Tenement House Act of 1901

(noun)

A reform of the Progressive Era, this 1901 New York State law was one of the first such laws to ban the construction of dark, poorly ventilated tenement buildings in the state of New York. Among other sanctions, the law required that new buildings must be built with outward-facing windows in every room, an open courtyard, indoor toilets, and fire safeguards.

Related Terms

Examples of Tenement House Act of 1901 in the following topics:

  • Tenements and Overcrowding

    • Such tenements (or "walk-ups") were particularly prevalent in New York, where in 1865, a report stated that 500,000 people lived in unhealthy tenements, whereas in Boston in 1845, fewer than a quarter of workers were housed in tenements.
    • It is the lullaby of tenement-house babes.
    • The Tenement House Act of 1867, the state legislature's first comprehensive legislation on housing conditions, prohibited cellar apartments unless the ceiling was one foot above street level; required one water closet per 20 residents; required fire escapes; and began to delineate space between buildings.
    • The Tenement House Act of 1867 was amended by the Tenement House Act of 1879, also known as the "Old Law," which required lot coverage of no more than 65 percent.
    • This publication ultimately led to the passage of the Tenement House Act of 1901.

  • Social Criticism

    • The end of the Gilded Age witnessed rising levels of social criticism from a new kind of investigative journalist called a "muckraker."
    • The publication of articles and accounts of the experience in the Tribune led to the release of 12 patients who were not mentally ill, to a reorganization of the staff and administration of the institution, and eventually, to a change in the lunacy laws.
    • His most famous work, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890) documented squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s.
    • This work inspired many reforms of working-class housing immediately after publication, and it has continued to have a lasting impact in today's society.
    • With the help of humanitarian Lawrence Veiller, Riis endorsed the implementation of "model tenements" in New York.

  • African Americans in Southern Politics

    • Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1827–January 16, 1901) was the first African American to serve in the U.S.
    • House of Representatives, the second black person to serve in the U.S.
    • House of Representatives.
    • During his term in Congress, Rainey supported legislation to protect the civil rights of Southern blacks, working for two years to gain passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
    • In May 1874, Rainey became the first African American to preside over the House of Representatives as Speaker pro tempore.

  • Roosevelt's Progressivism

    • was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909.
    • Following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt, at age 42, succeeded to the office, becoming the youngest U.S. president in history.
    • The split among Republicans enabled the Democrats to win both the White House and a majority in the Congress in 1912.
    • While president, Roosevelt targeted these trusts, particularly the railroad monopolies, by increasing the regulatory power of the federal government through the Elkins Act (1903) and the Hepburn Act (1906).
    • The Hepburn Act of 1906 gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) the power to set maximum railroad rates and auditing power over the railroads' financial records, a task simplified by standardized booking systems.

  • J.P. Morgan and the Financial Industry

    • After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company he merged in 1901 with the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses, including Consolidated Steel and Wire Company, to form the United States Steel Corporation.
    • He moved to New York City in 1858, where he worked at the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Company, the American representatives of George Peabody & Company.
    • Pierpont Morgan & Company, he acted as agent in New York for his father's firm.
    • By 1900, it was one of the most powerful banking houses of the world, carrying through many deals, especially reorganizations and consolidations.
    • After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates. " The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.

  • Putting the infrastructure in place: a call for new standards

    • For example, before the passage of the American Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, ‘topdown'theorists predicted that meeting sulphur emission targets would cost businesses $1,500 (or more) per ton of emissions.
    • Just as important, electricity rates, which were predicted to rise to astronomical heights (power plants are one of the chief creators of sulphur emissions), fell by one-eighth.
    • When the light bulb was perfected in the late 1870s no electrical power plants existed, no transmission lines criss-crossed townsand countries, no houses or businesses were wired for electricity, and no lamps were being manufactured.
    • As he put it, few people remember that in the United Stated during the 1800s, a nationwide lack of standards meant that weights and measures – including measured units of electricity – could have as many as eight definitions, which overwhelmed industry and consumers with a confusing array of incompatible choices.
    • Pielke goes on to state that in 1901, the United States became the last major economic power to establish an agency to set technological standards and that afterwards, a boom in product innovation occurred in almost all aspects of life.

  • The Muckrakers

    • House of Representatives office building, drew on a character from John Bunyan's 1678 classic, Pilgrim's Progress, saying:
    • Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906, which revealed conditions in the meat packing industry in the United States and was a major factor in the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act.
    • "History of Bigotry in the United States" New York: Random House, 1943 Published posthumously.
    • Cook, the muckrakers' journalism resulted in litigation or legislation that had a lasting impact, such as the end of Standard Oil's monopoly over the oil industry, the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the creation of the first child labor laws in the United States around 1916.
    • Illustration of Theodore Roosevelt and Jacob Riis walking the beat in NYC in 1894 when Roosevelt was New York City Police Commissioner, 1901

  • Elements of Reform

    • In 1901, Jane Addams founded the Juvenile Protective Association, a non-profit agency dedicated to protecting children from abuse.
    • In 1913, Congress passed the Webb-Kenyon Act forbade the transport of liquor into dry states.
    • In August 1917, the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act banned production of distilled spirits for the duration of the war.
    • The drys worked energetically to secure two-third majority of both houses of Congress and the support of three quarters of the states needed for an amendment to the federal constitution.
    • The Volstead Act, 1919, defined intoxicating as having alcohol content greater than 0.5% and established the procedures for enforcement of the Act.