House and Garden 
making twenty-two families in each building, and two 
stores. If each building were used entirely for 
dwellers, it would contain twenty-four families, and 
the block would contain 768 families, or, estimating 
five persons to a family, 3,840 persons. “Jnthe San 
juan Hill” district in New York City there is a 
block very like this model. Fhe law forbids con¬ 
struction of any more buildings of this kind. 
The benefits of the law of 1901 will be clearly 
evident on considering the construction of the new 
authorized type of tenement (Fig. 3), It has 
no dark rooms or narrow air shafts. In place of the 
latter, the space required is an interior court. 
Seventy, instead of seventy-five per cent, of the lot 
area is occupied by each building. The court and 
yard spaces are large enough to give light on every 
floor, fire escapes (the old vertical ladders will not be 
allowed in future tenements) are provided in the 
form of stairs with metal railings, and each apart¬ 
ment has good individual sanitary 
accommodations. If the . 
block were used ex¬ 
clusively for dwellers 
it would house 600 
families, or 3,000 
persons. Note ^ 
the important 
reductions in 
congestion and the 
O 
better provisions 
safety and sound 
for 
construc¬ 
tion. As compared with the 
“dumb-bell” tenement the density is les 
sened by 840 persons to the block, a reduction 
of twenty-two per cent. Besides, the “ dumb-belF 
tenement in 1900 was often seven stories high, 
whereas a tenement house since the new law went into 
effect is practically limited to six stories by the require¬ 
ment that buildings exceeding this height must be 
fireproof throughout. The difference between the 
number accommodated in a block of seven-story 
‘dumb-bells” and in a six-story “new-law” block 
of the same size is 1,480 persons to a block. This 
means a reduction of congestion by thirty-three per 
cent. 
Notwithstanding the opposition made by certain 
building interests to tbe new law, a large number are 
enthusiastically supporting it, having found that in 
the long run it is more economical than the old law. 
Strict enforcement of its provisions is obtained by a 
rigid system of inspection that makes it exceedingly 
difficult for tbe dishonest builder or landlord to get 
tenants until the law is complied with. It has proved 
to be an incalculable blessing, and has undoubtedly 
prevented much sickness and crime by compelling 
healthy surroundings and by imposing needed obliga¬ 
tions upon tenants too ignorant to appreciate and 
builders too selfish voluntarily to concede. Since 
the Tenement House Act of 1901 building has gone 
on apace under its provisions. It is worth while to 
summarize from the last report of Hon. Edmond J. 
Butler, Tenement House Commissioner of the city 
of New York, the chief features of progress under the 
act. From the time when the act went into effect 
on January i, 1902, to the last week in December, 
1907, plans were filed for the erection of 19,739 build¬ 
ings, capable of containing 230,036 families, or over 
1,000,000 people. The accompanying map giving 
the position of all tenements erected in Manhattan 
since January, 1902, indicates the localities where 
building has been most active. Of the total number 
of buildings erected in that time 4,250, or about 
twenty-two per cent, were planned for Manhattan, 
and 10,706 buildings, or about fifty-four per cent, 
for Brooklyn. Owing, however, to the greater size 
of the buildings erected in Manhattan, in which 
the number of apartments amounted to 108,001, or 
one half of the total number, about 486,000 people 
were provided for in that borough, or nearly double 
tbe increase of the borough in popula¬ 
tion during the six years 
1902-08. Mr. Butler 
points out that not 
only is the evil of the 
old, unimproved, un¬ 
sanitary te n e- 
ment kept from 
spreading with 
the increase in 
population, but that 
a population nearly 
equal to the increase is 
being boused in a better man¬ 
ner than under the old way, the 
tenants for the most part leaving 
tenements of the old type, 
which were subsequently de¬ 
molished, for tenements of the 
new type affording adequate light and ventilation. 
The following brief summary of buildings by locali¬ 
ties may serve to show the significance of the map in 
more detail. 
A block of 
Fig. 3 
new-law 
tenement houses 
BUILDINGS ERECTED JANUARY i. 1902, TO OCTOBER i. 1907. 
Number. Per cent. 
East Side. West Side. East Side. West Si 
Ifelow 14th St. ... 
. 699 
168 
16 
4 
14th to 59th. 
. 218 
62 
5 
I 
59th to 72d. 
.... 156 
36 
4 
I 
yzd to noth. 
.... 525 
234 
12 
6 
noth to 155th . . . . 
. 448 
1,310 
11 
31 
Above 155th . 
. . . . (^Bronx) 
378 
0 
9 
Total. 
. . . . 2,046 
2,188 
48 
52 
A glance at the map will show that the great¬ 
est amount of building has been on the upper west 
side and the least on the lower west side, while 
the distribution on the east side is more even and the 
total somewhat less than for the west side. It is 
28 
