﻿HOUSING CONDITIONS IN INDIANAPOLIS 



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ilies of South Europeans within the district. Along two streets 

 in the best residential part of the district are found a number of 

 Jews. In recent years they have been buying property here, ap- 

 parently with the intention of making a neighborhood of com- 

 fortable Jewish homes. In the southwest part of the district 

 there is a small colony of negroes. They live on one or two 

 streets, more or less set apart from the remainder of the dis- 

 trict. With the few exceptions just named the population is 

 made up principally of white American born laboring people. 



There are within the district two planing mills, a furniture 

 factory, two packing houses, a brewery, two freight depots and 

 several other industrial concerns, but they furnish employment 

 for only a part of the men who live near them. Many of the 

 others cross the river and work in the stock yards, the packing 

 houses or one of the numerous manufacturing establishments 

 of West Indianapolis. Others go north or east into adjacent 

 parts of the city, finding employment in various lines of business. 



Only a small per cent, of the women of the district have any 

 employment other than their housekeeping duties. Of those 

 who do adci to the family income by their labors, 78 per cent 

 are engaged in laundry work in their own homes or in doing 

 housework away from home. The other 22 per cent includes 

 women who work in factories, in m.ercantile establishments and 

 offices, as well as a few who are professional nurses, dressmakers 

 and teachers. With a few rare exceptions child labor is un- 

 known within this district during school m^onths. The truancy 

 department of the city schools has been very efficient in stamp- 

 ing out this evil. During the summer months when truancy offi- 

 cers are not actiA^e one or two establishments in the district are 

 said to employ a large number of children. It is the duty of the 

 state factory inspectors to prevent this, but for some reason they 

 do not do so. 



Retail stores are numerous within the district, but none of 

 them have a very large patronage. The distance from the down- 

 town business district is so short that it does not prevent the 

 people of this district from trading there. On market day scores 

 of women may be seen going to the city market place. They can 

 very conveniently go and come on the street cars, but many of 

 them walk at least one direction. The report of one of the other 

 districts investigated will show that its distance from the heart 

 of the city has a marked influence upon the people and their 



