KEW YORK CITY. 



527 



TABLE A. 



TABLE showing the number of Lots improved and un- 

 improved in the different' Wards, during the years 



1860 and 1 



families, the remaining 13,623 houses have to 

 cover 76,620 families, averaging nearly six fami- 

 lies to each house, showing that ahout three- 

 fom-ths of the whole population of New York 

 live, averaging but a fraction less than six fami- 

 lies in a house, while only about one family in 

 ten occupy a whole house. The following table 

 will show how the families are apportioned to 

 these dwellings :" 



H * 



There are many single blocks of dwellings 

 containing twice the number of families resid- 

 ing on the whole of Fifth Avenue, or than a 

 continuous row of dwellings similar to those on 

 the Fifth Avenue three or four miles in length. 

 There is a multitude of these squares, any of 

 which contains a larger population than the 

 whole city of Hartford, Conn., which covers an 

 area of seven miles. 



There are in Brooklyn 4,483 houses, which, 

 according to the report of the Superintendent 

 of the Police, have from three to one hundred 

 persons each. 



The increase of the population of the city 

 in the last ten years, and the rise which has 

 simultaneously taken place in the value of the 

 land, combined with the influx of foreigners 

 who were, to some extent, accustomed to the 



crowded condition of foreign cities, led to the 

 construction of the tenement houses on more 

 extended scales. The more so, that it was 

 found that capital so invested paid enormously. 

 In many cases not less than 35 per cent. Some 

 idea of the magnitude of these dwellings may 

 be gathered from one, which is 50 feet front by 

 250 feet deep. It has an alley running the 

 whole depth on each side of it. These alley- 

 ways are excavated to the depth of the cellars, 

 arched over, and covered with flag stoops, in 

 which, at intervals, are open gratings to give 

 light below ; the whole length of which space 

 is occupied by water-closets, without doors, and 

 under which are open drains communicating 

 with the street sewer. 



This building is occupied mostly by foreign- 

 ers. It is calculated for 126 families, each 

 having a room in which they cook, eat, sleep, 

 and sit. The only ventilation is by a window 

 which opens against a dead wall eight feet dis- 

 tant, and to which rises the vapor from the 

 vault below. Such buildings are, many of 

 them, provided with gas and water, and they 

 vary in the degree of ventilation and sanitary- 

 regulation. The importance they occupy in 

 this metropolis is manifest in the fact, that the 

 population of the city of Xew York was, in 

 1861, 810,000 ; of which one-half lived in tene- 

 ment houses. 



The whole number of dwellings of all de- 

 scriptions in the city is 55.000, which includes 

 stores, churches, &c. In 1860, the population 

 was 805,000, or 161,000 families. Of these, 

 15,000 only occupy entire houses: 9,120 dwell- 

 ings contain two families; and 6,100 contain 

 three families. Thus 30,200 dwellings contain 

 71,540 families. 



The supervision of the police has gone a great 

 way towards improving the condition of these 

 houses, and consequently the health of the people. 

 The number of aliens is large, and it is this 

 population that swells so largely the number of 

 occupants of tenement houses, particularly in 

 the Tenth, Eleventh, and Seventeenth wards. It 

 is not to be inferred, however, that it is pover- 

 ty only that causes such dense settlement, since 

 a spirit of economy and frugality manifests 

 itself among these people, which forbids too 

 much expenditure for the high rents charged in 

 the city or for much riding on railroads. The 

 rapid increase of the population in the city not 

 only caused a progressive rise in the value of 

 land, but also raised rents through the demand 

 that existed for houses, requiring large capital 

 to be invested in them ; and also through the 

 increase of taxes, which have nearly doubled 

 every five years, and have fallen mostly upon 

 real property, to be repaid in rents. That large 

 class of population, therefore, which is engaged 

 in manufacturing operations, and -which can 

 spare the time less than the money, requisite to 

 go long distances between their homes and 

 their occupations, necessarily diminish their 

 rents by occupying less room. The economy 

 in this respect adds to their comforts in others. 



