New York Tenements

East Side, West Side, 1921

New York's population explosion in the middle of the 19th century led to the construction of much low cost housing for the thousands of pooer and working class immigrants living and working in lower Manhattan. Rents in tenement buildings began at $2 to $3 a room per month, but conditions were crowded and unsanitary.

Scenes such as this one, where wash was strung between buildings in almost every neighborhood, have disappeared with the advent of laundry rooms in buildings and laundromats everywhere.