The century between 1820 and 1920 defined America as a nation of immigrants, creating a
“melting pot” that makes the culture in the United States truly unique. It was during this century that approximately 33 million people entered the ports of the United States.
Immigrants from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada, came in massive waves. These immigrants settled in the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest of America, most without adequate amounts of housing to hold them all.
In 1825, in Lower Manhattan the first American slum came to be, the Five Points.
Physically, the Five Points was mostly what we now know as Little Italy, Chinatown and the blocks of imposing courthouses that seem to …show more content…
The Immigration Act of 1882 prohibited the entry of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge.” Another important piece of immigration legislation that Congress passed was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In this directive the immigration of all Chinese peoples into the United States was banned and called for a one- year prison sentence and $500 fine for any person attempting to smuggle Chinese laborers into the country (Brackemyre, T., 2015)
In the first half of the 19th century, many of the more affluent residents of New
York’s Lower East Side neighborhood began to move further north, leaving their low-rise masonry row houses behind. With the huge influx of people, buildings that had once been single-family dwellings were increasingly divided into multiple living spaces to accommodate this growing population. These buildings became known as tenements. They were narrow, low-rise apartment buildings, a large number of them concentrated in the
Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City (Tenements, 2015)
A typical tenement building had five to seven stories and occupied nearly all of …show more content…
In many tenements, only the rooms on the street got any light, and the interior rooms had no ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people, a full two-thirds of New York City’s population, were living in tenement housing (Tenements, 2015)
It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that people started to move from the center of the cities. The upper class built townhouses along the main streets and within walking distance of the docks, warehouses, offices and shops, which provided services and entertainment. The middle class lived farther from the center and the poor lived in the suburbs. The cities were thickly populated as people had to live close to where they worked and shopped. The streets were mostly narrow with just enough room for a people walking and wagons to get through (Tenements, 2015)
In San Francisco the development of streetcars and trolleys made it possible for people to move farther away from their places of work. Without the restriction of having to live within walking distance of work, people tended to seek out neighbors of the same or similar status. The affluent built mansions on the large plots of land away from the city.
New apartments were larger with balconies and porches (People Urbanization of
“melting pot” that makes the culture in the United States truly unique. It was during this century that approximately 33 million people entered the ports of the United States.
Immigrants from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and down from Canada, came in massive waves. These immigrants settled in the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest of America, most without adequate amounts of housing to hold them all.
In 1825, in Lower Manhattan the first American slum came to be, the Five Points.
Physically, the Five Points was mostly what we now know as Little Italy, Chinatown and the blocks of imposing courthouses that seem to …show more content…
The Immigration Act of 1882 prohibited the entry of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge.” Another important piece of immigration legislation that Congress passed was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In this directive the immigration of all Chinese peoples into the United States was banned and called for a one- year prison sentence and $500 fine for any person attempting to smuggle Chinese laborers into the country (Brackemyre, T., 2015)
In the first half of the 19th century, many of the more affluent residents of New
York’s Lower East Side neighborhood began to move further north, leaving their low-rise masonry row houses behind. With the huge influx of people, buildings that had once been single-family dwellings were increasingly divided into multiple living spaces to accommodate this growing population. These buildings became known as tenements. They were narrow, low-rise apartment buildings, a large number of them concentrated in the
Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City (Tenements, 2015)
A typical tenement building had five to seven stories and occupied nearly all of …show more content…
In many tenements, only the rooms on the street got any light, and the interior rooms had no ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people, a full two-thirds of New York City’s population, were living in tenement housing (Tenements, 2015)
It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that people started to move from the center of the cities. The upper class built townhouses along the main streets and within walking distance of the docks, warehouses, offices and shops, which provided services and entertainment. The middle class lived farther from the center and the poor lived in the suburbs. The cities were thickly populated as people had to live close to where they worked and shopped. The streets were mostly narrow with just enough room for a people walking and wagons to get through (Tenements, 2015)
In San Francisco the development of streetcars and trolleys made it possible for people to move farther away from their places of work. Without the restriction of having to live within walking distance of work, people tended to seek out neighbors of the same or similar status. The affluent built mansions on the large plots of land away from the city.
New apartments were larger with balconies and porches (People Urbanization of