New York’s Improved Tenements 
B Y J OH N W. RU SS E J. E 
PART II 
{Continued front the July Isme.) 
T he t enenient House Act of 1901 set a stand¬ 
ard ot construction closely approximating 
in many respects to that of the model tene¬ 
ment already huilt by private enterprise. I'he 
benefits of the act are traceable distinctly to the 
philanthropic and intelligent investigations and 
experiments of those who had to hght against in¬ 
veterate prejudices and selfish interests. As with 
other great reforms, the protests of sufferers and 
victims were useless until the intelligent sympathy 
of the discerning few took a practical shape and 
evolved a workable plan. 
In Adarch, 1896, the New A ork Association for 
Improving the Condition of the Poor held an impor¬ 
tant conference on improved housing, and this re¬ 
sulted in the organization of an Improved Housing 
Council, one of whose committees was that on Model 
.Apartment Houses. Mr. Richard Watson Gilder 
was chairman of the Improved Housing Council,and 
Mr. Joseph S. Auerbach was chairman of the com¬ 
mittee on Model Apartment Houses. Before this, 
the I mproved Dwellings Company of Brooklyn, 
had been organized by Adr. Alfred V. White, former 
Commissioner of City Works for Brooklyn, who 
began building model tenement houses nearly thirty- 
five years ago and has the high honor of being the 
pioneer of such construction in the Lhiited States. 
Other organizations were the Improved Dwelling 
Association and the Tenement House Building Com¬ 
pany of New York. It was the aim of all these or¬ 
ganizations to provide the best obtainable dwellings 
on a basis that combined philanthropy with a mod¬ 
erate but assured return on the investment, none of 
them was started as a purely business enterprise 
with the object of making as mucb money as possible 
Linderthe permissible scope of competition. 'Ehere was 
behind them all an un(|uestionahly honest desire to 
improve the housing conditions of city wage-earners; 
ROOF GARDEN OF THE HENRY PHIPPS TENEMENT HOUSE, NEW YORK 
