungeons where one must strike a light before he can tell whether the room is occupied or empty. Some of these rooms are partially lit by light borrowed from an adjoining room, but none of the rooms rated as dark in this report had outside windows admitting suffi- cient light to enable a newspaper to be read in the middle of the day in at least three-quarters of the room. Let us look for a mo- 35 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION ment at the type of buildings in which these dark rooms are situ- ated. Illustration 17 shows two tenements on Central Avenue, which contain together 25 dark rooms. As you see, the side wall is on the lot line, and contains no windows whatever. Illustra- tion 18 shows a flat on Marshall Avenue Northeast, containing 10 dark rooms, most of which are alcove bedrooms. Dark Rooms Illustrations 19 and 20 show how dark rooms in the Making, are made. They are examples of a sort of building of which we have many in the city. Owing to the fact that the windows are situated in a wall which is built upon the lot line, as soon as the adjoining lot is built upon, dark rooms equal in number to the windows will be added to the thousand and more already existing. No. 19. How dark rooms are often made. Rooms lighted by win- dows in lot line wall become dark rooms when adjoining property is developed. Process complete on one side. Dark Rooms in Dark rooms are not found alone in tenements. Dwellings. Even single dwellings contain them, most often in the form of the alcove, or against a wall cut off from light by other construction. Out of 1,894 rooms inspect- ed, 475, or 25 per cent, were dark. (Table 3.) Considering the tenements only, 30 per cent were dark. In one district, out of 288 rooms used for sleeping purposes, 32 per cent were dark. In 36 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS No. 20. Sure source of windowless rooms. New building on ad- joining lot can cut off all direct light from nine rooms. 37 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Plate II. Six rooms, one behind the other; outside windows only in front and rear. Note loca- tion of bathroom and toilet. Plate III. Three out of five rooms dark. Not even "through" ventila- tion possible. Floor plan of part of building shown in Illustration 1. 38 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS another district, 3 per cent of the sleeping rooms in dwelling houses were dark. Many Dark Many of these dark rooms are basement rooms, as Rooms in will be recalled by referring to Plates I, VI, VII Basements. and VIII (pages 28, 82, 85 and 91). Plate II is a plan of a six-room apartment with all the rooms arranged one behind another. Only the front and rear rooms have outside windows. Between these are four rooms entirely deprived of light except as it filters through other rooms. At Fourth Avenue South, a similar situation exists and in addi- tion, the toilet, instead of ventilating into the hall, as in the above case, ventilates into the din- ing room. The cubby hole in which the toilet is located was originally a linen closet. The building shown in Il- lustration 1 contains in its first section six apartments of five rooms each. Three rooms in every apartment are windowless, making a total of eighteen dark rooms divided among six fami- lies. Not even through ven- tilation is here possible, as is easily seen from Plate III. Other rooms are dark because they open upon courts which are merely narrow slits between build- ings. One of these is shown in Illustration 21. Upon it 10 rooms depend for light and air. The same objection holds against allowing dwell- ings to be built with too narrow a passageway along the lot line. No. 21. Ten rooms depend entirely upon this lot line court, three feet, eight inches wide, for light and air. Present ordinance permits such court to be only four feet wide for a four- story building. 39 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION No. 22. Windowless bedroom. Type of dark room made legal by latest amendment to building ordinance. 40 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Dark Rooms as Dark rooms are nearly always sleeping Sleeping Rooms. rooms. A considerable number are used as kitchens. In one of the dark kitchens of Fourth Street South, a mother said she knew her eyesight had been impaired through working constantly by gas light. In some apartments the living room, as well as bedroom or kitchen, is dark, and here children play by day in darkness, and at night creep into beds never freshened by sunlight. Illustration 22 is a flash- light picture of a dark bedroom on North Washington Avenue. Amendment Passed In the amendment of April 11, 1913, there is Inadequate. a retroactive measure intended to some- what open up dark rooms used, or designed to be used, as sleeping rooms in structures already built. The demand is made for windows in outside walls where such are possible, or, failing that, the installation of a vent shaft at least nine square feet in area. In sleeping rooms already constructed and provided with ventilating skylights, or opening into a lighted room by means of an aperture at least 30 square feet in area, or situated upon a vent shaft of the size required, no change need be made. So far as it goes, this is a step in the right direction. The provision should be extended to apply to other living rooms, as experience has shown that any living room may be converted at any time into a sleeping apartment. Shame of Dark Rooms So much for the older structures. The in New Structures. great pity is that in spite of the provi- sion in the ordinance of 1908, revised, that "every habitable room shall have a window or windows with a total glass area equal to at least one-tenth of its floor area, and opening onto a street, alley, yard or court" (p. 130), the building of tenements with what are practically dark rooms has not ceased. Plate IV illustrates the point well. This represents half of a floor plan found in two new flat buildings at the corner of and Lyndale Avenues South. As will be seen, the dining room has no light except that borrowed from the front room through a six-foot passageway. Such openings between rooms are very common in Minneapolis houses and afford scant excuse for considering the dining room as part of the front room. The kitchen has no light except from a vent shaft constructed three feet smaller than the 41 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Plate IV. Section of floor plan in a new apartment house (1912). Dining room has "borrowed" light only. Kitchen has opening to a vent shaft several feet under legal size and with an odoriferous gar- bage chute in it. 42 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ordinance requires. In the vent shaft has been placed a garbage chute, and the odor effectively prevents what window there is from being used to ventilate the kitchen. In the two structures built according to this plan and containing 18 apartments, there are in reality 36 dark rooms and 4 inadequate and illegal vent shafts. The plan which the Building Inspector showed as having been submitted to him for these apartments was decidedly differ- ent than the one followed out in construction. The existence of these conditions today at once raises the question of higher stand- ards, more frequent inspection, and better machinery for enforce- ment of existing laws. Dark Rooms Since the erection of this building, an amendment Legalized. to the ordinance has been passed (April 11, 1913), which legalizes the practice of putting all of the windows for two rooms in one of them when there is provided an open doorway or space between of at least 30 square feet in area. This is equivalent to a door four feet by seven and one-half. The window space in the lighted room must not be less than one- eighth of the combined areas of both rooms. Good housing prac- tice, we are sure, will discredit this law. More and more housing laws are providing for the same lighting and ventilation for al- coves as for other rooms. THE KITCHENETTE PROBLEM Kitchenettes Are The new amendment also provides that a Ill-ventilated. kitchenette less than 36 feet in area may be lo- cated on a vent shaft. This means in many instances a dark kitchenette. As a matter of fact, the kitchens in the flats represented by Plate IV, were, not allowing for the space occupied by the vent shaft and the cut off corner, nearly 100 feet in area. The important consideration is not, of course, this one violation of the law, but the fact that henceforth plans very simi- lar, with an enlarged vent shaft and smaller kitchen, will not be violations of the law. It must be admitted that the advent of the kitchenette has introduced a vexed question. The range for diminutive cooking quarters has resulted in many unwholesome developments, some of which have disgraced what have been considered first-class apartments. For instance, the Apartments, on Henne- 43 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION pin Avenue, has installed over 20 kitchenettes which are located in the same compartment with the bath and toilet, and separated from them by a dwarf partition only. The kitchenettes are next to the ventilating window, so that the odor from the bath room has to pass through the cooking apartment on its way to the outer air. As the above installation is an "alteration in an existing building," there seems to be no provision in the law by which it can be prevented. No. 23. Bathroom and kitchenette located in the same compartment is a "feature" of this apartment house. The bathroom ventilates over a dwarf partition and out through the kitchenette. Unsanitary Even with the best of tenants, the arrange- Possibilities ment has an unsavory aspect, but one needs a of Kitchenettes. vivid imagination to be able to fully realize the state of such a combination kitchen and bath room were the apartment occupied by the class of tenants that will some day surely inhabit the tenements which are now so glad to be called "select." Centers shift, populations change, and the center of our city is moving out toward the prosperous districts which have lately been so active in constructing tene- ments. The extremes of society are strangely alike; it is at once highly fashionable and highly otherwise to live in a multi- ple house. Moreover, the most fashionable apartments may 44 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS have within them the possibility of becoming the most degrading and unsanitary tenements, when they are finally occupied, as they inevitably will be in the course of time and change, by another class of tenants. No one can doubt, for instance, when he views the massive oak finishing in the Flats, that they were once the most fashionable place to live. Now they are the least fash- ionable. The history of housing in every other city tells us plainly that the same fate is certain to come to our present fashionable apartments. What a Southern European population would make of the above combination kitchenette and toilet is beyond description. The evils arising from overcrowded dark rooms would be corre- spondingly aggravated. "No housing evils are necessary and wherever they are tolerated they are a reflection upon the intelli- gence, right mindedness, and moral tone, of the community."* Dark rooms are not a necessity. The prohibition of darkness in the apartment houses of West Minneapolis would not work eco- nomic hardship. In general, these buildings are now for the well- to-do, although the poor will one day inherit them with all of the foolish, short-sighted blunders built into their structure. The protection of the poor, in this case, means demanding decency for the rich. A POPULATION WITHOUT SUFFICIENT AIR Lack of Ventilation Thousands of fathers, mothers, and chil- Prevalent. dren go to sleep every night in Minneap- olis in rooms which are not ventilated, not because these people choose foul air and germs, voluntarily, but because the proper circulation of air in these rooms was once and forever forestalled when the building was constructed. Thirty- three per cent of the tenement rooms are not ventilated, and 25 per cent of them have no windows to the outside. In the dwell- ings, we find 38 per cent of the rooms not ventilated and 3 per cent with no windows to the outside. There are 114 un ventilated bedrooms in district one, out of a total of 288 ; this is 36 per cent. *"Housing Reform," by Lawrence Veiller. 45 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION (See Table 4.) Similarly, 28 per cent have no outside window. In district two, 30 per cent of the tenement bedrooms are not ven- tilated, 29 per cent having no outside window. Room after room can be found in which ventilation is impossible even when win- dows are present, because the windows have immovable sash or are fitted in winter with storm windows which can neither be opened in whole nor in part. TABLE 4. SLEEPING BOOMS BY LIGHT AND VENTILATION. With Without Light Dark Venti- lated Venti- Exterior Win- Exterior Win- Total dows dows Tenements 315 131 286 160 319 127 446 Per Cent 70 30 64 36 72 28 100 Dwellings 179 5 150 34 180 4 184 Per Cent 97 3 81 19 98 2 100 Total 494 136 436 194 499 131 630 Per cent ... 79 21 69 31 79 21 100 Impressive Example To obtain a definite idea of what such con- of Non- ventilation. ditions mean, imagine an attic room 12x19 feet, and in half of the area less than 7 feet high, lit by one immovable pane of glass set solidly in a door opening upon the rear platform. The only means of ventilation, then, is by opening the door. In this one room at the time of our last visit lived a family of three, father (American), mother (Ger- man), and a child of three. The father was suffering from ad- vanced tuberculosis. Under the conditions, too crowded to be permitted even had the room been capable of ventilation, the in- fection of the mother and child could be averted only by a miracle, and miracles of the sort required are not numerous, as the records of tenements will show. The Window Which Cannot Be Opened. In dwellings, neglect of this kind in win- ter is even more prevalent. The entire 42 per cent of such unventilated bedrooms in district one, and similarly the 11 per cent in district two, is due to the fact that windows cannot be opened to admit air. In some cases this is due to the ignorance or carelessness of the tenant, but more often it is the fault of the landlord who fails to fit win- dows with movable sash, and nail storm windows tight on, with 46 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS neither hinges by which they may be swung open, nor slides in the frames which may be opened to allow the entrance of fresh air. This may seem a minor point, but it means more colds, more pneumonia, and more tuberculosis to the people who must occupy these rooms. We need legislation to compel storm windows to be so hung that they can be opened at the will of the tenants. Ill-ventilation In the main, Due to Nar- however, row Courts, lack of ven- Inadequate tilationis Vent found in Shafts, and rooms which Absence of have no win- Windows, d o w s , or only win- dows which open upon a nar- row, slit-like court, or upon a slender, fume and odor choked vent shaft. In this investiga- tion, rooms have been called unventilated when they had no windows to a street, alley, yard or court, or vent shaft, and also when they were upon a shaft which had no provision for ven- tilating at the top. All of these rooms were either closed off from other rooms, or might so be closed off by means of doors or curtains. Plate 5. Dark, unventilated rooms and toilets in buildings shown in Illustration 17. 47 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Present Ordinance An amendment of April llth, 1913, is Inadequate. concerned with the ventilation of sleeping rooms, but it does not extend to living rooms, which at any time may be used as bedrooms. The vent shaft is still permitted. It is legal to have a bath room, water closet, and finally, by the latest amendment, a kitchenette, if less than 36 feet in area, ventilated only by means of a vent shaft. Such means of ventilation have long been in wide disfavor. The huge examples, characteristic of New York's dumb-bell tene- ments, have been declared to be "gigantic culture tubes of tuber- culosis." A tenement full of vent shafts, when occupied by a group of Southern Europeans, and let by a careless landlord, is certain to become a serious menace to the community. At the bottom, the vent shaft is often used as a catch-all for old furni- ture, mattresses, soiled clothes, and other such commodities from neighboring apartments, and nothing could be more suggestive of a fire carefully laid at the foot of a tall chimney, than just this condition. The vent shafts in the flat at the corner of Marshall Avenue and Street Northeast were thus encumbered. A builder in criticizing a newly erected apartment house ex- pressed what he considered to be sufficient opprobrium in these words, "They have stuck it full of vent shafts." Narrow Courts Cut In respect to courts, another important fac- Off Ventilation. tor in ventilation, it may be frankly stated that Minneapolis is not abreast of the times. Her requirements are an exact duplication of Chicago requirements, but Chicago is realizing that a four-foot court at the side of a four-story building is altogether inadequate. The Chief Sanitary Inspector has recommended that the standard be raised. One important objection to these narrow courts is the fact that privacy is impossible when one's windows look across only a four-foot space into the windows of a neighboring apart- ment. (Illus. 21, page 39.) Even more important is the objec- tion based on the lack of light and air. Narrow Courts The narrow court, like the vent shaft, becomes Gather Filth. a catch-all for filth. How can such a court as is shown in Illustration 24 furnish anything except foul air through the adjoining windows? 48 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 49 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION A POPULATION WITHOUT THE COMMON DECENCIES Shameful Lack of Minneapolis was startled last year by being Toilet Facilities. shown a map of the city which indicated that there were approximately 17,000 vaults and cesspools within the city limits. In the city of Minneapolis today a man may erect a building to accommodate as many families as he pleases and put in as few toilets as he wishes, or none at all if it suits him to do so. Excessive Number As a result of this lack of provision we find of Families as many as ten families are obliged to fre- Per Closet. quent one privy vault. Thirty-eight per cent of all the families visited are frequent- ing toilets in the ratio of three families or more to a closet. (Table 5.) Those compelled to share their water-closet with one or more other families represent 63%. A tenement located on Plymouth Avenue (Illus. 25), in which there are apartments en the two upper floors, had two public toilets, one of which was constantly frequented by seven families, and the other by four, although additional families had access to them at will. In each of these toilets there were two closets, separated by dwarf parti- tions, and used indiscriminately by the male and female members of the families at the same, or different times. Such arrange- ments are not only unsanitary, but they are indecent, if not actu- ally immoral. TABLE 5. APARTMENTS BY CLOSETS, SHARED WITH OTHER FAMILIES. No. of Families | Ij 2\ 3| 4| 5J 6| 7| 8| 9|10+|Totf. Tenements Per Cent Dwellings Per Cent Total Per cent .. 110 41 36 41 146 41 59 22 14 16 73 39 15 20 24 59 17 39 15 2 2 41 12 5 2 5 1 8 3 8 4 2 7 8 11 3 1 1 1 8 9 8 ?, 265 100 87 100 352 100 50 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS No. 25. Interior court in tenement where two toilets, separated by a dwarf partition and located in a common compartment served seven families. 51 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Contamination As has been repeatedly stated in this chapter, From Closets. one of the strongest counts against the common use of toilets by two or more families is the danger of spreading communicable disease. In one instance where the dwellers in three apartments, including four families and a number of roomers, used one toilet in common, one of the roomers confessed with little reluctance, if not with a certain species of pride, to being afflicted with a venereal disease which might be communicated through contact with the closet seat. A picture of the filthy toilet is shown in Illustration 26, the meager, antiquated fixtures being hidden behind the door. The picture of a little girl, shown in Illustration 6, page 20, who was obliged to frequent the filthy place, makes the hideousness of such an ar- rangement to some degree realizable. Evils of Diffused The second count against the common use of Responsibility. toilet facilities is the almost inevitably result- ing condition of filth. Even where only two families share a closet, the divided responsibility results in neg- lect. For example, in an actual case of a basement toilet shared between the family on the first floor and the family in the base- ment, the closet had overflowed. Scraps of toilet paper and filth were left sticking to the floor several days later. When asked why she did not clean up, the woman who occupied the basement said she was "waiting for the family upstairs to do it." Bad as conditions are when two families are obliged to make use of the same closet, they are vastly worse when, as in the tenement at Riverside Avenue, fourteen families have access to but two toilets and one urinal compartment. These are small, un- ventilated cells, one entirely dark, two dimly lit by a smoky kerosene lantern hung in the partition between them. The stench is sickening, and the floor and closets cannot even be properly cleaned, not to say properly maintained. (Illus. 27.) Alarming Lack In one district, 41% of the tenement closets of Sanitation. were dirty, and 9% were very dirty. In an- other, 28% were scored dirty and very dirty. The dwellings had 65% in one district dirty and 15% in another. The dwellings had 82% of their toilets in the yard, which almost invariably means a filthy vault. (Illus. 28, 29, and 30.) Further- 52 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 53 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 54 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 55 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 56 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS I bo c o CC u U o C 57 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION more, 2% of the tenement toilets are located in the yard, some- thing which is absolutely inexcusable. See Illustration 31 for a three-decker. Sixty-five per cent of the tenement toilets were located in the halls rather than in the apartment proper, and were more or less common property, used by tenants, by em- ployes of the stores below, and by the public in general. In one district, 83% of the tenement toilets had no ventilation except in the halls, bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms adjoining them. It will help you to realize what this means if you try to conceive of your toilet facilities located in a dark closet adjoining your dining room, and having no ventilation except into this room in which you and your family eat. In one instance, a single com- partment was found used as both toilet and pantry. The con- trivance ventilated directly and exclusively into the kitchen, and was absolutely dark when the door was closed. In district two, 56% of the tenement closets were without ventilation. (See Table 6.) No. 31. Three-decker tenement privy and no yard. Enclosed Plumbing Means Filth. Another feature to be noticed is the prev- alence of antiquated and filthy plumbing. It is illegal to repair enclosed plumbing in this city, but the law is constantly disregarded. Illustration 32 shows enclosed plumbing at Central Avenue. The 58 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS TABLE 6. APARTMENTS BY LOCATION AND CONDITION OF CLOSETS. Location Condition Ventilation Total Apart- ment Hall Yard Clean Dirty Very Dirty Possible Not Possible Tenements Per cent Dwellings Per cent Total Per cent 87 33 16 18 103 30 172 65 172 48 ; 6 2 71 82 77 22 149 56 41 48 190 54 98 37 31 35 129 37 18 7 15 17 33 9 67 25 81 93 148 42 198 75 6 7 204 58 265 100 87 100 352 100 No. 32. Rotten enclosed plumbing as re- vealed by flashlight. 59 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION woodwork is saturated and rotten, and through the open cracks arises at times an odor, which is capable of causing the uninitiated to beat a hasty retreat. At Fifth Street S., may be seen examples of the long hopper closet, the distinguishing feature of which is a long, filth-besmeared, upright tube, running down to a trap in a filthy pit beneath the floor. There are, moreover, thou- sands of now-unused vaults and cesspools over this city which were never properly cleaned out and filled with clean earth when the necessity for them ceased. (See Illus. 33.) No. 33. Neglected vault, a source of yard pollution. Should be emp- tied and filled with clean earth. TABLE 7. APARTMENTS BY BATH AND HOT WATER. Bath Used by One Family Bath Used by More Than One Family No Bath Total Hot Water No Hot Water Tenements 75 22 168 265 68 197 Per cent Dwellings 29 3 8 63 84 100 87 26 3 . 74 84 Per cent .. 3 97 100 3 97 Total _ 78 22 252 352 71 281 Per cent 22 7 71 100 20 80 60 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS AN UNWASHED POPULATION Absence of Bath Out of 265 tenement families, 8% Rooms and Hot Water, shared a bath room in common with other families. Only 29% had private bath rooms, and 63% had no access to bath rooms at all. (Table 7.) A considerable number have a bath room but no hot water. The new Seattle Code requires: "In each apartment of every tenement or apartment house there shall be at least one proper and efficient shower bath or fixed bath tub complete for bathing, and when there are three or more rooms such shower bath or bath tub shall be accessible without passing through any bed- room." Are Bath Tubs It is common to hear slurring remarks about A Necessity or "the great unwashed." Some people have ob- a Luxury ? jected to living on certain car lines because of the unpleasant odor emanating from the many laboring men who use these lines. We send children home from school because they come dirty. Has it never occurred to you who are employers that your firemen, your shovelers, your labor- ers of every kind, without whose services you could never carry on your business, and whose physical well-being is so essential to your success, need privileges afforded by a bath tub as much as you do, if not more? Yet out of our 352 families, 71% had no bath tubs and 80% had no hot water connections in their apart- ments. (Table 7.) Ask yourself how soon you would take your next bath if you had no bath tub and had to carry in all your water from a yard hydrant, which perhaps you first had to thaw out. 61 Chapter II PERILOUS NEGLECT Water Supply, Slop Disposal, Garbage and Ashes Dis- posal, and Dilapidation _ iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiil! "You cannot work a man as hard as a horse is worked, ami house him worse than a horse is housed and expect him to have high asperations. Jack London Insufficient If one cares to take the trouble to go to the Water Supply, corner of Third Street North and Tenth Ave., he will find behind a row of houses a single hydrant, shown in Illustration 34, which, at the time this investi- gation was made, afforded the sole water supply for the seven- teen families that lived in the ten neighboring houses. From November on, this hydrant is frozen a great deal of the time and must be thawed out whenever water is drawn. This hardship falls heavily upon many of the women as they make their living by taking in washing. Not far away, the cistern shown in Illus- tration 35 affords the sole water supply for three families. The pump was out of order and a rope and pail were used to elevate the water. Wells and Cisterns No one doubts the necessity of an Supply Many Families, abundant and pure water supply within easy access of every family; neverthe- less, only 50% of the dwellings investigated have water within them. Of the remaining 50%, 24% secured their supply from hydrants; 24% more got theirs from wells, and the remaining 2% had nothing but cisterns. (Table 8.) Carrying water from a well seldom means that the well is close at hand as nearly always one well supplies a considerable number of families. 62 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS IT I 63 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Water a Precious A special study of 119 houses in North Min- Commodity. neapolis, centered upon the question of water supply, gave results as follows: City water in the kitchen, 69 ; city water in the yard, 37 ; cisterns in the yard, 3; no water at all, 10. As these were chosen haphazard over a large area, the proportion has significance for the whole district bounded by Hennepin Avenue and Twenty-fifth Avenue North, and Sixth Street North and the river. That would mean that only 58% of the dwellings in this district have an adequate and convenient water supply, that 34% have water on the prem- ises, but are obliged to carry all that they use from a hydrant or a pump in the yard, and that 8% have no water on the premises whatever. A hydrant or well, however inconvenient when com- pared to water in the house, is incomparably better than no water supply at all. The following examples illustrate : 52a. A family of seven depends for water upon a hydrant in the kitchen of a neighbor. 66a. A family of three, mother and two small children, se- cures water supply two houses away, from a hydrant. 73a. A family of six, living upstairs, find a water supply in a stable, 100 feet distant. They have to watch their opportunity, as the stable is frequently locked. 1 19a. Family of six. Water supply in summer, a hydrant in the wall of a neighbor's house, shared by six other families. This supply cut off in winter so that the whole group must go to a well in the next block. TABLE 8. APARTMENTS BY LOCATION AND NATURE OF WATER SUPPLY. Yard ment Hall Hy- drant Well Cistern None Total Tenements 210 49 6 265 Per cent 80 18 2 100 Dwellings Per cent 42 48 2 2 21 24 20 24 2 2 87 100 Total - Per cent - 252 71 51 14 21 6 26 8 2 1 352 100 64 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 65 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION All but 2% of the tenements had water supplied somewhere within them. For 18% of the tenement families, this water sup- ply was in the hall, which often means in the hall toilet, in which case there is no kitchen sink and waste water must be poured into the closet. Kitchen slops and laundry suds are not conducive to clean smelling, sanitary water closets. Outside of the sani- tary considerations, it is not convenient to carry slops out to a hall toilet, or, as must be done in some apartments, for example at Washington Ave. S., up a flight of stairs to a hall closet. No woman should be obliged either to depend upon a faucet in the toilet for the family water supply, or to dispose of the do- mestic waste water by pouring it into the water closet, even though the closet is used only by her family. Conditions are very much worse where a single closet serves the purposes of several families in this way. Such instances are only too frequent. UNSANITARY DISPOSITION OF KITCHEN SLOPS The Back Yard It should be remembered that a house without as a Slop Sink. water is a house without a sink. Sometimes a sink is lacking even when water is installed. The absence of a sink almost invariably means the throwing of waste water out into the yard. The exceptions are found where an outside drainage arrangement is installed. Such devices are generally flat failures, as they freeze in the winter, whereupon a mound of frozen slops accumulates over the catch-basin, as shown in Illustration 36. In Illustration 37 can be seen two outdoor catch-basins which are arranged to be drained by a vertical pipe. Such a pipe freezes very early in our climate. The subsequent disposal of slops is illustrated by the pile of ice and corruption be- low. The stench in such courts, after the spring sun has thawed out the accumulation of a winter, and the heat of summer has putrined the deposits left in and upon the soil, is something in- describable. The only proper escape from such unsanitary yards is in the possession by each house of its own sewer connected sink and the accompanying pure water supply. 66 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 67 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION o 8 JO 3 ho C 68 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS No Water Means From the special investigation of 119 houses No Sink. in North Minneapolis, it was found that in 41% the back yard becomes a slop hole, un- less, perchance, the housekeeper is of the more conscientious sort, and carries the waste water out into the street, where, to be sure, "it smells awful by spring." Two women were seen carrying their pails to the sewer hole at the corner of the street. Of the 59% with water in apartments, 85% have sinks connected with the sewer. The remainder have to carry out all waste water in pails. In some cases there is a sewer hole in the yard, but as no one is responsible for keeping it clean, it is soon clogged, and in the winter is frozen so that the whole yard is consequently soaked with sewage. ASHES AND GARBAGE, AN EYESORE AND A MENACE For Lack of Illustration 38 is not a picture taken in a crowded a System. tenement district, but rather in a comparatively open section where there is ample yard and space. However, a pool of water, and an immense pile of ashes and gar- bage rob the surroundings of all charm. These, together with the rough stable that is thrust against one of the houses, intro- duce a very serious menace to the health of the people who live there. In Illustration 39 will be seen a long row of houses, reach- ing straight through a block, and behind it a narrow alley which forms the sole playground for the children of the 40 families in the row. Illustration 40 is another picture of this garbage littered passageway through which many of us would hesitate even to pick our way. On the premises of one of the old dwellings of North Minneapolis which are being converted into tenements by virtue of the fact they are now occupied by three or four, or even a greater number of families, we found the pile of rubbish and garbage which appears in Illustration 41. The house had been placarded by the Health Department as unfit for occupancv. but without any apparent result. On all of these neglected premises there are children children such as those whose faces smile in Illustrations 42, 43, and 44. The health and wholesome upbring- ing of these children are dependent to even a greater degree than is the health and upbringing of the children of the well-to-do, 69 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 70 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS upon the character of the houses in which they live, and the na- ture of the physical surroundings about these houses. They have neither the traditions nor the parentage to make them superior to the effects of garbage, dirt, and neglect, but they do havejihe capacity to profit by the clean things of life if opportunity is given. No. 39. Housing for 40 families with no place for children to play except filthy alley and dangerous streets. 71 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION DILAPIDATION Repairs Notwithstanding the excellent work which lies to the Neglected, credit of our present Building Inspector and the Health Department in the condemnation of dilapi- dated structures, there still remain some which could be elimi- No. 40. Three hundred and thirty feet of ashes and filth the sole play- ground for the children of the 40 families in the row. 72 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS / '"'/A W) 73 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION nated if the public gave better support. Illustration 45 is a good example. Dilapidation, the result of long years of neglect, is a conspicuous characteristic of the houses to be had at the laborer's rental. Some of the features which abound are rickety outside stairs, unroofed, covered with snow and ice in winter, up which, often, all of the water must be carried at considerable risk to the bearer; windows which freeze down in winter because of the ab- sence of storm windows, and thaw on melting days into damp- ness that soaks the walls and floor ; paper that hangs in streamers No. 42. Children of the "Brick Block." 74 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS from the ceilings, or stands away from the walls, in huge, stiff, sheets; houses where a band of frost, three feet high, stands out like white velvet upon the walls in the morning, and thaws into rivulets by mid-day; houses where vegetables cannot be -kept from freezing, and where repairs have not been known for years. One house near a stable had beneath it during the spring a pool of water that drains down from the stable yard. In the winter the pool is a block of ice. The house is always damp. Other similar situations can be found. No. 43. Syrian children needing better training for citizenship than ia furnished by the crowded tenement. 75 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 76 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS c o 4-> bo 12 "a 77 Chapter III DANGEROUS TENDENCIES The Tendency Toward Crowding, Toward Apartment House Life, Toward Houses on Our Back Yards, Atten- tion to City Planning Needed, Kinds of Housing De- manded. PIMM "I find no ground, for optimism concerning the future of Minneapolis. So far as I can see your city will repeat the story thus far related ty all great American cities, heing good at first, then bad, and finally, like Chicago and New York." Dr. \VWner Hegemann illlllllllllllllllllllllllilM The above remark was made by Dr. Werner Hegemann, the famous German city planning expert, when he spent a few days with us last summer on his trip around the world in search for the model city. It was prompted of his close consideration of lot-overcrowding in this city. By lot-overcrowding is meant the practice of allowing too great a number of people to live on a certain ground area. To the members of the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association, proud as they are of their city as a city of lakes and gardens, a city of parks, lawns, and open spaces, the suggestion that overcrowding threatens must seem fairly prepos- terous. Nevertheless we found 10% of the lots upon which the buildings included in this investigation were located, were suffi- ciently populated so that the same density continued over an acre would have meant a density of 300 and more. Twenty-two per cent were so populated as to equal a density exceeding 200 per acre. (Table 9.) To appreciate what these figures mean, it is necessary to realize that a standard of 45 per acre seems to be pretty generally accepted by real estate promoters. The condi- tions for the Chicago City Club contest, offering a prize for the 78 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS best development scheme for a quarter section, specified that not more than 1,280 families should be provided for by the plans, which would mean a density of approximately 36 to the acre, including streets. Another contest, held by the National Confer- ence on City Planning specified 70. Of course, it was expected that the buildings provided for in these plans would be of the smaller, more individual type, rather than massive tenements. But who would care to advocate that Minneapolis should develop a policy of housing the families of her working people in tene- ments? We can no more reasonably expect to raise a good crop of citizens from people planted 300 to the acre than a farmer can expect to produce a good crop of corn with no room between hills, or a gardener good tomatoes if he leaves only six inches between the plants. The examples of congestion such as Minne- apolis already has on many individual lots, if brought together would make a slum equal to many of those found in Eastern cities. As citizens of Minneapolis we take just pride in the high standard of intelligence among our people as shown in their love of art and music, and the extensive use they make of library and school. The city has been spared serious industrial disputes. Our people, whether their means are great or small, are happy and contented to a degree which can be appreciated only by those who have a first-hand acquaintance with other cities. We must make it possible for these conditions to continue. President Taft If one may accept former President Taft's on "Back Yards." statement made recently when he spent a week among us, by no means the least fac- tor in producing this high intelligence, this content, this absence of industrial warfare, has been the opportunity enjoyed by so TABLE 9. DENSITY OF POPULATION ON TENEMENT LOTS IN TEEMS OF DENSITY PER ACRE. Density per Acre 1 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 149 150 to 199 200 to 249 250 to 299 300 Total Total . 2 2 13 7 n 2 3 31 Per cent 6 6 42 23 6 6 10 100 79 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION large a proportion of the people to disport themselves upon a bit of ground which they can call their own. Read what he says in speaking of our back-yard gardens. "To me there seems to be involved more than the mere fact that these gardens yield bountifully to the family table. There is a psychological influence which can hardly be estimated in dollars and cents. There is something of extreme content in pottering in the garden. It is interesting, it is peaceful, it is healthful, and it occupies the mind in splendid thought. The man who spends his spare time in spring and summer pottering around the back yard cultivating vegetables for his table and flowers for the pleasure of his family and himself is usually a contented man and a useful citizen. He can generally be depended on to take the right side in any controversy. The man who has no back yard to till, whose family dwells in a tenement like those found in such numbers on the East Side of New York, is more apt to live a life of discontent. The tendency of his environ- ment is to make him a critic rather than a constructive power in the community." ROOM OVERCROWDING Fourteen Land overcrowding, however, is not the only People in form of congestion which our city is facing, as Four Rooms. the following examples of room overcrowding conclusively demonstrate. A Polish family of father and mother and two children, under 14, lived with nine men and one woman lodger in four rooms. This meant 14 people in four rooms, 3.5 persons per room. The resulting cubic air space was low in all the rooms, but descended to 198 in the bedroom occupied by six of the men, in contrast to 400, the lowest minimum accepted anywhere. The Lodger Evil Again, a family of father and mother and two Has Arrived. little children, with whom lived six lodgers, three men and three women, were accommo- dated in four rooms. This meant that three of the four rooms were slept in, with the resulting cubic air space per individual of 80 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 81 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION only 256 feet. There were here 10 people in four rooms, or 2.5 persons per room. Another family of father and mother and five children, under 14, together with six men lodgers, making a total of 13, lived in four rooms, with the resulting ratio of 3.25 persons per room, with a cubic air space of only 275 feet per individual in the room occupied by the six lodgers. Apartments in which the average is more than one and one- half persons per room may be considered crowded. Those which average two persons or more are badly crowded, especially when the rooms are small. Upon this basis, 14% of the tenement apart-' ments are crowded, and 7% are badly crowded. Of the dwelling apartments 21% are crowded, and 9% are badly crowded. (Tables 10 and 11.) Of the 26 families in one block, 14, or 54%, inhabited rooms at a ratio to exceed 1% persons per room, while 11 or 42%, inhabited rooms at a ratio to exceed two persons per room. In a large number of cases all of the rooms, except the room used as kitchen, are habitually occupied as sleeping rooms, and very often the kitchen has a dirty couch in it which can be utilized in case of an emergency. Plate VI. Basement apartment. Rear rooms virtually unlighted cellar rooms. See Illustration 10. 82 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS l !< IO b- (M CD 00 10 CM CO' + rTrH (M 30 rH rH >> ^ cc [~ rH rH "fl* 1 "" 13 a CO rH CM CO | .? jO T*H CM CD oi fn " * IO CM b- g re rH rH 01 r-H + PH l^ >> ff CO rH rH CM W 1 = | I 2 " rH rH CM CO rH TtH S re rH rH g 01 rH rH P rH + ^Th E_I CO CO CO 2 i a 10 rH IO CD rH rH 03 " ^ Oi O rfH rH EH re CM CO IO CM rH rH CM !_q rH PH + CO CO CD fe - ag rH CM CO rH rH M S'Scc H^ b- CM O5 02 fe ^ cc CO CO pq 0] CM CM r-i M + tO 10 rH rH CM <1 ^-, 3 H- Oi CO CM rH CM PH 1 0<2 g CO rH Tt< 1C rH rH rM O) rH rH CM O rH W >. a/ + CO CD 05 OQ ."S 0; 5 o CO rH CM . fc "^ g Ol CO CO CD fe rH g >. + rH CO b- o 1*0^ 01 "* TjH 00 rH rH W ** CO CO 02 M EH Tenements Dwellings Total 1 IO O b- O CM O CD O QO O IO O CM rH rH CO rH T c > , S , CM rH rH rH CO i 1 CJ ~ CM CO rH rH rH -^ rH o\ " pj CM IO CD rH b- 00 IO rH J.JI O5 b- rH rH rH CM O O5 rH CO -fi^ CD O IO O TjH CO O rH O i!l*, . H PH ft fn H rH 83 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Crowding of Just what standard to adopt as the number of Sleeping Rooms feet of cubic air space desirable in sleeping a Serious Evil. rooms is somewhat of a question. Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, most cities in fact, require 400 cubic feet for an adult, and 200 cubic feet for children under 12 years of age. A number of cities, however, provide for the reduction of the numbers in overcrowded apartments so that each adult shall have 600 cubic feet of air space, and each child under 12 years, 400. Table 12 is made up on the latter basis, considering every child under 12 as two-thirds of an adult. Twenty-seven per cent of the apartments in the tenements had sleeping space below this standard. Of the dwellings, 44% are below. It is evident, both from this table and from the preced- ing one, that more room overcrowding is to be found in the dwell- ings than in the tenements. On the basis of 400 cubic feet air space for an adult, and 200 cubic feet for a child, 15% of the total apartments are overcrowded in respect to sleeping space. It is evident that a tendency toward overcrowding is already becom- ing a fact in this city of hitherto broad spaces and well distributed population. Bohemian Flats Population Not Averse to Crowding. As the Southern European population in- creases in the city, we may expect results which are increasingly serious in a grow- ing ratio much greater than the propor- tionate increase in numbers. A glance into 23 houses in Bohem- ian Flats below Washington Avenue bridge is suggestive. These people are mostly Slavic. From year to year they lease the; TABLE 12. APARTMENTS BY AVERAGE CUBIC AIR SPACE PER INDIVIDUAL. o 100 200 300 400 500 to to to to to to 600 + Total 49 149 299 399 499 599 Tenements 8 26 17 20 194 265 Per cent 3 10 6 8 73 100 Dwellings 2 7 10 11 8 49 87 Per cent 2 8 11 13 9 56 100 Total 2 15 36 28 28 243 352 Per cent 1 4 10 8 8 68 100 84 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ground upon which their poor shacks are built. Of 23 of these families, 10 were below the 400 standard, and 19 were below the 600 standard of cubic air space in sleeping rooms. Five families of eight live in apartments of two rooms, and one family of seven lives in a two-room shack. When these, and the hundreds of others of their kind, are driven out of the Flats by the rising of the river upon the near completion of the navigation dam, and the improvement of the river front, what will it mean for the ten- ements we have been studying? These people inevitably seek the lowest rent, and Minneapolis will begin to realize that bhe has a foreign population in tenements, not at first a great popula- Plate VII. Dark, unventilated basement rooms and toilets found in building shown in Illustration 12. 85 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION tion, to be sure, but one which is destined to grow, and bring with it serious tenement problems unless preventive action is immediately taken. Light Housekeeping A real and present problem in overcrowd- Problem Serious. ing which remains to be mentioned is found in rooms devoted to light house- keeping. The Tables ISA, B, and C show a comparison between light housekeeping apartments (sub-rented) in the Flats and the apartments in the same buildings which were in- cluded in Table 3 of this report. There are 12 families of two members, five families of three members, and three families of four members doing light housekeeping in one room apartments, and two families of five members having only two-room apart- No. 47. An old well, the source of water supply for several families and the children of the neighborhood. Note the disk near the spout shown more clearly in next illustration. 86 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ments. These are from a total of 44 and represent 22 cases of severe crowding. Altogether 54% of the 44 apartments are crowded to exceed two or more people per living room. This crowding is the worse because of the fact that the one or two rooms are used for all living purposes. This is in accordance with the principle laid down in a recent study of families in fur- nished rooms in Chicago, where, because of the fact that in light housekeeping one room is likely to be kitchen, dining room, and bedroom, as well as living room, overcrowding to the extent of only 18% of the cases was considered a serious matter. Upon this basis the light housekeeping problem in this city is, in pro- portion to its extent, every bit as serious as the Chicago problem, if indeed it is not more so. No. 48. The disk says, "Don't drink this water. It is impure. Board of Health." It has been there for nearly two years. See preceding illustration. 87 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION O JB10X TH 05 rfi (M + L-- co" ^ c 'E*O > f3 ^ -h co~ rH 71 i I 1'^ EC, <0 ^ *& CO r-l i\ u . 01 1 i rH + LO ^ ri TtH co" OJ eg ^ + >> "* (M l-sl CO i( (M , + ^ 05 IN q o eg pH eg i i Kooms Occupied | Light Housekeeping . | Other Families | 1 T^ O 00 O ^ o eg o T-H I 1 h f CO b- *, 10 i-H rH ON o> so o eg oo ^ S i-H CO 2*2 CO b- ^ i 1 CO i 1 CO - CO b- D b- bc s d s ;] |i ft o> 2 &C SH ^ SH rH t3 0^ JpLnOPM f TjH O 00 O * o eg o h Sd co eg oo IS co b- eg b- 8?fi 10 I-H eg b- |d K ge CO b- Su eg o s5 1-1 u be ! ^ 9 -j' 1 1 < " 8 1 1 ' 1 . Q. ^ 44 { j U QJ I rt i i ! l ! ^ rt (*< c HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS Tendency Should These facts should be sufficient to prove that Be Opposed. overcrowding is not a matter which our city may safely ignore. Before our standards are forced lower, Minneapolis should adopt the 600 cubic feet standard for sleeping space, and give some city department the authority for enforcing it whenever necessary. Veiller lays down a valuable principle in these words, "It is a very wise maxim never to set your standards lower than the standards that are actually adhered to at the time the law is enacted." (Housing Reform, page 26.) Minneapolis should by every possible means strive to maintain her present standards of density. Nothing could be more calculated to develop to their utmost the possibil- ities for ill in the mistakes in past construction which have been discussed in the preceding pages, than a dense foreign population. So, too, nothing could so turn the tendency of present construc- tion, which is now to be discussed, into a source of civic shame. THE MENACE OF THE APARTMENT HOUSE Apartment Houses The tendency of modern housing is strongly Dangerous. toward the apartment house type. As ev^ eryone knows, the name apartment house is simply a polite term for tenement. Apartment houses are the tenements of the well-to-do, and may be quite as serious a social TABLE 14. CHARACTER OF RECENT HOUSING CONSTRUCTION. Number of Flat and Apartm't B'ld'gs No. of Suits in Flats and Apartm't Houses No, of Duplex and Double Houses No. of Suits in Duplex and Dou- ble Houses No. of Single Dwell- ings Total Apartments or Suites 1907 51 338 113 216 1903 2476 Per cent 14 9 77 100 1908 Per cent 58 433 14 216 432 14 2237 72 3102 100 1909 Per cent 55 312 10 228* 456 7 2643 83 3183 100 1910 76 589 162* 324 2419 3332 Per cent 1911 99 18 706 94* 10 188 72 2292 100 3186 Per cent _ 1912 .. 127 22 1202 135 6 270 72 1921 100 3393 Per cent 35 8 57 100 3 double houses included. 89 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION problem in their own way as tenements are in theirs. Table 14 shows the present trend of construction. The Building Inspect- or's records show that there were constructed in 1912, in dwell- ings, duplexes, and apartment houses, 6% more places designed for the residence of a family than were constructed in 1909. Dur- ing these three years, the number of dwelling houses constructed decreased 27%, the provision for families in duplexes decreased 40%, while the number of family suites constructed in apartment houses INCREASED almost 400%. In other words, much as we may regret it, Minneapolis is fast losing its right to claim itself a "City of Homes." No. 49. A modern apartment house. Housing Problems of Dr. Werner Hegemann of Berlin, the fa- New York and mous city planner, after looking over Chicago Impending some of these apartments, said: "It Here. looks as though your city were to be like all American cities, good at first, then bad, and finally like Chicago and New York, very bad. And what is most discouraging, the people do not shrink from the conditions of Chicago and New York. If the people of Minne- apolis were to vote today to decide whether or not, in the wink of an eye, Minneapolis should be given the size of Chicago with 90 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS all of the evils present with that size, an overwhelming majority would vote yes." When he saw the long narrow halls in the great new apartment house at the corner of Lyndale and Ave. So., he said, "These are 'Caserne', 'barracks'," and he~took a picture outside to show the huge, blank, unfinished wall of this human stable as it boldly thrust itself upon the row of neigh- boring residences neat, modest, comfortable houses, with their generous, old-time lawns. Plate VIII. Typical floor plan showing dark basement rooms in one section of building shown in Illustrations 2 and 3. Children sleep in many of these dark rooms. 91 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION The Apartment Why is Minneapolis thus turning toward the House Craze. flat? Why are small apartments rented for high sums before they are completed? Why is the double house of this year next year to be turned into a four- flat apartment house, and arranged to accommodate four families in the space now occupied by two? The modern "bachelor's apartment" of living room, bath, and kitchenette, is it not tol be reserved for the unmarried? Already hundreds of good fam- ilies in this city are living in apartments of one room, a bath, and kitchenette. The bed slides into the wall. One climbs a flight of steps into his bath tub, and steps into a dressing room arranged over his sliding bed. Is space so at a premium in our city? These are all fair questions. Its Effect. What is the effect upon the newly organized family when they set up housekeeping in kitchenette apart- ments, and are told that children are taboo? Or again, what does it mean to a child to grow up in an apartment house where his home is like everyone else's home, except for the number on the door? The long-boasted American democracy and individu- ality may well take thought for its life among such conditions. The Apartment House It is evident that these developments a Social Problem. represent a social problem rather than a legal one. Reform is here a matter for agitation in Women's Clubs rather than in a council lobby. To ask the question, is this movement away from the soil, away from lawns and gardens, a wholesome one, is to answer it. Also an Economic To some extent, of course, the tendency Problem. presents an economic problem, too compli- cated for discussion here. Single-taxers find in it ground for a reiteration of their theory. No doubt the truth is not all against them. In spite of the acres of undevel- oped property within the city, rents are high, and, as any one knows who has made the search, modern houses at a reasonable rental are comparatively scarce. This practical problem of high rent for a modern dwelling, which the young people must face, and the corresponding relief from both expense and responsibility afforded by "apartments," are real reasons for the kitchenette home. The danger is that the force of these reasons may be 92 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS deemed sufficient to permanently estrange a growing family from proper individual surroundings, or indeed, a family of two from the children which should properly be theirs. Parasitic Apartment Houses. The increasing use of the land, of which the duplex represents the entering wedge, and the apartment house the extreme result, spells peril to the hitherto high standard of lawns and gardens. The man who erects an apartment house in the midst of a fash- No. 50. A group of modern apartments. Many rooms in the corner building are inadequately lighted and ventilated. For floor plan see Plate IV, page 42. ionable residence district selfishly capitalizes the environment. He capitalizes the abundance of air, the street vistas, the grounds, gardens, fashionable and artistic dwellings, and the social psy- chology which says that it is the correct thing to live in that particular portion of the city. His suites are rented before they are finished, and the tenants move in before the plaster is dry upon the walls. The owner can ask large rents and get them. At the same time he has made the district less desirable to the dwellers in private residences, and he has set a new land income standard and taxation standard for the entire neighborhood. After the first experiment, the change of a fine residence district into an apartment house district is liable to be rapid. Thus through an evolution in the type of structure this city is being robbed of lawns and terraces, and substituting the grim facade of the tene- ment. 93 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Low Density While it is true that the average density of Per Acre; High population in Minneapolis is low, the aver- Density Per House, age number of families to houses is high. The average density is 9.3 persons per acre, which is considerably lower than that of any of the larger cities except Washington and Los Angeles, and is even lower than that of five of the ten cities next in line below Minneapolis. (See Table 15.) Only Average Proportion If, however, we take the average num- of Dwellings to Families, ber of families to buildings used for dwelling purposes, we find a situation not nearly as encouraging. On the average there are 1.35 fam- ilies to every building devoted to human habitation. This is a higher proportion of families to dwellings than is found in nine larger cities, and is exceeded by only two of the ten cities next below Minneapolis in population, namely, Jersey City and Provi- dence, cities admittedly crowded in character. Minneapolis Low The census reports give the number of fam- as a City of Homes, ilies in each city and the number of build- ings used for dwelling purposes. Based on these figures, we have prepared a chart showing how Minneapolis compares with other cities as a city of homes. (Plate IX.) In- dianapolis stands highest with the possibility of 84% of her fam- ilies living in buildings by themselves, while in Minneapolis, only 49 out of every hundred of the families can so live. In other words, if all the families in Minneapolis were to be distributed as, evenly as possible throughout the present number of buildings ( used for dwelling purposes, less than half would be privileged to dwell by themselves and 51 out of every hundred would live in houses containing two families. The Drift Toward The last column of figures in Table 15 indi- Tenement Life. cates that even thirteen years ago, Minne- apolis had developed a considerable tene- ment population. At that time, 4.5% of the people lived in build- ings containing three or more families. In ten larger cities the proportion was smaller. Similar figures are not included in the census of 1910, and consequently the comparison cannot be 94 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS made as to that date, but the probability is that the proportion of Minneapolis people who dwell in multiple houses has doubled in the last thirteen years. At least, from all accounts, it is evi- dent that our city is fast growing away from the wholesomfiness of the individual home. Plate IX shows how Minneapolis compares with other cities as a "city of homes." 95 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION II 3 if > s . W tf M pq EC pa W)l> COT-HT irHr- irHi IT Hi-Hi IT HrHi ir- HT IT H O CO il t'j O CO r-H O t-- CVJ CO CO in 10 iq o rH co iq T-H Oi COT-lr-lr-ICOT ICOCOr- 1 T IT ICOi ICO o co co co co iq iq co iq oj * i>- co CO T I T I T I T I COt-COOi"*OiO?DCOThlOi^T-IO QOr- IGOCOCOCvlCOCOCOCOCOT-ICOT-l ocooocoocoooooio ^ tq^ r-^ co^ co^ co^ co^ o_ c ' t--^ to* T T T T co"^ co~ co~ t-^~ o" COCOCOT IT-H.T-ICOCOCO COCOQOOilOCOlOlOOlOCOt^T lOilOOiQOOOOir- I t^^OSOt^OO OOT l^b-COT I^COOiilt^COCO , OB 96 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 97 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION REAR HOUSING INCREASING Shall We Give Up One of the distinctive features of Minne- Our Back Yards? apolis has been the generous proportions of its lot area, providing ample room for yard and garden with all the civilizing influence that these assure. Inquiry has revealed no other large city of the country possessing the asset that Minneapolis has in these spacious yards and gar- dens. The time has arrived when the people of Minneapolis must decide whether they are going to preserve the until now prevailing! custom as to size of lots or have them cut in two. Yes, more than this, the time is already here when, unless a vigor- ous and concerted effort to put forth, our lots, except for the wealthy, are absolutely destined to be shared with one or more- other families. Pictures shown herewith will give you the idea, quickly. Illustration 51 shows a cellar over which is to be built a large front house to completely hide the small house to the rear. Not even an alley communicates with what will be the rear house. At the right are seen the barns and chicken houses of the neigh- bors, of which the woman in the little house already complains. She has but shortly come from Denmark and the ways of Amer- ica are still a source of dismay. "You are too slack," she says. No. 52. The rear tenement. Four-family tenement crowded onto the yard of the one in front. Excess lot occupation, lack of conven- iences, and faulty sanitation. 98 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 99 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Illustration 52 shows a rear tenement moved onto the lot behind the huge, unsightly one in front. The undesirability of rear housing does not need to be commented upon to be appre- ciated. Such houses are hidden from the street, must accept someone's back yard as their front yard or go without, are often deprived of sufficient light and air, attract an undesirable class of tenants, and are difficult to police. For example, the occu- pants of the rear tenement shown in Illustration 52 are obliged to bring their water from a well situated only a short distance from an ancient privy vault, or else from the butcher shop during the hours it is open. The building is cold and dilapidated. The people in the front tenement row throw ashes and garbage into the yard. In the summer this yard reeks with refuse thrown from the butcher shop. It is no wonder that the people who in- habit it are of a sort notorious throughout the neighborhood. Alley Housing Illustration 53 shows an alley bordered by Gripping the City, stables on one side, and by dwellings on the other. It is filthy, and when fully built up will present problems such as Chicago is now concerned with. Similar instances of alley housing can be found in many parts of the city. At the rate of increase which held between 1900 and 1910, Minneapolis in 30 years will have a population of over 1,031,000, in 50 years it will be a city of 2,279,000, and St. Paul a city of 850,500. Together the population will total over 3,000,- 000 and it will be together together, if something it not done of a preventive nature, as Chicago is together crowded together. What of the hundreds of miles of Minneapolis alleys then? Will Minneapolis sit idly by unheeding the lesson taught by the experience of Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati andi Washington, when each of them has found the problem of the alley house perhaps the most difficult that they have had to face? Eloquent evidence of just what is going to happen when our back yards and gardens become the site of rear houses, or houses which face upon the alley, is presented in Illustrations 54 and 55. These are not pictures of conditions in Chicago or Cincinnati, but were taken, one in South Minneapolis, and one in North. Note the almost entire lack of yards and gardens, and the contrast between these two pictures and Illustration 56. Unless some- thing is done to stop it, the conditions which you see in these two 100 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 101 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 102 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 103 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION pictures are absolutely destined to be reproduced throughout Minneapolis. Instead of having two rows of houses the length of each block as we now have, there will be four, just as are al- ready developing in a few places. Prophetic Developments Just what is liable to happen on one on Shallow Lots. of these shallow lots is shown in Il- lustration 57, where the owner has built a house, not especially large, but extending from the rear lot line to within 10 feet of the front. Imagine, if you please, an entire block built up in this fashion, and there is absolutely noth- ing today to prevent this being done. Such a condition would be as bad as that shown in Illustration 58, and might, indeed, be worse. Here we have a type of tenement running straight through from street to street, possessing two frontages, but abso- lutely no yard. This building could not be exactly duplicated under our present law, but similar ones, not materially better, can be, and are being erected. A Young Ghetto. One of the districts containing the type of housing just described is the home of the greater part of the Jewish population of the city. They have suc- ceeded in making it the worst district of dwelling houses which Minneapolis has at present. Stables, rag-picking sheds, piles cf junk, tenement dwellings, and ill-smelling outhouses, fight for the ground. Add a story or two, and one has Chicago. Minne- apolis should remember that Jacob Riis told us that the condi- tions in New York 75 years ago were no worse than the condi- tions now in many of our mid-western cities. The fact that the comparative, rather than absolute, size of the lot is small has tended to attract a population of a character consonant with lower social and economic standards. In addition, the lack of regula- tion of single dwellings is more acutely evident upon small lots, where the temptation is to try to build a dwelling suitable for a large lot upon half the space. Cheap construction has hastened dilapidation, and meant cold and unstable housing from the first. A foreign population not accustomed to American standards com- ing into this locality, has demonstrated to the satisfaction of any one who will take the trouble to visit it, the undesirability of permitting the further development of a type of housing which involves the dividing of our present lot area into two lots, with the utter elimination of our attractive back yards and gardens. 104 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS 105 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION m 106 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS ATTENTION TO CITY PLANNING NEEDED Adapt Platting to This report of housing conditions in Minne- Character of apolis would not be complete if protest^vere Neighborhood. not made against the prevailing practice of permitting owners to plat new additions without regard for either the topography of the land, the purpose for which it is to be used, expense of construction or diagonal distance from the city. With our city developed to its present extent, it is possible to be reasonably sure for what purpose any district of the city will probably be used, and to plat it in such a way as to best serve that purpose. The providing of diagonals from the center of the city makes possible rapid transportation and thereby enables workmen to live in more attractive and less congested neighborhoods even though at a greater distance from their employment. With ample provision made for such arterial thoroughfares, the minor streets, which are necessary only for the purpose of reaching the houses bordering them, can be made quite narrow. The areas thus freed can be added to the front of the lot, and incidentally, the owners saved an unnecessary tax for paving. The uniform platting of wide streets is expensive in initial cost and in upkeep, lessens the space available for build- ings and lawns, and is unattractive. Shortcomings In addition to the short-sightedness, economic, of Stereotyped social, and aesthetic, of uniform, grid-iron plat- Building, ting, Minneapolis suffers to no inconsiderable extent from bad housing due to the efforts of owners and builders to construct uniform types of buildings, whether they be single, duplex, or multiple dwellings, without regard to the size, shape or location of the lot. An entire block in North Minneapolis is covered with little cottages in such a way as to cover the maximum amount of ground surface, where the same number of families, with a slightly different grouping of the houses and little or no additional expense could have been accommodated and at the same time the available yard space increased 14%. Few as yet have seemed to think it worth while to spend time and thought in planning a dwelling suited to all the needs of the working man and his family. Such thought as is expended upon the construction of tenements and apart- ments seem directed almost entirely toward obtaining the greatest possible revenue. 107 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION Modern City The great question before the modern city is Self-Destructive, the question of physical and social self-preser- vation. Mr. Henry Vivian of England, for example, brings the charge that if the modern city were cut off from the stream of reinforcing life which flows in from the coun- try districts, its life would be doomed. To quote, "The modern city is not life-producing. In America today, if you were to stop the supply of new blood, these great cities would dwindle and die. The modern city can only live, under present circumstances, by using up the energy of other districts. But we believe it is pos- sible to develop a modern city that shall be life-producing and give its people all that comes from association with one's fellow, all the educational development and intellectual life and social sense. You should not lose contact with fresh air and nature. We have arrived at such a stage in England that there is not! enough to supply the wastage of city life. We have now to see that towns themselves shall be health-producing." Kind of Housing The kind of housing which our city must now Demanded. set her face resolutely to develop must be hous- ing such as will afford a sure basis for strong bodies, clear minds, and sturdy characters in her citizens. It must do this by providing for such direct contact with light, air, soil, and such sense of family isolation as will be adequate to produce the physical and spiritual well-being which we have shown to be dependent upon good housing, and upon which, in turn, good housing in a large degree depends. 108 HOUSING PROBLEMS IN MINNEAPOLIS AND FINALLY A new spirit is developing in industry, a spirit born of the realization that all industry suffers through the misfortune of any factor. The employer fails to prosper as his men fail to prosper. Bad housing for the workmen means bad business for the one who hires. In the light of this spirit, the primary ques- tion is not "What can the tenant afford?" it is "What can Minne- apolis afford ?" If we are to develop in Minneapolis the highest type of civilization, if industry is to thrive permanently, if art and music are to serve their highest purposes, we must first rec- ognize as an essential prerequisite to the realization of these high ideals, the providing of a home life for every family, rich or poor, that shall insure to them their inalienable rights to sanitation, safety, ventilation, privacy, sunlight, space and beauty. 109 MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC & COMMERCE ASSOCIATION j z \t | * *~ih\ o - '5 , M| J g 1 S M h Q - 1 > S - s | OS S To : i l 1 ti H g r s i 5 < I ^ a a j; J 1 Q 1 g 1 1 - B .2 ** trj . , Ul (Z C 1 1 1 ^a a i ^ \ > ^ - : Q Q c Hi 1 y I Q J^ 43 cd 1*1 G ' . * g s i i ! ^ at vi *~ Z E . i o .S Q Q S S 3 Q ^ ^ : S 5 3 S3 1||5 1 y < u M a J jljf " I g_l c^ s. i S s '^ s ^ Q rvi (t S I a *V V) H ^g .= " S W ' 1 o- '1 3 ! 1 1 T! i | ^ 1 i % h 1 1 s (J5 J c 2 ^ 5 ^J c 1 1 1 i|| 1 * 1 1 i i ~ 1 1 o 1 | ^ i i. ffi c < ti S "So *o i 1 1 " . i -6 1 (0 Q -2 !>| f , ! i < J i i-i s - s " Q 1 ^ ^ g Q c 1 1 J 5 iH * i i-J 1 1 5 S l d^ J Z I si 5 ! II 5 ' Recommended for photograph to show Recommended for special investigatiou on accou *j 1 1 s MH 1 a n .1 j i > I fl 1 t