Wooster Street. -2.

Wooster Street 2.png

Title

Wooster Street. -2.

Subject

tenement houses, girls, children

Description

This drawing depicts the basement tenements that once were among the worst sources of contagion and disease in New York. Riis' "The Battle With Slums" (1902) was one of the publications during the Progressive Era that reproduced this drawing.

The following excerpt is from page 39 of the Forty-First Annual Report of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, for the year 1884 (which overall is from the Tenement House Inspectors Report, pages 36-50): "A narrow, covered alley leads to a colony extending to the rear. The houses fronting on the main yard appear as if they might fall at any moment; there are three or four underground rooms, damp, dark, noisome holes, whose occupation is contrary to ordinance, one of which, as will be seen by the illustration, is "To Let". Of its two rooms about 6 feet high and 10 feet square, the outer one is steeped in gloom and the inner one is wholly dark, while both are damp and repellant. The imagination sickens at the thought of one's having to exist in such a pen, where a wet earthy smell takes the place of air and the sunlight never enters, where rats run riot, and mould and mildew greet the touch. The rooms are to be had for $5.00 per month, to be paid promptly in advance on penalty of eviction. My last acquaintance here died of rheumatism. . . . whose exterior may be seen in the shed-like extension at the lower left hand corner of the larger drawing, shows a living room with a bedroom at the further end; the latter measuring 8 feet by 5 feet 6 inches, perfectly dark and unaired, in which four persons sleep, while two children sleep on the floor in the outer room. Everything that should be perpendicular or horizontal, is all awry, the roof leaks, the window admits cold air freely. . . . Pointing to the cracked walls and leaky roof, the woman said 'What can we do? where can we go? my husband earns $6.00 a week, we pay $5.00 a month for the shelter but we must put up with the cold and the darkness and the damp.' ... All these houses are in a condition such as would shock the sensibilities of those who generously imagine that the homes of the poor are not so very uncomfortable after all."

Creator

William Henry (W.H.) Drake

Source

Columbia University Libraries/Information Services' Community Service Society Photographs

Date

1884

Contributor

New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor

Identifier

Item Number: 212
Photograph Number: 14-2
Box and Folder Number: 296: 2

Original Format

Drawing

Physical Dimensions

691 x 850