REPORT 
 
 UPON 
 
 A SANITARY INSPECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 CERTAIN TENEMENT -HOUSE DISTRICTS 
 OF BOSTON. 
 
 BY 
 
 DWIGHT PORTER, 
 
 Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering in the Mass. Institute 
 of Technology. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 39 Arch Street. 
 1 8 8 9. 
 

 
 
 
 
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 REMARKS BY GENERAL FRANCIS A. WALKER, 
 AT THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 
 CHARITIES, DEC. 6, 1888. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — Somewhat more than a year ago 
 the association known as the Eighth Ward Conference of the 
 Associated Charities reached the conclusion that it was desir- 
 able to undertake, outside of official agencies, an investigation 
 into the sanitary condition of their 'portion of our city. For 
 this purpose, an executive committee was formed, and means 
 were collected. The committee in charge consulted Prof. Dwight 
 Porter, of the Institute of Technology, regarding the methods 
 most advantageously to be pursued in such an investigation ; 
 and at their request Prof. Porter undertook the charge of the 
 work, which began in the summer of 1887. Prof. Porter was 
 assisted by certain students of the Institute. 
 
 As the work progressed, it seemed desirable to embrace 
 other districts within the scope of the investigation ; and the 
 result of the summer’s work constituted a sanitary reconnois- 
 sance of the worst streets and alleys in the worst districts of 
 Boston, the city over. 
 
 While the work was in progress, Prof. Porter, so far as time 
 allowed, sent to the officers of the city Board of Health tran- 
 scripts from the notes of his assistants. This, however, could 
 not be done to a great extent during the summer, but in the 
 course of the following winter all the information obtained by 
 those engaged in this service was placed at the disposal of the 
 
 137966 
 
IV 
 
 city officials, who had manifested, from the first, a lively interest 
 in the proposed work, and had given cordial assistance to those 
 undertaking it. 
 
 The present meeting has been called for the presentation of 
 Prof. Porter’s report of the work done by himself and his assist- 
 ants, and for the free discussion, by this assembly, of the points 
 of interest involved. 
 
 As it seems desirable that such a discussion should be pre- 
 sided over by one who is an authority in regard to matters of 
 public hygiene, Dr. Walcott, the president of the State Board 
 of Health, has been asked, and has kindly consented, to take 
 the chair on this occasion. I shall only detain the audience by 
 three remarks : — 
 
 First. While the work of Prof. Porter and his assistants has 
 shown that there is much — very much — in the sanitary condition 
 of Boston which requires to be amended, and which it would be 
 a shame and a crime not to amend, by whatever measures may 
 be required for that purpose, we may yet fairly congratulate 
 ourselves that the state of our city has been shown, by this 
 intelligent and searching investigation, to be better than that of 
 many of the cities of the land. 
 
 Second. The investigation, the results of which are to be 
 laid before you this afternoon, appears to me to have an added 
 interest from the fact that it has been the work of a voluntary 
 association, using means collected by private benevolence, and 
 operating without authority of law and altogether outside the 
 established official agencies. In the great debate which is now 
 proceeding on both sides of the Atlantic, in the decision of 
 which is so largely bound up the future of humanity, — the debate, 
 namely, as to the extent to which the powers of Government 
 shall be enlarged to meet the demands of an increasingly com- 
 plex organization of society, — every successful effort, by individ- 
 
Y 
 
 uals voluntarily associated, to perform some part of that work 
 which Government has been called upon to undertake, and which 
 is of such vital consequence to society that it must be under- 
 taken and performed by some agency, — makes a valuable con- 
 tribution to the political knowledge of the times. The present 
 occasion seems to me to furnish not the least successful among 
 the many instances in which the public spirit of our citizens and 
 the unwearying efforts and unstinted generosity of individuals 
 have availed to do a work for society to which it was once 
 thought only the authority and the resources of Government 
 would be adequate. 
 
 Third . The remark with which I shall close may seem di- 
 rectly antagonistic in spirit to my last remark ; but I believe it 
 to be so in form only. The vulgar proverb tells of a stitch in 
 time which saves nine ; and the sacred proverb tells of that 
 which scattereth yet increaseth, and of that which withholdeth 
 more than is meet, and so tendeth to poverty. I believe that a 
 true view of the economy of State action may not infrequently 
 disclose the occasion for saving a great deal of interference and 
 a great deal of State action, in subsequent stages, by putting the 
 firm hand of government upon the very sources of evil, and ap- 
 plying the powers of the State to crush out social mischief in 
 its inception. I confess that it has for some time seemed to me 
 increasingly probable that the social philosophy of the age would 
 soon come to recognize the Housing of the Very Poor as the 
 point at which the remedial action of the Government may be 
 applied, not only with the highest effect upon the happiness 
 and health of the community, but actually with large resulting 
 reductions from the sum of State action and governmental 
 authority. 
 
 It would be an act, either of monstrous ignorance or of mon- 
 strous impudence on the part of any man, contemplating the 
 
VI 
 
 changes of public sentiment which have taken place on this sub- 
 ject within the last fifteen, ten, and five years, to put his foot 
 down and say, "thus far and no farther will I go towards enlarg- 
 ing the functions of the State.” In view of the great develop- 
 ments of the immediate past, the most likely thing in regard to 
 each one of us, by turns, is that, in five, ten, or fifteen years 
 from now, he will be occupying a position on this subject very 
 different from that he now anticipates. Yet I confess I have 
 of late been coming rapidly to the conviction that ere long 
 there will be a general consent of conservative citizens, in every 
 enlightened State, to regard as thoroughly good politics all in- 
 terference by law which may be necessary to prevent any por- 
 tion of the people from living in houses which are unfit for 
 human habitation, residence in which is incompatible with health 
 or with social or personal decency. 
 
 I expect soon to see the time come when the Commonwealth 
 of Massachusetts shall declare that no one of its citizens, under 
 whatever plea of poverty, shall have his home where he has 
 not a sufficient access of fresh air and of God’s sunlight, and 
 where the conditions as to drainage and the disposal of refuse 
 are not such as to afford reasonable security for the health of 
 the individual, and to protect society against communicable 
 disease. I believe that not only will the law of the Common- 
 wealth say this, which, indeed, is little more than it now says, 
 but that the public sentiment of the community will have been 
 so educated on this subject as to support the officers of the law 
 in whatever rigorous and painful measures may be required for 
 the thorough, systematic, and unrelenting enforcement of the 
 most advanced sanitary requirements. 
 
REPORT UPON A SANITARY INSPECTION OF 
 CERTAIN TENEMENT-HOUSE DISTRICTS 
 OF BOSTON. 
 
 Boston, October, 1888. 
 
 Messrs. Eliot C. Clarke, Arthur B. Ellis, Mrs. J. S. 
 Copley Greene, Miss Margaret Greene, and Miss 
 Anne H. Thwing, committee: — 
 
 I have the honor to present herewith the results of certain 
 investigations made at your request, mainly during August and 
 September, 1887, the report upon which has been, I regret to 
 say, unavoidably delayed. An outline of the work to be at- 
 tempted had previously been prepared by Prof. George F. 
 Swain, whose plan I endeavored to follow in the main, taking 
 the liberty, however, to modify it in some respects. The 
 object sought to be accomplished was to obtain data regarding 
 the sanitary condition of the poorer laboring people of this city, 
 who constitute the population of the tenement-house districts. 
 
 In the Statute Law of 1885 a tenement house is defined as one 
 occupied by more than three families, living independently of 
 one another, or by more than two families so living upon any 
 floor above the second. Our work was not confined to houses 
 of this class ; but of a total of about 900 houses specially reported, 
 upward of 300 were strictly tenement houses, as above defined. 
 The time and means at command did not warrant attempting a 
 thorough and elaborate sanitary survey of a large section of the 
 
2 
 
 city. The effort was, therefore, made to visit those houses and 
 localities presenting the worst conditions, and mere complete- 
 ness of statistical returns was allowed to occupy a minor place. 
 
 Work of this general character is not entirely new or novel, 
 but it has usually been carried on under public authority. Even 
 as far back as 1840 we find record of an inquiry by the Poor- 
 Law Commissioners of Great Britain into the sanitary condition 
 of the laboring population in that country, presenting facts 
 which cannot fail to be of the greatest interest to every one 
 whose attention has been called to the social problems of the 
 present time. In various cities of this country more or less 
 complete sanitary surveys, as they are called, have been con- 
 ducted within the past five or ten years. A noteworthy instance 
 of work of this sort, prosecuted by private enterprise, is 
 that of the thorough and admirable investigation which has 
 been made in the tenth ward of New York, accomplishing 
 results which are familiar to many people of this city. It is 
 only by some such means that the knowledge is to be gained 
 upon which may be based suitable plans for improving the con- 
 dition of a class of people which, because of ignorance, poverty, 
 and lack of desire for improvement, is certain to do nothing 
 important toward helping itself, and which is, at the same time, 
 a standing menace to the physical and the social welfare of the 
 community as a whole. 
 
 The principal feature of the work was intended to be a house- 
 to-house sanitary inspection. In accordance with the wishes of 
 those interested in the enterprise, I selected, for this purpose, 
 as assistants > several undergraduate students of the civil en- 
 gineering department of the Institute of Technology. They 
 entered upon their duties at different times, the entire work of 
 inspection and reinspection receiving directly the equivalent of 
 perhaps 90 days’ time of one man. Their labors were, in many 
 
3 
 
 respects, extremely disagreeable ; but I am confident that they 
 were, upon the whole, well and carefully performed. Each 
 inspector was supplied with a simple outfit, including blank 
 forms upon which to make returns. It was his duty to observe 
 the condition of yards and outbuildings, noting whether clean 
 and well-kept or filthy and littered. He had, further, to ex- 
 plore the house itself from cellar to attic, entering all rooms 
 when practicable, measuring the cubic contents of sleeping- 
 rooms, peering under the sinks to see if they were trapped, 
 examining the drainage system wherever accessible, making 
 memoranda of uncleanliness or want of repair, and securing 
 such information as might be useful regarding tenants, rent 
 paid, and so forth. Practically no hindrance to inspection, on 
 the part of tenants, was encountered, although occasionally 
 objection was raised by a landlord. 
 
 Inspections were made in portions of six different w T ards, — 
 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, and 13. The original design was to confine the 
 inquiry toWard 8, and that ward received first attention. It 
 was later decided to extend operations, so far as time would 
 allow, into the worst portions of other wards, and the North End, 
 the South Cove district, and South Boston were successively 
 visited. Certain streets, or parts of streets, were sufficiently 
 well known to be put down at once for investigation. Others 
 were decided upon on the strength of information gained from 
 various individuals, — city inspectors, persons interested in 
 charitable work, and others. Further, when any new section 
 was to be taken up, a sort of reconnoissance was made, assist- 
 ants being detailed to walk through every street, and decide, 
 so far as possible by a cursory examination, what localities or 
 Individual houses merited special inspection. The 910 1 houses 
 
 1 251 in Ward 6, 221 in Ward 7, 190 in Ward 8, 89 in Ward 9, 50 in Ward 12, 109 in 
 Ward 13. 
 
4 
 
 upon which reports were made contained a population of up- 
 ward of 12,000 persons, or nearly one-seventh of the entire 
 population of about 89,000 accredited in 1885 to the six wards 
 visited. On maps submitted with this report the position of 
 every house inspected is shown. 
 
 Nuisances discovered were reported to the city Board of Health, 
 whose cooperation was at all times most courteously and freely 
 extended. It was endeavored to report the most serious at 
 once ; but, in many cases, I desired that there should be a rein- 
 spection after an interval and before making complaint. Op- 
 portunity was thus given to learn whether insanitary conditions 
 were likely to be discovered and remedied from any other 
 source than our own work, and also to learn whether certain of 
 them were simply accidental and temporary, or habitual and 
 permanent. Reinspections were thus made at intervals rang- 
 ing from a few days to two or three months. In more than 
 two-thirds of the houses reexamined the same faulty conditions 
 at first reported were found still to exist, substantially unim- 
 proved, even after the lapse of months. In the remainder, 
 either repairs had been made, or the conditions of filth pre- 
 viously observed had disappeared. 
 
 Altogether, abstracts were handed to the Board of Health in 
 the cases of some 360 houses, the condition of which appeared 
 unsatisfactory. I am unable to say definitely to what extent 
 these reports have been acted upon. Some of the evils pointed 
 out — as, for- example, certain cases of overcrowding — were not 
 so serious that official action upon them was really expected, 
 but the facts concerning them were desired, and were therefore 
 furnished. I am informed by the chairman of the Board that 
 the cases reported have received attention, and that the informa- 
 tion furnished has led to numerous decided improvements in the 
 premises concerned. 
 
General Conditions or Tenement -house Life. 
 
 It would, indeed, be surprising if any large city were found 
 not to contain a deplorable amount of misery, and not to pre- 
 sent conditions and problems of the most serious nature, affect- 
 ing both the physical and the social well-being of its citizens. 
 Such conditions and problems are not confined exclusively to 
 any one class of the population, but they are in none more obvious 
 or more pressing than in that composed of the very poor people 
 who fill the tenement houses. Here are to be found persons 
 from every quarter of the globe. Many of them are the very 
 offscourings of the countries whence they came, — poverty- 
 stricken, ignorant, and even vicious. With these, sanitary con- 
 siderations have no weight, and they seem not to care how they 
 live. Every important city has such people, and Boston shares 
 them with the rest ; and yet, considering the size and age of 
 the city, its position as a seaport and landing-place for immi- 
 grants, its trying climate and peculiar topography, it seems to 
 me that the sanitary, and perhaps the social, conditions of 
 tenement-house life here are better than might fairly be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 The marked impulse toward suburban life must have done 
 much to relieve the tendency to overcrowding of the city 
 proper. The introduction of a comprehensive scheme of main 
 drainage has helped to offset the disadvantages of a low, flat, 
 and artificially made surface, difficult to drain. The move- 
 ments of population, under which sections of the city once 
 fashionable have been almost entirely deserted by well-to-do 
 families, have furnished to the poorer people houses much more 
 substantially and comfortably built than any constructed design- 
 edly as cheap tenement houses would have been. Further, the 
 city has for some fifteen years been under the oversight of 
 
6 
 
 an efficient Board of Health, the good results of whose labors 
 are unquestionable. 
 
 The poorer tenants in this city live in apartments of two or 
 three rooms each, for which they pay a weekly rental at a rate 
 ranging usually from 50 cents to $1 per room. The average 
 total rental paid per week per family among nearly 1,000 
 families for which we obtained returns was $1.86. 1 
 
 The tenement houses proper contain from four to fifteen fami- 
 lies each, no individual houses (separate street numbers) which 
 we visited including more than about fifteen families, or more 
 than sixty or seventy inmates. The class of tenement houses 
 which was examined is about equally in number composed of 
 brick and of wooden buildings, about two-thirds of all contain- 
 ing three principal stories each. There is a considerable num- 
 ber of four-story buildings also, a loss number of five-story, and 
 a very small number of tenement houses of six full stories. A 
 small area at the rear of each house serves for ash and garbage 
 receptacles, etc., and either in a small shed or in the cellar or 
 basement of the house are bins for wood and coal. Each of the 
 tenements — except sometimes those on the highest floor — is 
 usually provided with a kitchen sink, or else has a hall sink in 
 common with another tenement. Clothes from washings are 
 hung upon the roof to dry, or else upon lines stretched from 
 the rear of the house. The stairways and halls are very 
 commonly dark and narrow. In the poorer houses few carpeted 
 rooms will be seen, and the furniture is in general scanty and 
 poor. And yet frequent agreeable surprises will be encountered 
 in these houses ; and often where one would least expect it, he 
 will come upon apartments very comfortably furnished. Families 
 that are very poor and cramped for space usually have to turn 
 
 1 Under $1 per week, 36 families; $1 and upward to $2, 533 families; $2 and up- 
 ward to $3, 326 families ; f 3 and upward to $4, 83 families ; $4 and upward, 15 families. 
 
every room to account for sleeping, even the kitchen ; lounge 
 beds are sometimes used, but often beds are made directly upon 
 the floor. 
 
 Many of the houses date back a century or more, and are 
 rich in historical associations. Peculiarities of construction 
 reveal their distant origin, and almost obliterated marks of 
 architectural ornamentation show that they were once more pre- 
 tentious dwellings. The North End was once the most elegant 
 portion of the city, but is said to have declined soon after the 
 Revolution. Twenty-five years or so ago the West End was a 
 fashionable quarter, but that in turn has been mainly abandoned 
 to a poorer population, and Ward 8 is now the most densely 
 inhabited ward in Boston. 
 
 It is interesting to notice how different nationalities have be- 
 come concentrated in particular localities. Thus the Negroes 
 are found mainly on the west slope of Beacon Hill, in the 
 vicinity of Cambridge street. Nashua, Billerica, and Lowell 
 streets are occupied largely by Irish ; Salem and adjacent 
 streets by Jews ; while in Salutation street and vicinity will be 
 found settlements of Portuguese, and on Salutation and Endicott 
 streets, and in various other parts of 'the North End, are colonies 
 almost exclusively of Italians. 
 
 Statute laws passed in 1871 with reference to tenement and 
 lodging houses, supplemented by others passed in 1885, contain 
 important provisions regarding the construction, ventilation, 
 lighting, drainage, cleanliness, and overcrowding of such houses. 
 While it was not sought in our work to apply these laws mi- 
 nutely to the houses we examined, the data obtained by inspec- 
 tion will, I trust, serve to show in a general way whether some 
 of the principal results contemplated by the laws are, or are not, 
 being realized. 
 
8 
 
 Overcrowding. 
 
 One of the most serious evils encountered among the poorer 
 population of a large city is overcrowding, or the occupancy by 
 several families or persons of a space suited to a less number 
 only. The marked modern tendency toward a concentration of 
 life at large centres, the apparent inability or disinclination of 
 the poorest and lowest classes, especially, to free themselves 
 from the fetters of city life, the poverty which is inseparable 
 from the shiftlessness, vice, and misfortunes of these people 
 and which is constantly made more general and intense by the 
 influx of a degraded class of foreigners and the consequent low- 
 ering of wages, all act to produce a steadily increasing density 
 of population. 
 
 By overcrowding, the spread of the various infectious dis- 
 eases is vastly facilitated. The foul air of thickly inhabited 
 dwellings assists also, more than any other cause, perhaps, in 
 the development of consumption, that destroyer which stands 
 at the head of all diseases in this city. Nor are the evil effects 
 of overcrowding confined merely to the development and spread 
 of disease of the body ; for immorality and other vices quickly 
 spring from the withdrawal of those barriers of reasonable privacy 
 which are essential to decent society, but which are impossible 
 where many people are crowded into small space. The British 
 report, to which I have already alluded, contains pictures of the 
 degradation and depravity toward which undue crowding cer- 
 tainly tends, that cannot be considered without a deep impres- 
 sion being made upon the mind. Very commonly large families 
 were found sleeping in a single damp, filthy, and wretched 
 room of small size, and as many as possible in a single bed; 
 frequently three or four families "occupying the same bedroom, 
 and young men and young women promiscuously sleeping in 
 
9 
 
 the same apartment.” Within a few years similar conditions 
 have been brought to public notice in New York city, conditions 
 which are bound ,to be realized sooner or later in every large 
 city in which the tendency to overcrowding is permitted to go 
 on unchecked. 
 
 In our inspections in this city we discovered scarcely any 
 enormities such as appeared in the investigations to which 
 I have just referred, and yet abundant data were obtained as to 
 the existence of extensive and serious overcrowding. This is 
 common enough in all the tenement-house districts of the city, 
 and examples may be found among all nationalities of people, 
 but it appears far the most common and aggravated among the 
 Italians and Polish Jews. It is largely the result of poverty, 
 which does not permit tenants to pay for many or large rooms. 
 Frequently it happens that women are left widows with 
 families of young children, who must economize in every pos- 
 sible way, and to whom no readier means of doing this offers 
 than the taking up with a small rent, even though it involve 
 the sleeping of the entire family in one or two little rooms. In 
 very many cases, however, and this especially among the 
 Italians and Poles, overcrowding appears to be a matter of habit 
 and choice. So far as I can learn, however, it is confined to 
 the occupancy by single families of apartments too small for 
 them, and is not shown in the herding together of several 
 families in common apartments. 
 
 Overcrowding may best be gauged by considering the num- 
 ber of occupants and the size of sleeping-rooms, since in those 
 the family is most fCtlly represented for the longest time, and there 
 the evil consequences of breathing impure air will most be felt. It 
 is a difficult matter, however, to fix any exact and general stand- 
 ard by which overcrowding may be properly measured. The 
 danger of a particular case can justly be estimated only by con- 
 
10 
 
 sidering all the circumstances of size and ventilation of rooms, 
 number and condition of health of occupants, and so on. For 
 the purposes of a general inquiry, however, we may assume a 
 certain amount of space as proper for each occupant, and apply 
 this as a test to the conditions actually found to exist. In order 
 that the air of a sleeping-room may be kept reasonably pure 
 and suitable for breathing, it is known that the room should be 
 large enough to furnish each inmate at least 500 or 600 cubic 
 feet of air space, and that, further, it must, even with this al- 
 lowance, be thoroughly ventilated, so that the air may be fre- 
 quently changed. An idea of the space thus required may be 
 retained by recollecting that a room eight feet high (the or- 
 dinary minimum height) and just large enough to admit two full- 
 sized beds, would contain about 500 cubic feet. 
 
 The standard mentioned is a low one for the maintenance of 
 pure air, and in so far as it fails to be realized will the health 
 of the offender suffer. The consequences of the habitual breath- 
 ing of impure air are so gradually developed, however, and may 
 be so disguised by other causes of ill health, that they are certain 
 not to be properly appreciated, especially by ignorant persons. 
 It is probable, moreover, that there may be, in particular cases, 
 a very considerable departure from the standard mentioned 
 without any harm resulting that should warrant public inter- 
 ference. Nevertheless, when we find an important proportion 
 of the inmates of the tenement houses crowded into sleeping- 
 spaces not one-quarter the size that should be had, and that 
 most persons would insist upon merely for comfort, it is evident 
 that a question has been encountered that demands more than a 
 passing thought. 
 
 As examples of overcrowding, I will mention a few cases 
 reported by inspectors: At No. — Friend street is a three- 
 story wooden house, with a fruit store in front on the first floor, 
 
11 
 
 but otherwise given up to tenements, which are reached through 
 two entrances from a side alley. The entire building was 
 occupied by sixteen families, which, including a few lodgers, 
 comprised sixty-six persons, nearly all Italians. The rooms all 
 have one or two windows, but are of small size, and about one- 
 half of all the occupants slept in rooms affording them less than 
 250 cubic feet each of air space. In two dingy rooms on the 
 first floor was a family of two adults and three children, two of 
 the latter sleeping in a little side room, and the rest of the 
 family ocupying the remaining room, or kitchen, a bunk in one 
 corner and a mattress laid upon boxes and boards serving at 
 night. On the third floor a family of two adults and five 
 children all slept in a single dirty, ill-smelling room of 630 
 cubic feet contents, with one window of 2£x4% feet. 
 
 At No. — Endicott street, the two upper floors of a dilapi- 
 dated three-story wooden house were occupied by seven 
 families of Italians, numbering thiiiy-seven persons, of whom 
 not more than half a dozen had even as much as half the air 
 space in sleeping-rooms that has been stated to be requisite. 
 Two children slept in a dark inner room, just wide enough for a 
 bed, having a door into one room and a small window, 16 x 24 
 inches in size, opening near the ceiling into another room. 
 Three adults and two children slept in a room a little larger 
 than would be suitable for one person, dirty and foul-smelling, 
 and the walls alive with bugs. In another room of about the 
 same size were two lodgers and two children. 
 
 At No. — North street is a four-story brick building, the 
 first floor front having a bar-room, and the rest of the building 
 given up to Italian tenants, of whom there were nine families, 
 comprising about forty persons. A part of the sleeping- rooms 
 here are of very good size, but nearly all are overcrowded, the 
 place appearing to be a rendezvous for numerous Italian 
 
12 
 
 lodgers, who stay here w T hen not working in the country. The' 
 kitchens and the bedrooms proper are about equally employed 
 for sleeping purposes, and many of them contain at times half a 
 dozen occupants each. 
 
 These are but a few examples, out of many similar ones which 
 might be cited, of overcrowded houses. The general result of 
 our inquiries, so far as statistics of sleeping-rooms are con- 
 cerned, are presented in the accompanying table. 
 
 STATISTICS OF OVERCROWDED SLEEPING-ROOMS. 
 
 TenemeM Rouses Proper. 
 
 Number of houses included in these figures, 203. 
 
 Population of these houses, upward of 4,500. 
 
 Classification 
 of rooms 
 according to 
 air space 
 per occupant. 
 
 Total 
 
 number of 
 overcrowded 
 rooms 
 reported. 
 
 Total 
 
 number of 
 occupants of 
 rooms. 
 
 Total 
 
 air space of 
 rooms. 
 
 Average 
 number of 
 occupants per 
 room. 
 
 Average 
 air space 
 per room. 
 
 Average 
 air space 
 per 
 
 occupant. 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 Cubic Feet 
 
 under 200 
 
 194 
 
 703 
 
 104,355 
 
 , 3.6 
 
 538 
 
 148 
 
 200-299 
 
 254 
 
 778 
 
 181,460 
 
 3.1 
 
 714 
 
 233 
 
 300-399 
 
 170 
 
 415 
 
 135,060 
 
 2.4 
 
 794 
 
 325 
 
 400-499 
 
 151 
 
 345 
 
 147,560 
 
 2.3 
 
 977 
 
 428 
 
 500-599 
 
 65 
 
 114 
 
 59,560 
 
 1.7 
 
 916 
 
 522 
 
 All Houses on which Reports were made as to Overcrowding. 
 
 Number of houses included in these figures, 432. 
 
 Population of these houses, upward of 7,000. 
 
 Classification 
 of rooms 
 according to 
 air space 
 per occupant. 
 
 Total 
 number of 
 overcrowded 
 rooms 
 reported. 
 
 Total 
 
 number of 
 occupants of 
 rooms. 
 
 Total 
 
 air space of 
 rooms. 
 
 Average 
 number of 
 occupants per 
 room. 
 
 Average 
 air space 
 per room. 
 
 Average 
 air space 
 per 
 
 occupant. 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 under 200 
 
 327 
 
 1,180 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 175,390 
 
 3.6 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 536 
 
 Cubic Feet. 
 
 149 
 
 200-299 
 
 490 
 
 1,400 
 
 329,870 
 
 2.9 
 
 673 
 
 236 
 
 300-399 
 
 323 
 
 768 
 
 252,860 
 
 2.4 
 
 783 
 
 329 
 
 400-499 
 
 231 
 
 510 
 
 217,670 
 
 2.2 
 
 942 
 
 427 
 
 500-599 
 
 119 
 
 206 
 
 107,010 
 
 1.7 
 
 899 
 
 519 
 
INTERIOR VIEW AT NO. SALUTATION STREET. 
 
 From a flash-light photograph by Mr. Frank A. Ames. — House occupied by Italians. The bed-room shown measures 13 X 17 feet, 
 
 and is used also as a kitchen. 
 
mi””. h A‘.^ K 
 
13 
 
 It is to be remembered that the statistics here presented are 
 not complete ; that is to say, not all the rooms in the houses 
 visited were reported, but only those which were accessible at 
 the time, and which appeared to be unduly crowded. Never- 
 theless, certain important facts are brought to light. It will be 
 observed, for example, that in about 200 selected tenement 
 houses, representing a population of upward of 4,500 persons, 
 about one-half that number were found sleeping in rooms af- 
 fording them an average of less than 500 cubic feet of space 
 each, and more than 700 persons averaged less than 200 cubic 
 feet each. An inspection of the tables will also discover the 
 twofold manner in which the intensity of overcrowding is dis- 
 played, not only in the occupancy of small rooms, but also, 
 coincident with a decrease in the size of the room, an increase 
 in the number of its occupants ; thus, the most densely over- 
 crowded class, in the above tables, will be noticed as occupying 
 rooms not much more than half as large as those occupied by the 
 least overcrowded class, and yet it averages twice as many per- 
 sons to the room. 
 
 The wards which we visited in our inspections doubtless com- 
 prise the most thickly settled portions of the city of Boston, 
 and it may be interesting to notice for a moment the figures 
 which indicate the actual density of population. If we divide 
 the population of the city in 1885 by the number of acres of 
 surface within its limits, we find the average settlement thus 
 obtained to be about 17 persons to the acre. This result is 
 evidently made very small, though, from including within 
 the area of the city much available land not yet built upon, 
 together with extensive areas devoted to park, railroad, wharf, 
 manufacturing, and business purposes, which, practically, are 
 not available for dwellings. If now we consider the various 
 wards separately, leaving out certain tracts of railroad and 
 
14 
 
 wharf property, we find a population, per acre, in the various 
 wards of Boston proper, ranging from about 43 in Ward 11 to 
 230 and over in Ward 8. In Wards 6 and 7 the average set- 
 tlement is about 140 persons per acre. Comparing these figures 
 with those for other cities, we find in Chicago the most densely 
 settled ward averaging 86 persons to the acre. In New York 
 city, Ward 10, to which I have before referred, not so large 
 by a dozen acres as Ward 6 in Boston, has three times as great 
 a population, averaging in 1880 somewhat over 430 persons 
 to the acre. 
 
 What this means may be better understood from the state- 
 ment, which is approximately true, that in the tenth ward of 
 New York the average density of settlement for the entire 
 ward is as great as is found in the most thickly settled district 
 of the North End in Boston. 
 
 Further, it may be interesting to state that there are in New 
 York at least eight wards, out of the twenty-four, in each of 
 which the average density of population exceeds the highest 
 average that can fairly be calculated for any ward in this city. 
 The eight wards alluded to comprised, in 1880, a population of 
 380,000 persons, and constitute in themselves a city some- 
 what larger than the entire city of Boston. 
 
 Any one ward, however, is extensive enough to cover con- 
 siderable extremes of settlement, and contains more or less sur- 
 face devoted to other purposes than residence ; and it is only by 
 taking smaller areas, such as assessment blocks, that we finally 
 gain a satisfactory notion of the real density of population in 
 particular parts of the city. It now becomes an easy matter in 
 either of Wards 6, 7, 8, or 12 to pick out assessment blocks ot 
 from a quarter of an acre to an acre and a half in which, if we 
 exclude street surfaces in calculations, the settlement is found 
 to average 600, 700, and even more than that number of per- 
 
15 
 
 sons per acre. Such figures will be reached in the vicinity of 
 the northern depots, and again near Hay market square, near 
 the North ferry, and near the Old Colony depot. 
 
 The same density of population found even now in the six acres 
 near Haymarket square bounded by the centre lines of Charles- 
 town, Cooper, Salem, and Cross streets, would fill the Common 
 with nearly 20,000 inhabitants ; and if it could be extended 
 over the whole area of Boston would furnish a population of 
 8,000,000 people. 
 
OF POPULATION. 
 
 16 
 
 Q 
 
 Popu- 
 lation per 
 acre. 
 
 16.9 
 
 29.5 
 
 47.8 
 
 140.5 
 
 137.7 
 
 231.8 
 128.1 
 
 72.2 
 
 42.6 
 
 81.9 
 102.0 
 
 177.0 
 
 103.8 
 
 82.7 
 
 86.0 
 
 432.0 
 
 662. 
 
 715. 
 
 668. 
 
 686. 
 
 105.0 
 
 177.0 
 
 Popu- 
 
 lation. 
 
 390,393 
 
 664,634 
 
 1,189,677 
 
 17,256 
 
 12.038 
 
 11,986 
 
 11,239 
 
 9,746 
 
 17,863 
 
 13,845 
 
 22,547 
 
 Ifi 4SQ 
 
 14,747 
 
 14,140 
 
 32,980 
 
 47,553 
 
 574 
 
 443 
 
 1,130 
 
 214 
 
 296 
 
 391 
 
 Area 
 in acres. 
 
 23,085 
 
 22,498 
 
 24,893 
 
 122.8 
 
 87.4 
 
 51.7 
 
 87.7 
 
 135.0 
 419.2 
 
 169.0 
 
 221.1 
 93.0 
 
 142.0 
 
 171.0 
 
 384.0 
 
 110.0 
 
 0.867 
 
 0.620 
 
 1.692 
 
 0.312 
 
 2.817 
 
 2.211 
 
 II 
 
 If 
 
 ss 
 
 ss, 
 
 I CO CO fc-j CO rH 
 
 iiiiiiiiiii } 
 . I 
 
 
 mil 
 
 pqpq« ww 
 
 •vooSS 
 
 mu 
 
IT 
 
 The figures which have been presented are interesting, I 
 think, for comparison with each other, but would mean still 
 more if they could be compared with a limit of allowable den- 
 sity of population ; in other words, if we could learn whether 
 they indicate a thicker settlement than it is practicable to ac- 
 commodate. Any such limit must be roughly and arbitrarily 
 set, but it seems to me that a reasonably low one is furnished 
 by certain houses of the Boston Cooperative Building Com- 
 pany. Their property on Thacher and Endicott streets covers 
 an area of between 6,000 and 7,000 square feet, which is built 
 upon as closely as is *wise. The buildings are as high as is de- 
 sirable for tenement houses, the space within is economically 
 used, and yet few, I presume, would take exception to the 
 arrangements for the health and comfort of tenants. We might 
 fairly assume, therefore, that the condition here found will give 
 us a reasonable maximum limit for density of population, 
 although the area involved is rather small for obtaining an 
 average for comparison. The settlement on this property 
 is at the rate of some 1,200 persons per acre. It would ap- 
 pear theoretically possible, therefore, with suitable buildings 
 and oversight, to provide comfortably for even a greater pop- 
 ulation than is now found in the most crowded parts of the city. 
 
 Although the laws are not the only means for dealing with 
 the question of overcrowding, they are perhaps the most direct 
 means ; and it may be well at this point to notice such provisions 
 as they contain affecting this problem. The laws and ordinances 
 now in force in this city provide that the Board of Health may 
 remove the inmates of any tenement house or building in 
 which the number of occupants is so great as to be the cause of 
 nuisance and sickness, and the source of filth. The Statute Law 
 of 1885 gives the Board power further to make such regulations, 
 in addition to those definitely stated in the law, concerning the 
 
18 
 
 ventilation and overcrowding of tenement and lodging houses 
 and buildings where persons are employed, as it may deem 
 necessary ; subject, however, to the laws relating to building in 
 the city of Boston. 
 
 The New York law of 1887 provides that, "Whenever it 
 shall be certified to the Board of Health by the sanitary superin- 
 tendent that any tenement house, or room therein, is so over- 
 crowded that there shall be afforded less than 600 cubic feet of 
 air to each occupant of such building or room, the said Board 
 may, if it deem the same to be wise or necessary, issue an order 
 requiring the number of occupants of such building or room to 
 be reduced, so that the inmates thereof shall not exceed one 
 person to each 600 cubic feet of air space in such building or 
 room.” 
 
 In either city the matter is really left to the judgment of the 
 Board of Health, although there may be a certain advantage 
 in the wording of the New York law, which calls attention to 
 a definite standard of air space, which it is well that landlords 
 on the one hand, and those seeking to improve the conditions 
 of the tenement houses on the other, should have clearly 
 before them, and toward which it is to be assumed that the 
 Board of Health will, so far as practicable, direct its efforts. 
 An attempt, however, at the present time, to enforce generally 
 any arbitrary standard of air space for existing tenement houses 
 — except, perhaps, an absurdly low one, far beneath proper sani- 
 tary requirements — would, I think, be entirely impracticable. 
 To insist, for example, that all tenement-house sleeping-rooms 
 should average as much as 200 cubic feet, or even 150 cubic feet, 
 to the occupant, would require poor people by the hundred and 
 thousand to be ousted from their homes. Existing over- 
 crowding can be lessened only gradual!} 7 , and it appears to me 
 that this can best be done by allowing the Board of Health wide 
 
19 
 
 discretionary power, by the co-operation and watchfulness of 
 private citizens and organizations in pointing out cases for 
 action and seeing that the powers invested in the authorities 
 are utilized, and by publicity on the part of the Board of Health 
 of the results attained. 
 
 The work is a difficult one, without doubt. It requires 
 money and assistants and the exercise of much good judg- 
 ment. The tenement-house population is a shifting one, the 
 conditions in any one house are constantly changing, and the 
 persons removed from one apartment are very likely to migrate 
 to some other which is no better suited to their occupancy, 
 until again discovered and routed out. Nevertheless, the evils of 
 overcrowded tenement houses are so serious, that to my mind 
 it seems certain that whatever is practicable should be under- 
 taken to relieve the trouble ; and certainly there are plenty of 
 houses toward which the Board of Health could at once with 
 advantage direct its efforts. 
 
 I would suggest, moreover, as likely to be an aid in dealing 
 with certain cases, that the Board of Health should be given 
 authority to serve notices, at its discretion, upon the owners 
 or lessees of tenement and lodging houses, these notices to 
 be of the nature of permits, assigning a limit to the number 
 of occupants allowable in each apartment or house considered, 
 a single violation of the terms of the notice to be followed by a 
 warning, and a subsequent violation to be treated as a criminal 
 offence. The mere removal of an excessive number of families 
 from a house might otherwise be followed by an immediate 
 refilling, until the next inspection. 
 
 The matter of ventilation is of course very intimately con- 
 nected with overcrowding, since if even small sleeping-rooms 
 were at all times sufficiently well ventilated, much of the harm 
 coming from the degree of overcrowding found in this city 
 
20 
 
 would be obviated. Sufficiently good ventilation for the number 
 of occupants often found, however, I judge to be impracticable. 
 There is, to be sure, a constant, unperceived interchange of air 
 between the inside and outside of a house, especially in build- 
 ings not more tightly constructed than many of the tenement 
 houses ; and most of the sleeping-rooms in these houses are pro- 
 vided with one or more windows, which in warm weather are 
 usually kept open for comfort and then give very good air. 
 In cold weather, however, windows are kept closed, and the 
 effects of defective ventilation become plainly marked. 
 
 The advantages of pure air are not commonly considered by 
 tenants, and even if they were, poverty and consequent en- 
 forced economy in the use of fuel would lead many to prevent 
 in every possible way the loss of heat ; and doubtless an 
 attempt properly to ventilate rooms by opening windows would 
 often result in greater immediate peril from cold draughts than 
 is suffered from bad air. I can see no better mode of dealing 
 with this question, however, than to require, so far as possible, 
 a proper size for inhabited rooms, and one or more windows in 
 these opening to the outer air, and so arranged as to be conven- 
 iently opened from either top or bottom. If tenants are pro- 
 vided with suitable rooms and windows, and then neglect to 
 supply themselves with fresh air, they must suffer the conse- 
 quences. 
 
 The law requires that every tenement house " shall have in 
 the roof, at the top of the hall, an adequate and proper venti 
 lator, of a form approved by the inspector of buildings.” 
 This requirement is, I think, quite commonly observed, and 
 appears to be a very sensible and efficient one. 
 
 The pressure of overcrowding is shown not only in the 
 excessive occupancy of rooms properly suited to habitation and 
 to sleeping, but in the employment of small inner rooms and 
 
21 
 
 cellars and basements, unless the evil is reached by law. In 
 New York and Boston somewhat elaborate provisions have 
 been made in laws regarding these matters, and it may be well 
 to refer to them here. 
 
 The law in force in this city prescribes that sleeping-rooms 
 not having direct communication with the outer air shall be 
 ventilated by means of two small ventilating windows or 
 transoms communicating, according to circumstances, with 
 halls or with external rooms that do have windows to the outer 
 air. Possibly, with the ventilators and doors open, and under 
 favorable conditions of ventilation in connecting rooms, a 
 moderate interchange of air with these inner rooms might be 
 effected. But in the cases we noticed there was often but one 
 ventilating window, and that closed ; and the only reliance 
 was really upon the door, which, I presume, is usually left 
 open. The rooms were, as a matter of course, close and ill- 
 smelling. Moreover, they were almost invariably small and 
 overcrowded, generally containing less than six hundred cubic 
 feet, often presenting the appearance of having been cut off 
 from other rooms so that a few more persons might be packed 
 into overcrowded houses, and containing anywhere from one to 
 six occupants each. They were naturally very dark, and, being 
 occupied by the lowest class of tenants, could not be expected 
 to be kept cleanly and sweet, and were, as a rule, among the 
 worst rooms encountered. 
 
 About 60 of these inner rooms, with, say, 150 occupants, 
 were specially reported by my assistants. Even if the number 
 were considerably greater, it would yet constitute so small a 
 percentage of the total number of rooms occupied, and the 
 rooms are such an unmitigated nuisance, that I think the pro- 
 hibition of their use for sleeping purposes, as at present ar- 
 ranged, is entirely warrantable in tenement houses of a low 
 
22 
 
 grade. If these houses cannot be so adapted to the use of 
 tenants as to afford reasonable sanitary provisions of light, air, 
 and so on, then they had better not be allowed employment in 
 such capacity at all. 
 
 Efficient means should also be taken to prevent the introduc- 
 tion of rooms such as I have described into new tenement and 
 lodging houses. At first thought it may seem that to forbid 
 the use of rooms not having direct communication with the 
 outer air must limit occupancy to front and rear rooms in 
 a large class of houses situated midway in blocks, and that 
 it must thus in the case of houses built upon deep lots entirely 
 prevent the economical use of the building space. Such 
 prohibition, would, it is true, tend to prevent a niggardly use 
 of the space ; but experience elsewhere has proved that it need 
 not interfere at all with a suitable development of the prop- 
 erty ; while, at the same time, it acts to bring about surprising 
 improvements in the structural design of the tenement houses,’ 
 which may easily be so constructed, with large light-shafts, as 
 to afford light and air to every room. 
 
 Thus in New York city there has been a constant advance in 
 tenement-house designs, induced by a steady raising of the 
 standard of requirements on the part of the Board of Health, 
 until there has come to be about as much contrast between the 
 best recent designs and the designs common ten or fifteen years 
 ago, as there is between light and darkness. The present New 
 York law empowers the Board of Health to prohibit at its 
 discretion the erection of new tenement houses, or the conver- 
 sion to such use of old buildings, covering more than sixty-five 
 per cent, of their lots. In view of the success which appears 
 to attend the measures adopted for that city, I am of the 
 opinion that limitations and requirements of similar character 
 nfio-ht well be introduced here. 
 
23 
 
 Through the kindness of Mr. James C. Bayles, President of 
 the Health Department of New York city, I am enabled to 
 present a number of diagrams illustrating the advances in 
 tenement-house construction to which I have referred, and of 
 especial interest as showing what may be accomplished under 
 the unfavorable condition of narrow and deep city lots. In 
 this connection I also take the liberty of quoting at length from 
 a recent report by Mr. Bayles, on " The Tenement-House Prob- 
 lem in New York : ” — 
 
 With a view of illustrating the gradual improvement in the methods of 
 construction with reference to light and air, illustrations are given showing, 
 from the earliest years to the present time, the gradual but efficient and 
 practical methods by which the largest amount of light and air space is 
 secured for the greatest number of rooms that may be possible upon the 
 limited ground area of a single city lot. 
 
 Results such as are now insisted upon by the Health Department were 
 not deemed possible even a few years ago. No plan of a tenement house, 
 apartment house, or flat is now approved by the Board unless every inner 
 room has a proportionate amount of light and air directly communicable 
 with the exterior air. The final outcome now is, that every builder and 
 architect must seek, not only how to secure the best paying investment, 
 but also the best sanitary and hygienic arrangement of the rooms, drainage, 
 and plumbing of every tenement house he proposes to build. This result 
 has necessarily been obtained by progressive stages. The opposition had 
 to be gradually overcome, and the public to be educated upon these impor- 
 tant subjects, and the competition of securing tenants by the improvements 
 introduced in new buildings made an effectual aid in the enforcement of all 
 the necessary rules for light and ventilation, as well as for other sanitary 
 requirements connected with such houses. From the first approval by the 
 Board in 1879 of light shafts aggregating in area not more than thirty-two 
 square feet for each four or five story house, there has been a steady 
 progress, until an aggregate area of 265 square feet is now required. 
 It may be here mentioned incidentally that since 1886 there have been 
 very few plans for large apartment houses submitted to the Board, it having 
 become apparent, probably, that houses of this class were not profitable 
 financially. 
 
24 
 
 During these progressive changes in the construction of tenement 
 houses, almost innumerable varieties of plans were evolved by the inge- 
 nuity of architects and builders, and the former have been stimulated to 
 the study of new methods and plans as each progressive requirement has 
 been insisted upon by the Board. 
 
 In the public discussions of 1879, which resulted in the enactment of the 
 tenement-house laws of that year, the question arose as to what constituted 
 a satisfactory plan for a tenement house, due regard being given to the 
 necessities of four families on each floor, and the size and value of lots. A 
 public-spirited citizen offered a large sum of money as a prize for the best 
 tenement-house plan, and several hundred of these plans were offered. 
 
 The great improvement in the construction for light and ventilation of 
 tenement houses now being enforced, shows well by comparison with these 
 prize plans. Indeed, the present typical plan is superior in many respects 
 to the one to which the prize was awarded in 1879. 
 
 In many instances, in the earlier attempts, the locations selected for water- 
 closets on the different floors proved very objectionable, being sometimes 
 immediately adjacent to the kitchens or bedrooms, and without ventilating 
 shaft, resulting — by neglect and misuse — in becoming offensive and un- 
 bearable nuisances, contaminating the atmosphere of dwelling apartments ; 
 and when placed in the ends of the halls between the adjoining kitchen 
 rooms, with imperfect plumbing and inadequate flushing arrangements, 
 permitting the regurgitation of their offensive contents into the kitchen 
 sinks. The very great improvement in this respect is seen in the methods 
 of construction and location as now insisted upon by the Board of Health. 
 By these changes these sources of danger to health are now removed to the 
 farthest limit from dwelling and sleeping rooms, and so constructed, 
 plumbed, and flushed as to secure the most perfect utilization of the “water- 
 carriage system 11 for the rapid removal of the contents, and at the same 
 time so furnished with means for ventilation as to prevent offensive odors 
 from contaminating the respirable atmosphere of the rooms or halls. 
 
 In March of the present year (1887), the lighting and ventilation of tene- 
 ment houses was made a subject of careful consideration by the Board of 
 Health, resulting in the adoption of the following resolution : — 
 
 Resolved , That the Regulations of the Board in relation to Light and Ven- 
 tilation of New Tenement Houses be and are hereby amended as follows : — 
 No plan for light and ventilation of a tenement house with apartments 
 on five or more floors, and having more than twelve rooms on a floor, to be 
 erected on an ordinary city lot, except a corner lot, will be approved by this 
 
NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Typical Tenement House prick to 1879 . 
 
 (Inner rooms neither lighted nor ventilated.) 
 
 t 
 
 ( 1 ) 
 
 
 -68^-ft- 
 

First Floor. 
 
 Upper Floor. 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Prize Plan of the Tenement-House Design Competition 
 of 1879. 
 
 ( 2 ) 
 

 
 
 4fe 
 
 
 % 
 
 V'tt 
 
 
 
 
 
 
7-2 ftr 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Group of the Earliest Plans approved by the Board of Health 
 
 UNDER THE LAW OF 1879 . 
 
 (Small light and ventilation shafts for rooms farthest from outer air.) 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
( 4 ) 
 

 
 
 
 » r vt/ 
 
 UNIVERSli « of li-U^IS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Present Type of Tenement for Four Families on each Floor, 
 in Lots 25 feet by 100 feet. 
 
 (Open courts instead of studded light shafts.) 
 
 ( 5 ) 
 

 
 
 
 
25 
 
 Board, where more than sixty-five per centum of the lot is to be covered, 
 unless the courts to light and ventilate the interior rooms thereof shall have 
 an area of at least two hundred and sixty-five square feet, and where there 
 are to be twelve rooms on a floor, the area of such courts must not be less 
 than two hundred and fifteen square feet. 
 
 Resolved , That this amendment shall take effect April 11, 1887. 
 
 This present plan marks the most desired and greatest improvement in ten- 
 ement-house construction which has grown out of sanitary legislation and the 
 efforts of the Board of Health since 1879. Instead of dark, unventilated rooms 
 and halls, peculiar to tenement houses of that date, the rooms in the houses 
 now being built are well lighted and ventilated by courts as large in area as 
 can possibly be required, without reducing the size of the rooms to an im- 
 practicable degree. In place of the old privy-vault in the yard, the use of 
 which in cold weather was often impossible to the debilitated or sick, every 
 two families are provided with a water-closet on each floor, with suitable 
 arrangements for flushing, and the compartments are well lighted and 
 ventilated. The cellars, formerly noisome, unventilated, unlighted, unpaved, 
 and damp, are now provided with windows to the outer air, and the floors 
 are concreted throughout. The old hydrant in the yard, with its uncon- 
 nected cesspool for receiving house-slops and liquid waste for the whole 
 household, is now abolished, and water is supplied in each apartment, and 
 in connection with suitable kitchen-sinks and washtubs ; and instead of 
 the defective earthen drains with leaking joints, saturating the adjacent 
 ground, and open joints in waste and soil pipes, — where they were provided 
 in the older houses, — and untrapped and unventilated waste-pipes, placing 
 the living-rooms in direct communication with the public sewers, the plumb- 
 ing system is now up to the highest standard of modern times in every de- 
 tail, and superior in all essentials to the plumbing and drainage to be found 
 in even the best private houses, except those of the most recent date. 
 
 These great improvements in the hygienic and sanitary arrangements of 
 the tenement houses as now built, must necessarily reduce the death and 
 sickness rates of such houses. The extent to which this is true can well be 
 estimated from the fact that in each of the recent years these changes and 
 improvements have been provided in new tenement houses for upwards of 
 60,000 persons. 
 
 The statute law defines a " cellar ” as a " basement or lower 
 story of any building of which one-half or more of the height 
 
26 
 
 from the floor to the ceiling is below the level of the street 
 adjoining.” The occupancy as a dwelling of any cellar, without 
 permit from the Board of Health, is illegal, unless there is com- 
 pliance with certain provisions of the law relating to height, 
 ventilation, drainage, and so on. Moreover, the Board of 
 Health is given authority to make such other regulations as to 
 cellars as it deems necessary, subject to the Boston building 
 laws. Very few cellars, as above defined, were found occupied ; 
 and on the other hand there was frequent evidence of cellars 
 which had once been occupied having been abandoned. There 
 remain, however, some cellars and numerous basements, usu- 
 ally about on the border line of cellars as defined by the 
 statutes, which are occupied not only during the day, but also 
 for sleeping at night. 
 
 The objections to the occupancy of cellars — and I will include 
 these objections also with reference to basements — arise, I 
 suppose, from the likelihood of their being dark, ill ventilated, 
 and damp, as well as unwholesome from the ground air which 
 enters them. Basement rooms can usually be fairly well lighted 
 and ventilated, but I doubt if they can be kept suitably dry, 
 especially in made land, without a good cemented bottom. 
 Any cellar in such locality with simply the natural earth bot- 
 tom will be damp. The covering it with a floor renders the 
 dampness less perceptible, but its existence will be shown in 
 the decay of planks and in the moulding of oil-cloths and other 
 articles. It is to be borne in mind that nearly all the region 
 occupied by the buildings which we are considering is "made 
 land,” the cellar bottoms of the houses being elevated but 
 slightly, and sometimes not at all, above the level of high- 
 water. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that without 
 special precaution there will be undue dampness in such 
 cases. This would be most noticeable in winter, and might 
 
27 
 
 doubtless be shown experimentally, by suitable tests. In a 
 summer day I attempted to test the humidity with hygrome- 
 ters in a number of Still man-street houses ; but although there 
 was a considerable difference in humidity between the basement 
 and second stories, I did not consider the results obtained very 
 uniform or satisfactory. In the houses we inspected, not more 
 than thirty or forty basement rooms were specially reported as 
 occupied for sleeping, though the number occupied as kitchens 
 would be considerably greater. 
 
 It would be a desirable and perhaps warrantable thing to 
 require that the basements or cellars of all tenement houses 
 should be made water-tight by cement, concrete, or asphalt, — 
 the expense of cementing being perhaps not more than would be 
 offset by one or two months’ rents from the house, while the con- 
 struction is a permanent one, of real value to the building ; but 
 with even more propriety, I think, it might be required that 
 this should be done in buildings, the cellars or basements of 
 which can be occupied as dwellings, or especially as sleeping- 
 rooms. The use of the basements or cellars of tenement and 
 lodging houses for sleeping purposes might indeed with advan- 
 tage, it seems to me, be prohibited. The benefits would be 
 undoubted; and the number of houses affected would be so 
 small that the plan cannot be regarded as at all impracticable. 
 
 Garbage Removal. 
 
 It is required by law that tenement houses shall be kept clean 
 and free from accumulations of dirt, filth, garbage, and other 
 objectionable matter, whether within the house or in the yard 
 or alley connected with it. Such material must not be thrown 
 into the street, but must be stored in suitable receptacles, from 
 which it will be collected by the city scavengers. Garbage is 
 
28 
 
 thus removed at least twice a week in the winter months and 
 three times a week in summer. 
 
 As regards the removal of garbage, so far as could be judged 
 the work of the city scavengers is faithfully performed, and 
 such defects as were observed arose from the dirty habits of 
 tenants, many of whom do not hesitate to throw garbage, or, 
 indeed, filth of any description, at random over yards, alleys, 
 and shed roofs. As a rule, there is in the rear of each tene- 
 ment house a small yard or area, which is planked over, and is 
 reached from the street either by an alley between adjacent 
 houses, or by a covered passage-way under the building. A 
 considerable part of the yard is taken up by a shed for the stor- 
 age of wood and coal and the setting of garbage barrels, leaving 
 a clear space which varies in size, but which in the thickly 
 settled parts of the city often does not exceed one hundred 
 or two hundred square feet. Nearly always the passageways, 
 yards, and fuel sheds were found in a reasonably neat con- 
 dition, but in some forty or fifty cases, constituting not more 
 than five per cent, of those examined, the premises were badly 
 littered with garbage, and sometimes with much worse filth. 
 
 In a few cases, the worst examples of which are probably at 
 the corners of Salutation and Hanover streets, houses have been 
 built completely covering their lots, so that there is no yard 
 room whatever, and garbage has to be stored within the house 
 itself, a very offensive and objectionable thing. In each of the 
 cases to which I have special reference above, the garbage is 
 thus stored in barrels in a closet on the first floor of a house 
 occupied by a dozen or more families. In one of these cases 
 the inspector reported the garbage closet in a very foul con- 
 dition, and the stench from it strongly perceptible to the very 
 top of the house, which is of five stories. 
 
 The yards and alleys are so readily accessible from the street, 
 
29 
 
 and often are so open to general observation, that it is prac- 
 ticable for the inspectors of the Board of Health to exercise a 
 tolerably close supervision over them, and this appears to be 
 done. In a certain proportion of offending cases, the habit of 
 cleanliness can be enforced by sharp oversight and repeated 
 admonishings from the inspector ; and so far as it can be suc- 
 cessfully used this method is undoubtedly far the best. In 
 other cases, however, nothing will suffice but recoui'se to the 
 law, which seems clear and is accompanied by a heavy penalty. 
 It is unquestionable that a considerable number of the forty or 
 fifty bad cases reported are habitually bad ; and although upon 
 the appearance of a city inspector there is at least the sem- 
 blance of a prompt compliance with his directions about cleaning 
 the premises, I am of opinion that the work is, in such places as 
 the above, short-lived, and that more effective measures should 
 be employed. Similar remarks might be made regarding the 
 streets. So far as they were incidentally observed, they were 
 not often noticed to be littered or fouled with garbage thrown 
 from private premises. Certain narrow streets, however, such 
 as Stillman and Morton, were found very much littered in this 
 way ; and I have been informed that often a city gang would 
 have scarcely finished its work in these streets before the latter 
 would again be fouled by the garbage thrown from the various 
 houses. In general, though, the streets appeared to be in as 
 good condition as could be expected, considering defects of 
 construction ; and the questions connected with them have, 
 perhaps, already been sufficiently discussed in the public 
 press. 
 
 Uncleanliness within the Houses. 
 
 As regards the condition of the interior of the houses them- 
 selves, it is not to be supposed that the law to which reference 
 
30 
 
 was made a short time since contemplates a very scrupulous 
 degree of cleanliness, but only such as may fairly be regarded 
 as essential to decency and health. Just what requirements 
 are thus involved cannot be very nicely stated. Dirt is dirt, to 
 be sure, and it is not difficult to judge when a tenement or a 
 room is in a poor condition as concerns cleanliness ; but it is 
 often not so easy to decide whether that condition is sufficiently 
 poor to warrant official interference. 
 
 Many a person accustomed only to the thorough cleanliness 
 of a well-ordered home would unhesitatingly condemn the con- 
 ditions encountered in nearly all the cheaper tenement houses, 
 and would set up a standard which is at present entirely im- 
 practicable. A person is liable to receive false impressions, 
 too, in his examinations. He enters a room the walls and ceil- 
 ing of which are begrimed, as though from years of neglect ; but 
 they may have been whitened within a week, and their discolor- 
 ation be due to the smoke from burning the hoops of sugar 
 casks, and various other rubbish, which many of the people pick 
 up along the docks and elsewhere. A terrible smell per- 
 vades the room, but it may arise simply from the cooking ; 
 some of the dishes prepared by the Poles, particularly, giving out 
 most obnoxious odors. The room is untidy, and the bare floor 
 littered with scraps of food and articles of clothing ; but the 
 presence of several young children while the mother is busy 
 with washing or other work is accountable for this, and later in 
 the day the floor may be found well scrubbed or swept, and the 
 room set to rights. Now there are many such cases, in which 
 a person will be greatly repelled by what he perceives, but in 
 which the influence upon health of the conditions noted is prob- 
 ably very small. When, however, permanent accumulations 
 of rags are found littering a room, or dirt from the floor is found 
 swept into piles in corners or behind doors, or garbage stored 
 
31 
 
 away in closets or under sinks, or the paper foul and rotten on 
 the walls, a state of things has been discovered which will 
 justify interference. 
 
 From the fact that the interior of a house is not conveniently 
 open to observation, and that considerable time is required for 
 making a tour of many tenements, the inhabitants of which are 
 constantly shifting from place to place, it is plain that by no 
 practicable system of house-to-house inspection could much be 
 accomplished in the way of maintaining a general high standard 
 of cleanliness. It would be practicable, however, to take 
 account of those places deserving special oversight, and to pre- 
 vent the long-continued dwelling of a family in a state of filth. 
 
 The rating of a house as regards its cleanliness is an arbitrary 
 matter, and exact figures would be of no great value ; it may be 
 well enough, though, to say that of the houses reported upon, 
 an average of about one in seven w T ere characterized in this 
 particular as " poor ; ” of the remainder about two-fifths were 
 classed as "good,” and the rest as " fair.” 
 
 For various reasons the cellar is closely connected with the 
 general sanitary condition of a house, and in the worst tenement 
 houses the dirty and negligent habits of the inmates are very 
 apt to be displayed in the cellar, which therefore especially de- 
 serves inspection. In some twenty-five or thirty of the houses 
 examined, the cellars were found badly littered with garbage, 
 occasionally by a dead animal, and in at least half the number 
 by human excrement. 
 
 Water-Closets and Privies. 
 
 The condition of water-closets and privies, as observed dur- 
 ing this examination, was, in a considerable proportion of cases, 
 extremely objectionable. The problem of the removal of house 
 wastes has its greatest importance in connection with the dis- 
 
32 
 
 posal of the dejections from the human body, which afford the 
 most dangerous possible medium for the spread of numerous 
 infectious diseases, and which, aside from that, may easily 
 become a disgusting and unbearable offence. It is a cardinal 
 sanitary principle that animal and vegetable matter of any kind 
 in a state favoring decomposition should be promptly removed 
 from the vicinity of dwellings, certainly within a day or two, 
 and as much sooner as is possible. It is only in compara- 
 tively recent years, however, that the general introduction of 
 running water within the houses, supplemented by a system of 
 sewers constituting the so-called water-carriage method of sew- 
 age removal, has rendered a prompt conveyance from the prem- 
 ises of urine and faeces really practicable ; and even now it is 
 only gradually and imperfectly that a proper standard is 
 approached. The general custom in the past, and the one even 
 now in use in considerable portions of this and all the other large 
 cities, has been to store fecal matter in privy-vaults or cesspools. 
 
 Dr. O. C. DeWolf, Commissioner of Health of Chicago, in 
 his report of May, 1887, estimates that fully one- third the entire 
 population of that city is yet dependent upon privy-vaults. 
 
 In Boston several different constructions of vault are to be 
 found. The oldest and simplest type has the sides and bottom 
 faced with planks, and has no outlet save through the top. 
 Wooden vaults are now illegal, however, under all circum- 
 stances, and have generally been replaced by other construc- 
 tions, although more or less of them appear to be still in 
 existence. By a city ordinance of 1872 it was required that 
 henceforth privy-vaults should be constructed of brick and 
 cement. The brick vaults appear to have been usually built 
 tight, or, if connected by a drain with the street sewer, to have 
 become in time practically tight through the stoppage of the 
 imperfectly flushed outlets. 
 
33 
 
 These different forms have thus effected a storage, ranging in 
 duration from a few months to perhaps two or three years, 
 according to circumstances, of fecal matters supplied, some- 
 times, by fifty or one hundred people to a single vault. The 
 evil results inseparable from such a practice, aside from the 
 mere offence occasioned in the way of bad odors, have led to a 
 demand for the abandonment of the use of privies and cess- 
 pools ; and by a State act of 1885 they were directed to be 
 supplanted, at the discretion of the city Board of Health, by 
 water-closets, upon all streets having sewers. In accordance 
 with this act the abolishment of privies has been steadily car- 
 ried on, and in the two and one-half years since the passage of 
 the act down to the close of 1887, about 3,400 privies had 
 been removed. This work seems to have been most vigorously 
 prosecuted in Wards 8 (West End) and 13 (South Boston), 
 in each of which there have been more removals than in the two 
 North End Wards 6 and 7 together. 
 
 The practice of the Board of Health has been, I believe, to 
 abolish privy-vaults whenever well-founded complaint has been 
 received, either through the inspectors of the Board or from 
 other sources, that a vault was offensive. In spite of the large 
 number of vaults already done away with, of the nine hundred 
 houses inspected under my direction fully a quarter were still 
 dependent upon this dangerous system. 
 
 Although the policy has been pursued of doing away with 
 privy-vaults, the Board of Health has thought best to allow, in 
 certain cases, as in connection with large tenement houses of a 
 low grade, the use of an improved construction known as a 
 flush-vault. It is a cemented brick vault, with an outlet at the 
 
 Vaults abolished in certain wards, 1885-87 : — 
 
 Ward 6 . . . 84 I Ward 8 . . . 334 | Ward 12 . 114 
 
 Ward 7 . . . 112 | Ward 9 . . 158 | Ward 13 132 
 
34 
 
 bottom, connecting by means of a tile drain with the street 
 sewer. A short iron pipe, with a flange at the bottom, a half 
 turn at the top, and a handle reaching up nearly to the floor of 
 the privy apartment, serves at once as a removable plug to 
 close the orifice at the bottom of the vault, and as an overflow 
 after the vault becomes filled to a certain level. These flush- 
 vaults receive a supply of water variously from sinks, from 
 roofs, and in some cases from special service-pipes. By raising 
 the plug the contents of the vault are permitted to run rapidly 
 out to the street sewer. 
 
 These vaults have an advantage over the old ones which they 
 displace, only in so far as they offer opportunity for frequent 
 and thorough flushing, and it is evident that their value must, 
 therefore, be dependent upon the fidelity with which that is 
 done. It is assumed that they will be flushed every two or 
 three days, but in many cases they are not flushed with any 
 such frequency, and some were observed which had not been 
 emptied for a very long time, and which were in as unsatis- 
 factory a condition as any ordinary privy-vault. The 
 complaint was made regarding some which are mainly depend- 
 ent on rain-water for a flushing supply, that they are liable to 
 be deprived of this for a long time in summer droughts, and 
 that when the rain does come it stirs up the contents of the 
 vault so that a doubly offensive smell is given off. Yet, in 
 spite of its defects, this construction probably offers, in certain 
 cases, the best solution of a difficult problem. 
 
 Although privy vaults and cesspools are objectionable, it 
 must not be assumed that, when they have been replaced by 
 water-closets, the question of the removal of the most dangerous 
 form of house sewage has been satisfactorily settled. Water- 
 closets are a good contrivance when kept clean and inoffensive ; 
 in other words, when properly flushed and decently used. 
 
35 
 
 But both of these essential conditions are dependent upon the 
 habits of the people who use the closets, and among the popu- 
 lation with which we have to deal there are many whose habits 
 are of the most careless and filthy nature. 
 
 It is plainly important then, that, as regards construction, the 
 closet used in tenement houses should be of the simplest pos- 
 sible form, with a smooth and durable inner surface, and a 
 thoroughly efficient flush. There is nothing in such require- 
 ments involving unreasonable expense, but it is almost unneces- 
 sary to say that we do not find them generally met in the 
 houses we inspect. Many of the closets have bowls of iron 
 coated with enamel, or at least the iron was once so coated; 
 but the enamel has generally scaled off, and the iron surface 
 remains in such a rough, corroded, and foul condition that 
 really thorough cleansing is impossible. 
 
 Even if cleansing were possible, the arrangement for flush- 
 ing is usually inadequate. Of some 350 water-closets whose 
 mode of flushing was especially reported, about 60 per cent, 
 were flushed by direct connection with service-pipe. In most 
 such cases the force of the flushing stream is small and poorly 
 directed. Furthermore, there is a possible danger, not com- 
 monly considered, of an occasional contamination of the water 
 in the service-pipes if the flush-valve happens to be left open 
 at a time when the supply of water is for any reason tem- 
 porarily shut off. 
 
 A dozen water-closets were reported, half of them in tene- 
 ment houses as legally defined, whose only contrivance for 
 flushing consisted of untrapped w r aste-pipes from sinks, and 
 half a dozen more which were flushed only by trapped waste- 
 pipes. All these closets were naturally found very foul, 
 and it is hard to conceive of any more miserable arrangement 
 than that mentioned, the only excuses for which are that some 
 
36 
 
 expense is saved in construction, and that the annual water-rate 
 for a closet supply is avoided. Thirty closets were returned 
 as out of order, a few on account of the outlet having become 
 clogged, but most because some part of the flushing apparatus 
 had been broken. 
 
 A much more glaring evil, however, and one of probably 
 much more consequence than most of the defects that have been 
 mentioned, is found in the filthy condition of the seats and 
 apartments of many of the privies and water-closets. Of 
 about six hundred water-closets that were reported upon, nearly 
 one hundred were declared to be in a filthy condition ; and by 
 this was meant, not simply that the closet bowls were dirty, 
 but that the seat and apartment were so fouled that they could 
 not be decently used. Some of these places were in a most 
 abominable state. No cleanly person could be induced to go 
 near them. Indeed, the tenants themselves do not go nearer 
 than absolutely necessary. Faeces and urine are temporarily 
 stored in the living-rooms in vessels and buckets, and at con- 
 venient opportunity these are taken to be emptied. The door 
 of the water-closet apartment having been opened, the contents 
 of the bucket are given a throw toward the bowl, w T hich thus 
 serves simply as a slop-hopper, while the whole place is 
 befouled in the most disgusting way. 
 
 The fault lies directly, of course, with the people who have the 
 use of the closet or privy. Not all of these are equally to be 
 blamed, though, for sometimes the filthiness of a single family 
 offsets the cleanly habits of all the rest of the house. Often it is 
 the case that water-closet or privy apartments in tenement houses 
 are not properly protected by lock and key, but are accessible to 
 the drunken loafers froixi neighboring saloons and the streets. 
 An indirect cause also for the conditions that have been mentioned 
 lies in the improper location of many of the water-closets, which 
 
are in dark corners .or inner closets in cellar or basement, 
 where nothing can be seen except by artificial light, and where 
 also no suitable means of ventilation exist. Light is absolutely 
 essential to cleanliness in such places, and should be secured in 
 every possible case. 
 
 Frequently it will be found that tenement houses are not pro- 
 vided with a suitable number of water-closets or privies for the 
 convenience of their many occupants. The proper number to 
 be required is a matter of judgment, but the minimum limit has 
 frequently been placed at about one for every twenty persons. 
 The present New York law regarding tenement and lodging 
 houses requires them to be provided with as many water- 
 closets as the Board of Health shall specify ; but the number 
 is, in any case, to be not less than one for every fifteen 
 occupants in lodging houses and not less than one for every 
 two families in dwelling houses. The Statute Law of 1871 
 required that in Boston the number of closets should be not 
 less than one for every twenty occupants of a tenement or 
 lodging house. The law of 1885 places the decision of the 
 proper and requisite number of closets with the Board of Health, 
 but now makes the curious exception that the board shall not 
 require more than one for every twenty persons. This ap- 
 pears to be grantinga pretty wide discretion outside of the limits 
 within which it is needed. 
 
 In an Italian tenement house at No. — Friend street, a 
 filthy little room with no ventilation or lighting worthy the name, 
 the seats and apartment in a vile state, was found to provide 
 two water-closet bowls for between sixty and seventy occupants 
 of the house. 
 
 At No. — Anderson street is a little court. Here a single 
 water-closet in a small shed, the bowl full and in an abominable 
 condition, was the only accommodation in this line for eight or 
 
38 
 
 ten families of colored people, besides the hands in a stable and 
 a couple of little shops. 
 
 It is to be observed that the law doing away with privies 
 allows their continuance upon streets not having sewers. There 
 are many little courts, alleys, and so-called avenues which ap- 
 pear to come under this exception, made presumably for the 
 purpose of sparing the expense of long branch sewers or drains. 
 As a rule, I think the removal of privies from these localities is 
 more essential than from almost any other situation, and it is 
 unfortunate that excuse should be found for excepting them. 
 The houses will certainly have to be drained at some time, and 
 it would appear as though but moderate expense would be in- 
 volved in conveying away water-closet drainage in small drains 
 placed at shallow depth and running to the nearest public 
 sewer. 
 
 Drainage of the Houses. 
 
 A great part of the drainage system of most houses is so in- 
 accessible that it is difficult to learn much regarding its con- 
 struction. Soil and waste pipes are concealed in walls, and 
 drains are often out of sight under cellar-bottoms, and in order 
 to reach them liberties must be taken which would hardly be 
 warranted in a private inspection. A lack of tightness, even 
 when joints are concealed, may often be discovered by testing 
 with peppermint, and this test was frequently, but not regularly, 
 applied. 
 
 It is evident that, under the requirements of the Board of 
 Health and the Inspector of Buildings, the drainage of the tene- 
 ment houses has much improved from the condition that must 
 have existed perhaps no more than ten years ago. The number 
 of well-constructed iron drains is much larger than would be 
 
39 
 
 supposed, and occasionally we find tenement houses with an 
 admirable system of pipes and fixtures throughout. In portions 
 of the 8th ward, on Nashua street, for example, where within a 
 couple of years many privies have been abolished, I frequently 
 found the latter replaced by water-closets of good type, thor- 
 oughly flushed and ventilated, and in every way satisfactory. 
 In spite of all that has been done, however, a surprising number 
 of defects of great variety are encountered. These are such as 
 might naturally be supposed to exist in the absence of complete 
 and systematic inspection, and are variously due to the survival 
 of antiquated and inferior work, which has fallen out of repair, 
 and the design of which is not in accordance with present stand- 
 ards ; to cheap and poor construction of more recent date ; and 
 to the negligence and ignorance of tenants and landlords. 
 Occasionally a drain-trap was found with the clean-out cap re- 
 moved and lost, so that sewer air had free access to the house ; 
 or an old pipe, with sewer connection, cut off, but left open ; 
 sink-drainage carried through cellars in open and sometimes 
 dilapidated and leaky wooden troughs ; old wooden box-drains 
 running just under the cellar-bottom, sometimes clogged, again 
 free, but uncovered and rotted away so that the current within 
 was open to view ; pipes imperfectly joined, or with soft and 
 destructible material, or even with one pipe merely thrust into 
 the open end of the other. All these and other defects were 
 repeatedly observed. 
 
 The drainage system of the poorer tenement houses is not 
 elaborate. A vertical main pipe, starting at the upper fix- 
 ture, receives the branches from the sinks and water closet or 
 closets, and, on reaching the cellar, runs nearly horizontally as 
 the house drain, passing on to the street sewer. Scarcely one 
 in five hundred of these houses contains a bath-tub or wash- 
 bowl, or any other variety of fixtures than those mentioned. 
 
40 
 
 Some, indeed, contain no running water, and no plumbing- fix- 
 tures of any description ; but they are quite exceptional. 
 
 One evil which is very common, and which seems to me a 
 serious one, is the omission to supply the waste-pipes of sinks 
 with traps. Of more than 2,000 sinks which were examined 
 by my inspectors, 60 per cent, were found to be not individ- 
 ually trapped. Of these, only 1,000 w T ere in tenement houses as 
 defined by law, and yet precisely the same percentage of this 
 number proved to be without traps. It was frequently noticed 
 that although, upon examining sinks, no traps were to be 
 seen, yet the tenants claimed that their sinks were trapped, 
 and that they had been so informed by city inspectors. In 
 such cases it would be discovered that there was a trap upon 
 the main drain, often directly at the foot of the vertical main 
 waste-pipe, that being the only trap upon the entire waste- 
 pipe system. Such an arrangement does, it is true, serve 
 to disconnect the house pipes from the public sewer ; but 
 it does not serve to disconnect the different floors and tene- 
 ments from each other. If nothing but clean water were 
 poured down the sink waste-pipes, the plan might answer 
 well enough. Bqt, unfortunately, that is not the case. Even 
 with decent use of a sink a great deal of animal and vegetable 
 matter is carried along in the waste water, which coats and 
 fouls the pipes. But, far worse than this, the sinks are liable 
 to be used, and frequently are used, by a low class of tenants, 
 as a means of getting rid of chamber-slops. The practice 
 happened in two or three instances to be actually observed by 
 my assistants, was acknowledged in others, and in numerous 
 others was the subject of bitter complaint from tenants. All 
 the sinks in a house, and especially those below the offending 
 tenants, are liable thus to be rendered offensive at times. 
 Repeatedly I have happened to be in kitchens when waste 
 
41 
 
 water, doubtless chamber-slops, was sent down the main waste- 
 pipe from some sink above, and the odor that was forced out 
 into the room was unmistakable in character, and was most 
 sickening. I noticed frequently that tenants had placed wet 
 cloths, pans, saucers, or other rude contrivances over the sink- 
 strainers in an attempt to keep back the vile stench. 
 
 I do not find any law or ordinance directly bearing upon this 
 matter of traps upon sinks, except that in a section of the City 
 Ordinances for the Regulation of Plumbing, such traps are re- 
 quired for work performed after March, 1883. I am aware, 
 however, that the Board of Health assumes to require the plac- 
 ing of traps upon such sinks as are complained of and decided 
 to be offensive. An excuse has been given for the construction 
 that has been described, that, in many cases, it is better not to 
 have traps for the sinks, inasmuch as tenants sometimes sift 
 ashes into the latter, and the traps become clogged ; but I do 
 not feel that very much weight should be given to that con- 
 sideration. It seems to me very unsafe to allow an open 
 connection through waste-pipes between different tenements, 
 and desirable indeed that every waste-pipe should have a trap 
 closely beneath its fixture. I am confident that the practice 
 of allowing a single trap on a main pipe to answer for the whole 
 system of the house cannot be successfully defended, and ought 
 to be abolished. 
 
 Further, if the practice is permitted, then the most wretched 
 plumbing-work may consistently be allowed for all the drainage 
 system above the main trap. If there is to be a free outlet for 
 foul air through every sink, of what consequence is it whether 
 the pipes are made tight anywhere, beyond what is necessary 
 to prevent the leakage of water? In between forty and fifty 
 cases we found the sink waste-pipes simply stuck in to the open 
 end or branch of the larger main pipe, without any pretence of 
 
42 
 
 a tight connection. In fact, it was amusing to notice that in 
 several cases sink- wastes had been provided with good traps, 
 and then, beyond these, was the open connection, rendering the 
 trap itself entirely valueless. 
 
 The specified requirements of the law of 1871, regarding the 
 cleanliness of tenement and lodging houses, together with the 
 general powers belonging to the Board of Health, apparently 
 furnish sufficient authority for coping with some of the grosser* 
 evils noticed in connection with the drainage system of tene- 
 ment and lodging houses, such as a filthy condition of fixtures, 
 or defects of drainage of such importance as to give rise to un- 
 doubted nuisances. But, in order that the whole problem may 
 be satisfactorily dealt with, I am of opinion that the Board of 
 Health should have power concerning the entire house drainage 
 system proper, and the connecting fixtures, to establish such 
 detailed regulations, and to exercise such discretion as it may 
 deem wise, whether it be as to material, or arrangement, or con- 
 struction, or any other particular. A successful grappling with 
 this question demands attention to details which it is useless to 
 attempt to comprise in specific laws of universal application, 
 but which should be left to the judgment of proper and compe- 
 tent authorities. 
 
 Abstracts of Inspectors’ Reports. 
 
 The following brief abstracts from inspectors’ reports will 
 serve to illustrate some of the various conditions wffiich were 
 encountered in our examinations : — 
 
 Ward 6. No. — North street. Nine families, mainly Ita- 
 lians, with numerous lodgers. Altogether, some sixty persons, 
 for whom there is but a single water-closet ; this is in the cellar, 
 inconvenient for the tenants, but accessible to street loafers, 
 
43 
 
 and was found out of repair and very filthy. Hallway and cellar 
 stairs also filthy. Nearly all sleeping-rooms in the house badly 
 overcrowded. 
 
 Ward 6. No. — Salutation street. Broken drain in cellar, 
 ’ and pool of sewage, which was stated to have been standing as 
 found for two months, causing smell which was noticeable to 
 the top of the house. 
 
 Ward 6. No. — Salutation street. Cellar very damp ; 
 planking rotten and mildewed. Water-closet in cellar filthy, 
 and so offensive that tenants on floor above could not use cham- 
 ber which was directly over the closet, but the whole family of 
 six persons slept in their only remaining chamber. Sinks on 
 four floors, none of them trapped, and those on the three lower 
 floors frequently rendered offensive by the pouring of foul slops 
 into the upper sink. 
 
 Ward 6. No. — North street. Cellar used by Italians for 
 storage of fruit, fish,, cheese, etc. In this cellar a hole had 
 been roughly broken into the iron drain, so that into this hole, 
 which gave free exit for drain air into the cellar, might be 
 thrust the end of a drip-pipe from the bar of a neighboring 
 saloon. 
 
 Ward 6. No. — Commercial street. Rear cellar, dark and 
 unventilated, flooded with sewage, which had overflowed at a bad 
 break in the drain. The drain, which was of earthenware, was 
 leaky at other points also. Tenants had noticed stench from 
 cellar, and condition was judged to have been for months as 
 described. 
 
 Ward 7. No. — South Margin street. Three tenements. 
 Family of three adults and five children sleeping in one room. 
 House in poor repair from top to bottom ; ceilings discolored, 
 plaster falling, windows broken, stairs rickety, and so on. 
 
 Ward 7. No. — Endicott street. House occupied by nine 
 
44 
 
 families. Nearly all the sleeping-rooms overcrowded ; in one 
 tenement six persons sleeping on the kitchen floor. Sinks 
 trapped, but the plumbing-work poor and leaky, and some of 
 the sinks very foul and offensive to the smell. Halls dark and 
 unventilated. Cellar damp from leakage of water through 
 walls and from defective drainage-pipes. As many as ten 
 drunken men at a time said to have been seen asleep in this 
 cellar ; one corner of the cellar covered with fecal matter. Said 
 to have been much sickness in the house. 
 
 Ward 8. No. — Porcelain place. Said to have been three 
 cases of diphtheria and two of scarlet fever in the house within 
 a year. Drainage defective. Brick cesspool-trap in cellar, 
 with some of the bricks fallen out so that the sewage could be 
 plainly seen and smelled. 
 
 Ward 8. No. — Nashua street. Flush vault (poorly cared 
 for) built directly against ell, and directly under and within a 
 few feet of sleeping- room windows. Plumbing-work in house 
 very poor, and sinks not trapped. 
 
 Ward 8. No. — Cushman avenue. Water-closet bowl in 
 cellar broken away from trap, and in consequence matter dis- 
 charged mainly upon the cellar-bottom, which was very filthy. 
 
 Ward 9. No. — Bridge court. Occupied by Italians. On 
 second floor, a man, wife, her three brothers and three children 
 occupy three rooms. A man, wife, and two children have two 
 rooms. On the third floor a family comprising three men, 
 a woman, and two children has a kitchen and two bedrooms. 
 In the attic a man, wife, and baby occupy two rooms. 
 
 Ward 12. Quiet alley. Four houses inspected, in which a 
 considerable proportion of the inmates were found drunk. Two 
 privy apartments served for some eighteen families, and were in 
 the vilest possible condition ; the vault of one ■was full and over- 
 flowing on to the floor. Most of the sleeping-rooms small, 
 
‘3S Tmou&^Lcriuoo — oj\T ‘ 
 
L/&Z&M p&JpDOS' 'punouf) 
 
-street Place (Quiet Alley), Boston. Arranged 
 for Five Families on a Floor. 
 
 Streec _ _ 
 

 
 II yoy 
 
 ilWVCRSI? , o/jLlfvqf<5 ( 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
45 
 
 overcrowded, and without windows to the outer air. Plumbing 
 of the poorest description, and sinks not trapped ; some of 
 the sink outlets had become stopped up, and waste water was 
 thrown out of windows on to a shed roof, which was also littered 
 with garbage. 
 
 Ward 12. No. — Cove street. Six families. First-floor 
 rooms very dirty. Sleeping-room of 5x6x8 feet, nearly 
 filled by the bed, and with no ventilation except by the door, 
 used by lodgers. This and another room of the same description 
 opened in common into the kitchen. Eight persons sleeping in 
 three small connecting rooms on the fourth floor, the three 
 rooms together equivalent to one fair-sized room. 
 
 Ward 13. No. — Bolton street. Six families. Only one sleep- 
 ing-room afforded its occupants more than two hundred cubic 
 feet of space to a person. Four sinks in the house, none of them 
 trapped. Vertical main waste-pipe of iron, with trap at its foot 
 in the cellar, but clean-out cap gone from the trap ; sewer end 
 of trap thrust into open length of pipe, and this in turn into 
 wooden drain so rotted away that sewage within was plainly 
 exposed to view. Same conditions found in the cellar of the 
 adjoining house. Cellar fouled with excreta. 
 
 Ward 13. No. — C street. Bain-leader broken in cellar, 
 and latter flooded after storms. Sink trapped, but trap rendered 
 of no value by having sewer end merely thrust into open branch 
 of main waste-pipe. 
 
 Ward 13. No. — Colony street. Two persons sleeping in 
 small room in cellar, dark and practically unventilated. 
 
 Statistics of Disease. 
 
 In connection with an attempt to improve, through the pre- 
 liminary means of an investigation, the sanitary condition of the 
 tenement-house districts, it is certainly well to look into the 
 
46 
 
 real facts of the case as to the prevalence of certain diseases. 
 Unfortunately, so far as published statistics are concerned, we 
 cannot identify the tenement-house districts, but must in the 
 main draw our own inferences from data presented for the city 
 as a whole. It would be of great advantage on many accounts 
 if here, as in London, England, the city were divided in the 
 matter of statistics into certain suitably outlined sanitary dis- 
 tricts of like distinguishing features. 
 
 The zymotic diseases are the ones commonly spoken of as 
 preventable ; and those chiefly prevailing in Boston of late years 
 have been the group of diarrhoeal diseases of which cholera 
 infantum is the most prominent, diphtheria and croup, typhoid 
 fever, and scarlet fever. These together have been accountable 
 in the past ten years for four-fifths of all the deaths due to 
 zymotic diseases. 1 
 
 It is to be remembered that the statistics of disease commonly 
 published deal with deaths only, and give no information as to 
 the cases of sickness not fatal, although these greatly outnum- 
 ber the former, and should be taken into account in forming an 
 opinion upon the prevalence of disease. For the three common 
 diseases, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever, we have, 
 however, data for the city of Boston which show for the five 
 years, 1883-87, a total of 3,505 deaths, while the reported cases 
 numbered 18,780, or more than five times as many. That the 
 cases of sickness which are not often publicly reported, and 
 which involve an immense loss of labor, great direct expense, 
 
 1 10 years, 1878-87 : — 
 
 Total deaths, all causes 89,897 
 
 Total deaths, zyraotics 21,280 
 
 Diarrhoeal diseases 8,452 
 
 Diphtheria and croup 5,652 
 
 Typhoid fever 1,696 
 
 Scarlet fever 1,212 
 
47 
 
 and untold misery, so largely outnumber the deaths, is a fact 
 important to consider if we are to appreciate the evil of allow- 
 ing preventable diseases to go unchecked. 
 
 The zymotic diseases are termed preventable because so 
 largely dependent upon conditions within control. Consump- 
 tion is not classed as preventable, and yet we must not lose 
 sight of the fact that this disease, which in the past five years, 
 for example, has carried off in this city very nearly three-quar- 
 ters as many persons as all the zymotic diseases together, is 
 largely promoted by dampness and by foul air, — the latter so 
 characteristic of densely crowded tenement houses, — and has 
 even been found, in certain famous experiments, to be infec- 
 tious, and hence capable of transmission from one person to 
 another, just as diphtheria and scarlet fever may be thus 
 transmitted ; in other words, that it is, to a greater or less ex- 
 tent, a preventable disease. 
 
 A short examination of published returns shows what is, I 
 think, understood by most persons, — that it is yery young chil- 
 dren who suffer most from the preventable diseases. Looking 
 at the figures for the past three years only, we find that of the 
 total mortality from such diseases, very nearly two-thirds was of 
 children under five years of age and yet children of that age 
 constitute scarcely one-tenth of the total population of Boston. 
 
 1 Mortality in Boston, 1885-87. 
 
 Under 5 years. 
 
 Total deaths. 
 
 Zymotics. 
 
 Sundry causes. 
 
 1885 
 
 3,466 
 
 1,201 
 
 2,265 
 
 1886 
 
 3,186 
 
 1,079 
 
 2,107 
 
 1887 
 
 3,662 
 
 1,328 
 
 2,334 
 
 
 10,314 
 
 3,608 
 
 6,706 
 
 All ages. 
 
 
 
 
 1885 
 
 9,618 
 
 1,879 
 
 7,739 
 
 1886 
 
 9,268 
 
 1,644 
 
 7,624 
 
 1887 
 
 10,073 
 
 1,993 
 
 8,080 
 
 
 28,959 
 
 5,516 
 
 23,443 
 
48 
 
 A study of the Board-of-Health returns for the past seventeen 
 years shows the total death-rate of the city — that is to say, the 
 annual number of deaths, from all causes, per thousand of pop- 
 ulation — to have ranged as high as .above 30, and as low as be- 
 tween 20 and 21 ; and yet, on the whole, no material, perma- 
 nent change is apparent, for either better or worse ; and the 
 rate clings to figures comparing unfavorably with those for 
 numerous of the largest American cities. 
 
 If now we look to see what proportion of the total deaths 
 has been due to zymotic diseases, we shall find that in a series 
 of years it has ranged as high as about 35 per cent., and as low 
 as somewhat under 18 per cent. It is more important to know 
 that the higher rate was reached far back in 1872, and that 
 since that time there has been an irregular, but on the whole a 
 marked and well-maintained, decline. It is still further inter- 
 esting to notice that while for the seven years, 1877-83, this 
 decline in the zymotic rate appeared to have come substantially 
 to a standstill, yet in 1884, which was the first year in the use 
 of the Improved Sewerage System, the decline began afresh, 
 and in the three years, 1884-86, there was a uniform and re- 
 markable decline from 26.2 to 17.7 per cent, in the proportion 
 of deaths from zymotic diseases. 
 
 Conditions Essential to Improvement. 
 
 It is evident, then, that there has been made in this city a 
 very encouraging advance in the prevention of a certain class 
 of diseases ; and this advance may fairly be ascribed to the im- 
 proved sanitary conditions which have been established mainly 
 through public action. There is no good reason why the ad- 
 vance which has been noted should not be pushed much farther 
 yet. It is not to be expected, however, that an improvement 
 
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 - ro n 
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 8 g 
 
 ru ro ro 
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 po ro 
 
 >1 CD 
 
 w U u 
 
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 CO 
 
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 CO CO Co 
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per cent 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 UNiv£Rsii. of Illinois, 
 
 
 
 
49 
 
 of this sort is to go forward constantly with great speed or 
 without occasional set-backs. Injurious methods of tenement- 
 house life, and defective systems for disposing of the danger- 
 ous wastes of a great city, which have existed for many years, 
 cannot be overturned in a day. Certain things seem essential 
 to our proper protection against the preventable or filth dis- 
 eases. We must have the strict enforcement of reasonable san- 
 itary precautions within and about the houses. We must have 
 a well-designed, well-constructed, and well-maintained system 
 of branch and main sewers, reenforced by an efficient system 
 for the collection and removal of solid filth, garbage, and wastes 
 from the streets and private premises, — these two systems to- 
 gether serving to cleanse the city of foul waste matter. And, 
 finally, there must be a suitable disposal of the wastes col- 
 lected. 
 
 At the present time all these conditions are fulfilled in part. 
 The houses and premises of the citizens are expected to meet 
 certain requirements, and are subject to supervision to some 
 extent ; but, as I have attempted to show elsewhere, this super- 
 vision is not sufficiently systematic or complete. We have a 
 new and valuable system of main sewers for a part of the city, 
 and connected with them a large proportion of good branch 
 sewers ; and yet there are very many branch sewers, especially 
 in the tenement-house part of the city, which are unfit for their 
 purpose. For the removal of solid filth collected above ground 
 a system is employed which, while not perfect, ranks very high 
 as compared with the methods in use in most large cities. 
 And, finally, by the introduction of the Improved Sewerage Sys- 
 tem, the dangerous method of finally disposing of the sewage 
 of the city formerly in use has been supplanted by one that is 
 convenient and safe. 
 
 Each of' the agencies which has been mentioned for maintain- 
 
50 
 
 ing a good sanitary condition within the city is important, but 
 it seems to me that at the present time none offers greater 
 opportunity for advance than a close attention to the immediate 
 surroundings and the interior of the houses themselves. There 
 are few streets that are so likely to become dangerously littered 
 or saturated with filth as are many of the yards and alleys, 
 unless these are looked after sharply ; and although a sewer may 
 become foul, yet it is mainly through faults lying within the 
 house, in its drainage system, that the foul sewer air comes 
 into dangerous proximity to human beings. Moreover, even if 
 everything be right with streets, sewers, yards, and alleys, there 
 are many objectionable and unsafe conditions which may exist 
 for a long time within a house, unless some one be held respon- 
 sible for their discovery and remedy. 
 
 The pipes of the house-drainage system become coated, and 
 often give rise to just as foul emanations as come from a sewer ; 
 and when, as in many tenement houses, there is unbroken com- 
 munication, through the waste-pipes, between different tene- 
 ments, there is an opportunity for the interchange of infection 
 similar to that afforded by unbroken connection between house 
 and sewer. 
 
 Then, too, through the surprising negligence and callousness 
 of certain grades of tenants, what most people would consider 
 intolerable nuisances are permitted to exist indefinitely. As 
 examples of these, my inspectors reported : a dead cat found on a 
 front-stair landing, appearing to have been there a long time ; 
 a dead cat in a cellar, the carcass having nearly rotted away ; a 
 bushel of decayed tomatoes in a cellar ; a pail of garbage far 
 gone in decay, found under a sink ; apparently the same pail of 
 garbage there nearly three months afterwards, the pail drop- 
 ping to pieces. It is true that- under any practicable system of 
 house inspection more or less such instances as these would be 
 
51 
 
 ^encountered ; nevertheless, I am confident that the total number 
 of defects, especially those of a somewhat permanent character, 
 would be greatly reduced. 
 
 In his report for 1885, the Commissioner of Health of Chi- 
 cago, in which city a comprehensive system of tenement-house 
 and factory inspection is in operation, says, " The character and 
 importance of this work as the basis for a sound and permanent 
 sanitary advance, and its performance, imperfect as it still is, 
 has been so largely instrumental in steadily decreasing our 
 death-rate, . . . that I propose to review at length the facts 
 presented by the Registrar of Vital Statistics, and to point out 
 the results which I believe may be justly attributed to this 
 intimate sanitary supervision of the homes and places of labor 
 of our citizens.” 
 
 In New York city the law in force at the present time re- 
 quires that the Board of Health shall cause a careful inspection 
 to be made of every tenement and lodging house at least twice 
 in each year ; and in case of an order having been issued, there 
 is to be a reinspection within six Tveeks after the receipt of 
 information that the order has been obeyed. It may fairly be 
 inferred from the result of our labors, and I have endeavored 
 to make it so appear in this report, that regular public inspec- 
 tion of at least the lower grade of tenement and lodging houses 
 in this city also is desirable, and is, indeed, essential to much 
 further improvement in the sanitary condition here. 
 
 Work of the Board of Health. 
 
 This labor would naturally fall to the Board of Health to 
 perform ; and it may be well at this point to consider briefly 
 the work of that body. The Board consists of three members, 
 appointed by the Mayor, and charged by law with the general 
 
52 
 
 oversight of the public health, and with the enforcement of 
 various statutes and ordinances designed for its preservation. 
 To it come from citizens great numbers of complaints of defec- 
 tive sanitary conditions in the premises in which they live, or 
 in the premises of their neighbors. To all these complaints — 
 many of them trivial, and some malicious — attention must be 
 given. For that purpose, and for carrying on the general work 
 of the department, a force of inspectors — fifteen, I believe, 
 in number — is employed. These are men of middle age; and 
 as this department of city enterprise appears to be largely 
 an exception to the usual interference of politics in city work, 
 the inspectors have had opportunity by long experience to 
 become thoroughly familiar with their duties, and with the 
 sections of the city in which they labor. Not only are many 
 formal written complaints, such as I have alluded to, received 
 every day, but many others are made verbally to the inspec- 
 tors as they patrol their districts ; and, still further, these men 
 are expected to employ their time in following up cases already 
 on hand, and in maintaining a general supervision of their 
 districts. The value of the labors thus performed cannot be 
 doubted, and should be highly estimated. I was struck at once 
 and throughout our own work with the general confidence and 
 respect manifested by the people toward the Board-of-Health 
 inspectors, — feelings which could have been aroused only by 
 just and reasonable treatment. Incidentally, a great deal 
 of house inspection is done by these men in the regular course 
 of their work, and from time to time inspections of certain 
 blocks or limited districts are, for special purposes, ordered by 
 the Board. 
 
 It appears to be impracticable, however, for the present force 
 of inspectors, in addition to their other duties, to attempt any 
 systematic and thorough work of this character on a large 
 
53 
 
 scale. As a rule, each inspector has in his charge two wards. 
 Thus, one man has Wards 6 and 7, another, 8 and 9, and so on ; 
 and while one inspector is away on his annual vacation, his 
 neighbor may have all four wards in hand. The inspector for 
 Wards 6 and 7 has under his care a population of 30,000 or 
 more of the most difficult people of the city to manage ; the 
 inspector for Wards 8 and 9 has, say, 25,000; and at times 
 either one may have on his hands the demands of a population 
 of over 50,000 persons. It is not to be expected that with so 
 small a force proper care can be taken of the sanitary condition 
 of such a population, living in the oldest and poorest houses, 
 in the most crowded and worst-drained parts of the city. I am 
 strongly of the belief, therefore, that the inspecting force of 
 the Board of Health should be augmented for the express 
 purpose of making semi-annual inspections of all tenement and 
 lodging houses. This would involve a somewhat increased 
 appropriation ; but I can think of no way in which a moderate 
 expenditure of money is likely to result in more general or 
 genuine practical benefit to the community. 
 
 It will be readily understood that the position occupied by 
 the Board of Health is a difficult one. It is exposed upon the 
 one hand to the friendly but sometimes impatient criticism of 
 those anxious to see improvements effected, the practical diffi- 
 culties of which are not realized ; and on the other hand to the 
 bitter opposition of those who conceive their financial interests 
 or personal rights to be invaded by its acts. The Board is, 
 undoubtedly, sensitive to public opinion. It may and should 
 occupy ground somewhat in the lead of that powerful force, but 
 it cannot successfully work very far in advance. Not only, 
 then, does it need men and money sufficient for its purposes, 
 but it requires fully as much the cooperation and the moral 
 support of the citizens ; and, further, the laws, which are the 
 
54 
 
 embodiment of enlightened public sentiment, should be such 
 as to permit of reasonably prompt, effective, and thorough 
 work. 
 
 The Tenement-House Problem in New York. 
 
 The laws at present in force here are very valuable, and 
 together with the common law, as interpreted by the courts, 
 furnish the Board of Health with wide power. To some of the 
 statute laws I have, in the course of this report, made reference, 
 and suggestions have also been advanced of certain other pro- 
 visions that might be made to advantage. Changes or additions 
 of details can best be proposed by the Board itself, which, from 
 experience, is in a position to see their need. More general 
 provisions, and those involving important principles, may 
 properly be proposed and discussed by others. The laws hold- 
 ing in New York and Boston relative to tenement and lodging 
 houses are in numerous respects similar, and in some are iden- 
 tical, even in wording. The more serious aspects of tenement- 
 house life in New York, however, the wider experience of a 
 larger city, and the active private interest that has been there 
 aroused, have led to more comprehensive alterations in, and 
 additions to, the laws of the former city than have been made to 
 those of Boston. 
 
 Public efforts in New York toward tenement-house reform 
 date back some thirty years, to the time of the first legislative 
 inquiry into the question. The public sentiment which thus 
 found expression asserted itself in a more emphatic and suc- 
 cessful manner a few years later, in the report of a council of 
 the Citizens’ Association. In 1867, a tenement-house law was 
 passed, which for twenty years served as the basis for public 
 efforts toward the improvement of tenement-house life. As 
 might be supposed, this law met at first with severe opposition 
 
55 
 
 in enforcement, was but imperfectly executed, and was inher- 
 ently weak in numerous points. That it was, however, a step 
 in the right direction, and in accord with the current of ad- 
 vanced public opinion, was fully indicated by the greatly 
 enlarged and even radical powers granted to the Health Depart- 
 ment by the " Tenement-House Act ” of 1887. This act followed 
 an investigation by a special legislative commission appointed 
 in 1884 ; nevertheless, its passage appears to have been brought 
 about mainly through the persistent and enthusiastic efforts of 
 private individuals and associations that had a genuine interest 
 in this important reform. That the labors of these thirty years 
 in New York city have borne splendid fruit in the development 
 of more healthful conditions of tenement-house life can easily 
 be believed. The improvement is shown convincingly by the 
 statistics of a steadily falling death-rate among young children, 
 and might, indeed, be confidently assumed merely from a con- 
 sideration of the vast progress which public supervision has 
 brought about in the structural design of the tenement houses. 
 The history of all these efforts in New York has been very 
 clearly and concisely presented by the President of the Board 
 of Health of that city, in his report of last December, upon the 
 " Tenement-House Problem.” 
 
 Some of the provisions of the New York laws are perhaps 
 uncalled for here ; regarding the principles involved in others, 
 there may be difference of opinion. Others, again, I think, 
 commend themselves for adoption in this city. Some of the 
 more important provisions of those laws which do not, so far 
 as I can judge, exist in our own laws, are as follows : — 
 
 (1. ) Upon requisition of the Board of Health, at least fifteen 
 officers and men to be detailed by the Board of Police specially 
 for enforcement of laws relating to tenement and lod<nn£ houses. 
 
 (2.) A commission, consisting of the Mayor, one delegate 
 
56 
 
 from the Department of Health, one from the Department of 
 Public Works, one from the Department of Street-Cleaning, 
 and one from the Bureau of Inspection of Buildings, to 
 meet annually and prepare such recommendations as they deem 
 for the public good, of improvements in the laws affecting tene- 
 ment and lodging houses, these recommendations to be pre- 
 sented to the Governor, Senate, and Assembly ; also recom- 
 mendations to the Board of Health of changes in the execution 
 of these laws. 
 
 (3.) Appointment of a statistician to prepare the statistics 
 of the city Board for its use, and for transmission to the State 
 Board of Health. 
 
 (4.) Authorization to appoint ten medical sanitary in- 
 spectors. 
 
 (5.) Establishment of a Tenement-House Fund, to be used 
 solely for the enforcement of orders of the Board of Health in 
 relation to tenement houses. All expenditures from the fund 
 to be collected from the property upon which made, or from the 
 owners, tenants, or occupiers of the property. 
 
 (6.) At least one water-closet required for every fifteen oc- 
 cupants of tenement and lodging houses. All plumbing and 
 drainage work and plumbing fixtures to conform to the require- 
 ments of the Board of Health. The placing of filth, urine, or 
 fecal matter in any other place in a tenement house than that pro- 
 vided for it, or storing it in an apartment so long as to create a 
 nuisance, declared a misdemeanor on the part of the person so 
 offending. No privy-vault or cesspool to be allowed in connec- 
 tion with a tenement house, except when unavoidable, and then 
 by permit from the Board of Health only, to whose requirements 
 as to location and construction it must also conform. No 
 privy-vault to remain connected with a tenement house after 
 Jan. 1, 1887, except in cases specially named in the law. 
 
57 
 
 (7.) Every owner and every person having control of a 
 tenement or lodging house required to file in the Department 
 of Health his name and address, a description of the property 
 by street number or otherwise, the number of apartments, the 
 number of rooms in each apartment, the number of persons oc- 
 cupying each apartment, and the trades or occupations carried 
 on therein. He must also immediately file notice of change in 
 any of these matters. 
 
 Posting conspicuously upon a tenement house a copy of an 
 order or notice, declared to be sufficient service, although a 
 copy is also to be mailed when the owner or agent has registered 
 as provided. 
 
 (8.) Semi-annual inspections of every tenement and lodging 
 house to be caused to be made by the Board of Health, and re- 
 inspections within six weeks after the receipt of information of 
 the obeying of an order. 
 
 (9.) No building to be built for or converted to the purposes 
 of a tenement or lodging house, and no existing tenement or 
 lodging house to be enlarged, or its lot diminished, so that it shall 
 occupy more than 65 per cent, of the lot, excepting corner lots 
 and cases for which the Board of Health grants special permits. 
 
 (10.) Cellar floors of all tenement houses to be cemented 
 and made water-tight before Jan. 1, 1887. 
 
 (11.) The Board of Health authorized, when it shall appear 
 wise or necessary, to reduce the number of occupants in over- 
 crowded houses or rooms until the inmates shall not exceed one 
 to every six hundred cubic feet of air space in such houses or 
 rooms. 
 
 In a tenement house containing more than eight families, and 
 in which the owner does not reside, the Board of Health may 
 require a resident janitor or other responsible person to have 
 charge of the house. 
 
58 
 
 (12.) A tenement house, within the meaning of the law, 
 defined to be one occupied by three or more families. 
 
 The last-mentioned clause is deserving of special notice. In 
 this city, it will be remembered, the tenement-house laws apply 
 only to buildings occupied by more than three families, or by 
 more than two families upon any floor above the second In 
 New York, however, the law reaches houses containing only 
 three families, — a vast extension. In Chicago, as nearly as I can 
 judge, the tenement-house law applies to all rented buildings. 
 
 The reasons which have led to the limitations here in force 
 are, I presume, a desire not to harass people by unnecessary reg- 
 ulations, and a belief that the principal evils of tenement-house 
 life would be reached in houses of four or more families. In 
 this city there are so many small wooden houses, built long ago, 
 now in use by tenants, that the proportion of tenants occupying 
 houses of not more than three families is probably greater than 
 in some other cities of more recent development. It appeared 
 in our examinations that all the defects of overcrowding, drainage, 
 and so on, that exist in the larger houses, are to be found with 
 about equal frequency in those lying outside the limits of the 
 tenement-house law ; and although the evils and danger spring- 
 ing from these insanitary conditions are undoubtedly intensified 
 in the larger houses, I see no good reason why the provisions of 
 the tenement-house law should not in time be extended so as to 
 insure to a much larger proportion of tenants the protection 
 from landlords that is now sought to be afforded to some. 
 
 A single example may illustrate the desirability of this. At 
 
 No. — — place, in the North End, we found a little 
 
 wooden house, not larger in plan than a fair-sized room, meas- 
 uring but 14x17 feet, occupied by a single family of seven 
 persons. The house was in a disgraceful condition. The roof 
 was leaky, and the cellar in a disgusting state as the result of a 
 
59 
 
 defective drain and the use of the cellar in place of the water- 
 closet, which had been broken to pieces by previous tenants, 
 who had kept a sailors’ lodging house. The agent had prom- 
 ised this family that when they moved in everything should be 
 made right, but after they had become settled it was, "If you 
 don’t like it, go ! ” 
 
 Desiring to know whether or not the features peculiar to the 
 New York laws, as above outlined, have proved of practical 
 value to the authorities charged with their execution, I ad- 
 dressed a letter, a short time since, to Mr. James C. Bayles, 
 President and Commissioner of the Health Department of the 
 city of New York, making specific inquiries regarding the 
 various provisions to which I have referred. The courteous 
 answer of Mr. Bayles to these inquiries furnishes a fund of 
 most valuable information relative to the practical working of 
 those laws, and I quote verbatim his replies, which have the 
 same numerical designations as the queries addressed to him. 
 
 1 . " The law relative to the detailing of police-officers to 
 
 serve as a sanitary company under command of the President 
 of the Board of Health, was so amended in April, 1887, as to 
 increase the detail from fifteen to forty-five officers of the police 
 force to undertake the enforcement of the tenement and lodging 
 house laws. The sanitary company now consists of a sergeant, 
 roundsman, and forty-three patrolmen. One of the patrolmen 
 is detailed to the service of the Chief Inspector of the Division 
 of Food Inspection, to assist in milk raids and other enter- 
 prises of like character. The other forty-two are constantly 
 engaged in work pertaining to the enforcement of the tenement 
 and lodging house laws. The system works very well. In a 
 manuscript report from the Chief Sanitary Inspector, who has 
 immediate command of the lay inspectors and sanitary company 
 of police, I find the following : T am every year more strongly 
 
60 
 
 impressed with the value of the service of the sanitary police, 
 and become firmer in my conviction that they are an indispen- 
 sable auxiliary to the organization of the Health Department. I . 
 confidently predict that' when the next annual report is sub- 
 mitted, it will satisfactorily demonstrate that citizens’ com- 
 plaints are promptly attended to, that nuisances are discovered 
 and abated without unnecessary delay, and that the laws and 
 provisions of the Sanitary Code are more strictly observed and 
 better results secured by the present organization of utilizing 
 the services of the lay inspectors and sanitary police than here- 
 tofore attained.’ With this opinion I, in a great degree, con- 
 cur.” 
 
 2. "The Commission, consisting of the Mayor and one 
 representative each from the Health Department, Department 
 of Public Works, Department of Street-Cleaning, and the 
 Bureau of Inspection of Buildings, might be a very useful 
 body, but from its composition it is not likely to become so. 
 I am the only member of that Commission having any knowl- 
 edge of the tenement-house problem, or any official concern 
 with the execution of the laws thereto relating. It was evi- 
 dent to me, therefore, that if the Commission at its first and, 
 thus far, only meeting did anything of value, it devolved upon 
 me to take the initiative. I therefore prepared for this Com- 
 mission a very elaborate report, setting forth the history of 
 tenement-house legislation in New York for a series of years, 
 and the work of the Board in enforcing the laws relating to 
 tenement and lodging houses. This report was adopted by the 
 Commission as its report, and was transmitted to Albany for 
 the information of the Legislature. It was subsequently 
 printed by order of the Legislature. 
 
 "It will be necessary, in compliance with the terms of the 
 law, that another meeting of this Commission shall be held some- 
 
61 
 
 time after the fifteenth day of November. For that meeting I 
 shall prepare certain specific recommendations for the Legisla- 
 ture in the shape of drafts of bills adding to or amending the 
 existing laws in certain minor details. I mention these facts 
 merely to show that unless some member of such a commission 
 takes an active, personal, and intelligent interest in the tene- 
 ment-house question, its deliberations are not likely to develop 
 anything of value. 
 
 * 3. "The Tenement-House Commission has not appointed a 
 statistician, and in view of the completeness of the information 
 furnished by the Health Department, will probably find no 
 need to do so. 
 
 4. "The provision of law to which you allude in this inquiry 
 has been amended to read, that the Board of Health ' may 
 appoint and commission such number of sanitary inspectors as 
 the Board may deem needful, not exceeding forty. . . . But 
 twenty of such inspectors shall be physicians of skill and practi- 
 cal professional experience in said city.’ In the use of the 
 medical inspectors we depart from the intent of the law under 
 a general discretion given us to assign all officers of the Board 
 to such service as may seem to us best. At the present time 
 no medical inspectors are serving as sanitary inspectors. They 
 have all been assigned to duty in the Division of Contagious 
 Diseases, and all the work of sanitary inspection is now done 
 by the lay inspectors and the police. We do not find that 
 physicians make good sanitary inspectors. The work devolv- 
 ing upon them is largely of a kind for which their education 
 gives them no especial qualifications ; and as they are likely to 
 regard it as ' unprofessional/ they do it reluctantly and in a 
 perfunctory way. It is our experience that a physician should 
 never be employed in any work not strictly in keeping with 
 his own sense of professional dignity. I would strongly 
 
62 
 
 recommend that in any legislation which may be considered in 
 Massachusetts, the Board of Health be left to exercise its own 
 discretion as to the proportion of physicians and laymen on 
 its staff. 
 
 5. " The provisions of the law relative to the establishment 
 of a tenement-house fund were never operative. The Board of 
 Estimate and Apportionment declined to set aside a sum of 
 money for this purpose, and we have never had it. Fortu- 
 nately, it has become unnecessary. Under the operations of' 
 the law relative to vacation, enacted March 25, 1887, it is no 
 longer necessary for the Board to do work and file a lien against 
 unknown or absent owners to cover the cost of the same. We 
 are now able to require the owner to do it, and this is much 
 better and simpler than the way originally provided by law. 
 
 6. "The provisions of the law covered by this inquiry are, to 
 a great extent, arbitrary and improper. Matters of this kind 
 should be left largely to the discretion of the local health 
 authorities. All mandatory requirements are apt to work 
 injustice in special cases. I should urgently recommend in all 
 legislation having this or similar objects in view, that local 
 Boards of Health be empowered in their discretion to require 
 the owner to make such and such improvements, and that in no 
 case this discretion be taken away from them. Privy-vaults 
 and cesspools have been abolished to such an extent that very 
 few remain within the city limits. Whenever found, they are 
 vigorously moved against, and no consideration can be pre- 
 sented to the Board which will induce it to rescind such an 
 order. Sometimes, where no harm will result, extensions of 
 time are granted, as in the case of property to be improved at a 
 fixed date by the substitution of a different building for the one 
 that is now upon it ; but if this date is remote, the order abol- 
 ishing vaults and cesspools is immediately and peremptorily 
 
63 
 
 enforced. With the single exception as to the arbitrary fixing 
 of the number of water-closets required for tenement houses, 
 this portion of the law is admirable, and is enforced by this 
 department. 
 
 7. "The requirement imposed upon owners of tenement and 
 lodging houses to register their names and addresses with the 
 Health Department has never worked very well, for the reason 
 that no penalties for non-compliance were provided, and the 
 Board could not enforce this order against unwilling owners. 
 The registration in the case of lodging-house keepers is com- 
 plete, for the reason that they are required to take out permits, 
 and cannot get such permits without making their names and 
 addresses a matter of record. The object of the law requiring 
 the registration of the owners of tenement houses was to enable 
 us to find persons responsible for nuisances, upon whom to 
 serve orders ; but the power to vacate for non-compliance with 
 orders obviates the necessity for such record. When a house 
 gets in such a condition that repairs are necessary, and the 
 owner either cannot be found or fails to comply with orders, 
 the Board issues a vacation order, and immediately the owner 
 comes to the front with his hat in his hand to ask the pleasure 
 of the Board. A vacation order never fails to find the person 
 responsible for the condition of the premises. At the present 
 time, therefore, we are not attempting to keep up any fuller 
 directory of tenement-house owners than can be had by a volun- 
 tary registration. The posting of an order in a conspicuous 
 place within or upon a tenement house is a sufficient service, 
 even though we are unable to reach the owner by mail. 
 
 8. "Under the present law, there is a semi-annual inspection 
 of every tenement house in the city twice in each year. It is 
 but fair to state, however, that our compliance with this law is 
 not perfunctory. There are a large number of tenement houses 
 
64 
 
 known to be in bad condition which are inspected as often as 
 once a week, another larger class inspected twice each month, 
 and a still larger class inspected once each month. We have 
 an accurate and constantly revised census of tenement houses 
 which is the result of this semi-annual inspection. 
 
 " Reinspections after orders are issued are never delayed as 
 long as the law permits ; viz., six weeks. They are usually 
 made within ten days. We hold our inspectors to very close 
 responsibility in this matter of reinspection, and they are not 
 allowed to neglect it and hold the papers indefinitely. 
 
 9. "The provisions of the statute covered by this inquiry are 
 enforced in every case. 
 
 10. " In the exercise of their discretion the Commissioners 
 believe that proof of leakage should be furnished before an 
 order to make a cellar water-tight should be enforced. When- 
 ever a wet cellar is found, this proof is obtained, and the order 
 to make the floor water-tight is enforced. 
 
 11. "The heavy inflow of Italian immigration into New 
 York has necessitated more stringent measures looking to the 
 enforcement of the law relative to overcrowding. As the re- 
 sult of night inspections, the Board of Health issues every week 
 a large number of orders reducing the population of tenement 
 houses. In the case of families, we are usually lenient in enforc- 
 ing an order relative to the cubic air space per occupant ; but 
 when overcrowding results, as is usually the case, from the 
 taking 1 of lodgers, such orders are enforced without con- 
 sideration. This law works very well, and has tended to pre- 
 vent the huddling together of large numbers of persons in rooms 
 too small to give proper breathing-space. 
 
 " The Board of Health requires a janitor to be in charge of 
 large tenements whenever their condition or the character of 
 the occupants is such as to render it necessary. 
 
65 
 
 12. " The definition ot a tenement house as one occupied by 
 three or more families is probably as good as any we can get. 
 It, of course, includes all the large apartment houses ; and in 
 relation to these dwellings, many of which are very elegant, 
 the provisions of the tenement-house law are, of course, 
 impracticable of enforcement. For example, — to require the 
 semi-annual whitewashing of the elegant frescoed ceilings and 
 expensively papered walls of such apartment houses as the 
 Hawthorne, Ariston, Lisbon, and similar structures, in which 
 apartments rent for from two to six thousand dollars per year, 
 would be grotesque. The Board holds its powers, as regards 
 these buildings, in the sense of reserved power, and is able 
 whenever necessity exists to enforce the tenement-house law 
 against them. 
 
 "This covers all your specific inquiries, which are so compre- 
 hensive as to render almost unnecessary any information relative 
 to tenement and lodging houses additional to that which is so 
 fully set forth in my report to the Mayor. From this you will 
 see what an immense improvement has been effected in the con- 
 struction of tenement houses under the operations of the several 
 laws defining our powers relative thereto. 
 
 "In addition to this, I have pleasure in sending you a copy of 
 our code of plumbing regulations which are enforced in the case 
 of all new buildings ; and it gives me pleasure to say that the 
 work which is now done in tenement houses is better than 
 that found in the best class of private dwellings in the city. 
 
 "I also send you a copy of the City Record, givinga detailed 
 report of the operations of the department for the quarter 
 ending June 30. From this you will see the amount of work 
 done by the Sanitary Police.” 1 
 
 1 Quarter ending June 30 , 1888 . 
 
 The following is a summary of the work performed by the Sanitary Police : — 
 
66 
 
 Responsibility of Landlords. 
 
 It is, of course, understood that the people with whom we 
 have to deal, in this work, are not altogether an innocent, in- 
 offensive, and easily imposed upon class, but that many of them 
 are about as rough and undesirable tenants as can be imagined. 
 I have heard of a house-owner not daring to plank his cellar- 
 bottom, for fear the tenants would pull up the planks and use 
 them for fire-wood. Nevertheless, so long as landlords choose 
 to receive these people into their houses, they should themselves 
 be held strictly responsible for the decent and healthful condi- 
 tion of the premises. Generally speaking, in those tene- 
 ment houses in which the landlord himself resides and looks 
 after affairs, the conditions found are far better than in 
 houses managed by agents not regularly present, or the land- 
 lords of which live in other parts of the city or out of town. 
 There are several men who are large owners of tenement- 
 house property in the West End and North End, whose houses 
 are sure to be found overcrowded with the lowest classes of our 
 population, and to be in just as defective condition as it is possi- 
 ble for them to be without absolutely defying the laws and the 
 Board of Health. It is safe to say that these men, and many 
 
 Number of inspections made 35,382 
 
 “ “ complaints made 3,515 
 
 The number of orders received, inspected, and reported upon was 12,094, of which 
 
 number there have been returned to the Sanitary Superintendent, — 
 
 Orders complied with 3,691 
 
 “ not complied with 5,272 
 
 Orders reinspected and found complied with or progressing and 
 referred to Sanitary Inspectors for reinspection and report . 2,880 
 
 Held for reinspection 251 
 
 Number of scavenger permits collected and forwarded to the 
 
 Sanitary Superintendent 729 
 
 Number of lodging houses inspected 458 
 
 “ “ tenement houses inspected 15,165 
 
 “ “ families in tenement houses inspected .... 106,961 
 
 “ “ water-closets ordered in lieu of privy- vaults . . . 222 
 
67 
 
 others like them, care absolutely nothing for the welfare of 
 their tenants. They conduct tenement houses solely as invest- 
 ments from which they propose to squeeze every cent of profit 
 that can be legally obtained. 
 
 Just what net return is yielded by tenement-house property 
 it is evidently impossible to learn in an inquiry of this kind ; 
 but a partial inference may perhaps be drawn from the gross 
 rentals, concerning which our reports permit of making, for 
 some houses, a rough approximation. This has been done in a 
 considerable number of cases by taking the total of rents paid 
 by tenants in a house, and estimating the value of the property 
 at a certain percentage above the assessors’ figures. Calcula- 
 tions thus made for some forty tenement houses proper, show 
 gross returns ranging mainly between 10 and 20 per cent. In 
 about an equal number of houses of less than four families, the 
 range was considerably higher, rising in several instances to 
 above 20, and even above 30, per cent. In several of these 
 cases the annual rental exceeds the assessed value of the build- 
 ings. 
 
 It would probably be fair to rate the returns from the lowest 
 class of wooden tenement-houses proper in this city at from 15 
 to 20 per cent, gross ; from first-class brick tenement houses, 
 at from 10 to 12 per cent, gross ; while first-class business 
 property yields from 6 to 8 per cent, gross, and 4J or 5 per 
 cent. net. Even at the high rate mentioned for low-grade 
 houses, it is probable that they often fail to net their owners 
 much over 6 per cent., on account of abuse of the property, 
 repairs, and bad debts. Still there are many other cases in 
 which it is fair to suppose that the repairs, grudgingly made, can- 
 not seriously reduce the gross income obtained from the property. 
 The occupants of the lowest class of houses are constantly shift- 
 ing ; but they are usually required to pay their rent in advance, 
 
68 
 
 so that there is no loss on that account. It seems to me there 
 should be no hesitation in requiring from these owners, as a 
 class, improvements which can plainly be shown to be requisite 
 to a fair sanitary condition, and which must really benefit 
 the property. 
 
 Open Squares for the Tenement-House Districts. 
 
 In addition to the more direct sanitary work to be under- 
 taken through the medium of the Board of Health and the laws, 
 valuable steps may also be taken toward counteracting the evils 
 of crowded city life by establishing breathing-places here and 
 there in the form of open squares. The city has already under 
 way splendid schemes for parks, which will beautify its surface 
 and be of great benefit to the people. These should be supple- 
 mented, it seems to me, by the clearing away of an occasional 
 opening in the crowded tenement-house districts. These open- 
 ings may be of small size, but should be close at hand to the 
 poor people, to whom they would serve as a place of resort for 
 women and children during the day, tempting them away from 
 many wretched and unhealthy homes. 
 
 Two or three such squares might well be established in the 
 North End, and I am confident they would constitute a wise 
 and sound investment for the city. If, owing to movements of 
 population and encroachments of business, the necessity for 
 them should cease in particular localities, the land could then, 
 if it were thought desirable, be sold. They should be located 
 in the immediate vicinity of the most densely populated dis- 
 tricts, and preferably in their midst, as their construction might 
 then have additional value by requiring some of the worst 
 houses to be demolished. 
 
 I am informed that a law has been passed authorizing the 
 
69 
 
 establishment in New York city of small parks of precisely the 
 character which I have described. In accordance with that law, 
 it has been decided to take a whole block, in wffiat is known as 
 " Mulberry Bend,” bounded by Mulberry, Park, Bayard, and 
 Baxter streets, situated among the worst slums in the city. 
 This block will furnish a park measuring 200 x 000 feet, in 
 the construction of which there will be obliterated some of the 
 most crowded and degraded tenement houses to be found in 
 New York. 
 
 As to the value of such improvements, I cannot do better 
 than to quote from a paper by Mr. Charles H. Latrobe, en- 
 gineer in charge of the parks of Baltimore, upon the "Influence 
 of Parks and Open Squares upon the Health of Cities and 
 Towns : ” — 
 
 " As General Superintendent and Engineer of the Public 
 Parks, I can truthfully say from actual observation, that they 
 yield the only relief to home-worn women and children and shop- 
 worn men, when the working-day is done. From 5 P.M. until 
 10 P.M. they are thronged during the summer months. On 
 the open lawns are tennis courts, base-ball grounds, and lacrosse 
 fields for the young ; under the trees are mothers and children. 
 Coteries of old men assemble year after year on the same 
 benches under the same trees. It is difficult to close the public 
 squares at night when the time comes, the people cling to them 
 so tenaciously. Their appreciation of them, I think, is manifest 
 in the fact that although often situated in the roughest parts of 
 the city, they are so little injured by thoughtless or malicious 
 people. Indeed, in some places the neighbors donate flower- 
 beds to beautify them, and take the greatest interest in their 
 condition.” 
 
 Mr. Latrobe further says : " One error, I think, is likely to 
 
 be made in the matter of parks ; viz., that too much money may 
 
70 
 
 be spent in the suburban region and too little in the hearts of 
 our cities. My opinion is that after the establishment of one or 
 two large suburban parks for holiday resort and all-day picnics, 
 all available resources should be expended in breaking into the 
 densely crowded centres of population, by the establishment of 
 attractive squares easily accessible to the worn parents and 
 sickly children of the surrounding districts; indeed, the subur- 
 ban parks might wait on the urban squares, as these latter 
 would cultivate a longing for the larger liberty of the parks.” 
 
 Other Public Improvements. 
 
 As is well known, the North End is intersected in all direc- 
 tions by narrow streets, so called, many of them, such as Salu- 
 tation, Tileston, Stillman, and Morton, for example, measuring 
 but about six feet between curbs, nor more than from ten to fifteen 
 feet between opposite building-fronts. From such streets sun- 
 light is often almost completely excluded. The space for light 
 and air for the houses afforded by those streets is scarcely one- 
 half what the law now demands for the opening between front 
 and rear houses built upon a single lot. And beside these 
 passage-ways dignified by the name of streets, there are number- 
 less side alleys in which similar conditions prevail, only sun- and 
 air must needs struggle still harder in order to gain admittance. 
 It cannot be expected that the city is to be made over anew, 
 even in the interests of sanitary reform ; but the widening of 
 narrow streets, even if based upon no other plea than that of 
 the demands of business or of travel, should be hailed with 
 satisfaction as also giving more air and light to the houses, and 
 probably necessitating the destruction of some that could well be 
 spared. 
 
 The tearing down of old tenement houses is likely not to be 
 
CANNY PLACE, NORTH END. 
 
 From a photograph taken at noon on a bright day. — Blocks of tenement houses fronting from 
 either side upon an alley 7 feet wide. 
 

 
 
 
71 
 
 undertaken except to satisfy the demands of business, or the 
 purposes of public improvements, or requirements of repairs 
 too severe to warrant keeping up the old property. It is rather 
 difficult to draw the line at which a house should be condemned 
 to destruction under ordinary circumstances on sanitary grounds, 
 inasmuch as any building can with sufficient expenditure of 
 money be put into comfortable condition. A building that is 
 plainly unsafe as regards construction, or required improve- 
 ments of which are refused, will be forbidden occupancy by the 
 Department for the Inspection of Buildings or by the Board of 
 Health, as the case may be. It would evidently be unjust for the 
 Board of Health to insist upon unusual and excessive improve- 
 ments simply in order to root out a particular building ; yet few 
 could object to a sufficiently high standard of requirements 
 under the laws, and a sufficiently strict enforcement of those 
 requirements, to result in the voluntary destruction of some of 
 the rookeries which now remain in the city. Thus, few, I think, 
 would regret the razing to the ground of the buildings to be 
 found in "Tuckers Yard,” off Joy street, and in some other 
 places that might be mentioned. 
 
 The Superintendent of Sewers, in his annual report for 1887, 
 has called attention plainly to the generally bad and often 
 dangerous condition of the sewers in the very section in which 
 our work has been conducted. So long as those districts are 
 compelled to rely upon antiquated wooden sewers, entirely un- 
 suited both in design and in grouping to present purposes, their 
 condition as regards healthfulness must be unsatisfactory. 
 
 Improved Tenement Houses. 
 
 While public measures for the improvement of the sanitary 
 condition of the laboring classes are indispensable, the extent 
 
72 
 
 to which they are conceived and enforced will be governed by 
 the state of opinion and interest among that portion of the 
 people having influence in such matters. The mere passing of 
 laws and granting of money will not accomplish everything ; 
 and nothing can be more valuable in aiding to public suc- 
 cess than the cooperation of private effort. To the honor 
 of the city it may be said that such efforts have been, and are 
 now being, freely put forth here. The work of supplying 
 improved tenement houses for the poorer classes opens a wide 
 and interesting field to consideration, and can only be touched 
 upon in this report. The operations of the Boston Coopera- 
 » tive Building Company, which has a paid capital stock of over 
 $200,000, and conducts thirty-nine houses, accommodating 
 some two hundred families, afford a conspicuous example of 
 work of this kind upon a large scale. The Improved Dwellings’ 
 Association, with a paid capital of $100,000, manages another 
 noteworthy enterprise of like character. There are numerous 
 similar undertakings conducted upon a more modest scale by 
 individuals, which I will not mention in detail, but which are 
 of the greatest value in elevating the condition of the tenement- 
 house population of the city. These undertakings are managed, 
 so far as I am aware, as business enterprises, it being expected 
 to charge about the market rate for rents, but to keep the 
 houses in as good repair as the receipts will warrant, con- 
 sistently with a moderate net income. Such enterprises are 
 not only a direct blessing to the tenants who are accommodated, 
 but they are valuable object-lessons to show what may be done 
 by fair and considerate treatment in maintaining discipline 
 among tenants, and in reclaiming to a decent sanitary condition 
 some of the worst parts of the city. 
 
 For the general advancement by private action of the sanitary 
 conditions into which it has been my duty to inquire, I can see 
 
73 
 
 no more sensible or probably efficient method than the con- 
 sideration of the questions involved by permanent committees ; 
 for example, one for each ward, which shall have a constant 
 oversight upon their districts, and shall undertake to direct 
 attention and effort to particular houses or localities, and to 
 agitate and press for the improvement of those until successful. 
 
 Conclusions and Recommendations. 
 
 It has been sought in this report to present fairly the condi- 
 tions which were encountered in our examinations, as well as 
 to state certain conclusions and recommendations which have 
 naturally followed. It has, doubtless, been noticed that these 
 recommendations have been in the direction of an increase in 
 the scope of effort, and a consistent enlargement of the powers 
 and resources of the Board of Health. The safety of the 
 principle of investing wide powers in a small body of men for 
 the purpose of protecting the public health has been abundantly 
 proved, here and elsewhere, by years of experience ; and the 
 question which, it seems to me, should now be considered is 
 that of strengthening and extending a line of work which is 
 directly connected with the health, and, therefore, with the 
 happiness and prosperity, of the entire community. 
 
 The aim has been, not so much to formulate these recom- 
 mendations in precise detail, as to indicate certain principles 
 which it seems important to establish in the public supervision 
 of tenement and lodging houses of low grade. As to how far 
 these principles should be established directly bylaws and ordi- 
 nances, or by regulations and discretionary action of the Board 
 of Health, it has not been attempted nicely to decide. It is evi- 
 dently to be desired that the laws should, on the one hand, state 
 as clearly and definitely as practicable the requirements in sani- 
 
74 
 
 tary matters, which must be observed by citizens ; and that they 
 should, on the other hand, define similarly the duties and powers 
 of the Board of Health, which must rely mainly upon these laws 
 in its efforts. The public superintendence which it is thus sought 
 to exercise, must, however, in order to be effectual, be so 
 largely a matter of detail, and properly depending upon expe- 
 rience and judgment, that an attempt to incorporate into the 
 laws fixed regulations for all minor points would prove unsatis- 
 factory in results. It appears to me, therefore, that in applying 
 the principles of the laws there should be left to the Board of 
 Health much range for the exercise of discretion ; while, at the 
 same time, in any particular case that may arise, there should 
 be no doubt as to what the responsibility and authority of the 
 Board are in the premises. 
 
 The principal suggestions which have been made in this 
 paper may now be summarized as follows, in the order in which 
 they have appeared : — 
 
 Issuance, at the discretion of the Board of Health, of permits 
 to owners or lessees of tenement and lodging houses, limiting 
 the number of occupants, as an assistance in checking over- 
 crowding. 
 
 Doing away to the fullest practicable extent with the employ- 
 ment of inner rooms, not communicating directly with the outer 
 air, in existing tenement and lodging houses, and the adoption 
 of efficient measures to prevent their introduction into new con- 
 struction. Restrictions for the future regarding the proportion 
 of a lot to be covered by a tenement or lodging house. 
 
 If cellars and basements are to be allowed to be occupied 
 regularly as dwellings, then they should be required to be 
 made water-tight ; but it is advised that the occupancy of cellars 
 and basements for sleeping purposes should be prohibited. 
 
 More rigorous enforcement of the law against uncleanliness. 
 
Provision for the removal of privy-vaults from alleys and 
 courts excepted in the present law on . account of not having 
 sewers. 
 
 Sink waste-pipes to be required to be individually trapped. 
 
 The establishing of such detailed regulations as may seem 
 wise concerning house drainage and plumbing fixtures, and the 
 general supervision of, and discretionary action regarding, the 
 same to be undertaken by the Board of Health. 
 
 Inspecting force of the Board of Health to be increased for 
 the purpose of semi-annual inspection of tenement and lodging 
 houses. 
 
 Widening of the scope of the tenement-house law, so as to 
 embrace houses of a smaller number of families than is specified 
 in the present law. 
 
 Establishment of open squares in the midst of the tenement- 
 house districts. 
 
 Widening of narrow streets where practicable. 
 
 Such severity in the laws and their enforcement as shall tend 
 to do away with some of the most objectionable houses now in 
 use. 
 
 Improvement of the sewerage in certain streets where it is 
 now known to be bad. 
 
 These recommendations are not pretended to be all that 
 might be made to advantage, but are rather those the necessity 
 of which was forced upon attention as the result of our examina- 
 tions. Still other measures which have commended themselves 
 in the experience of New York, or possibly other cities, may 
 prove themselves also worthy of adoption here. Again, it is not 
 assumed that the results of this examination offer a key to the 
 complete solution of the tenement-house problem as a whole. 
 There are other sides to this problem besides that approached 
 in a sanitary survey, and the latter alone has been dealt with 
 
76 
 
 here. It may seem that the various conclusions drawn and 
 recommendations made are broader than were warranted by 
 partial and somewhat hasty inspections of limited districts ; yet 
 I am of the opinion that very similar results would have been 
 reached by me in any investigation, however extensive and 
 elaborate. 
 
 In concluding, I desire to acknowledge the very valuable aid 
 which I have received from Miss Margaret Greene and Mr. 
 Arthur B. Ellis, members of the committee ; and to record my 
 appreciation of the services of my assistants, Frank A. Smythe, 
 George C. Whipple, Frank I. Capen, Samuel H. Mildram, 
 William S. Johnson, and Alfred W. French. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 DWIGHT PORTER.