Photographs Of Tenement Houses On Orchard Street, New York City 1902-1914

These photographs were taken by Inspectors of the New York City Tenement House Department, 1902-1914.  The buildings featured were on Orchard Street, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It’s been given a make-over in recent times, gentrified, if you will, a term that comes more loaded than George Bush at a frat house party. But it wasn’t great back then. Yuppies, Hipsters and all other newly arrived tribes who demand indoor plumbing, designer shmata, expensive protein, a road that doesn’t liquidise in snow, rain and heat, and the best of everything should appreciate how the area has altered in little over a century. Not all modernisation is regrettable.

 

Row of outhouses with laundry and fire escapes (1902).

Row of outhouses with laundry and fire escapes (1902).

 

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Two women & man in front of outhouses; one woman getting water

Two women & man in front of outhouses; one woman getting water

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Man in kitchen—bedroom with dishes, clothes, irons (1904).

Man in kitchen—bedroom with dishes, clothes, irons (1904).

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Row of outhouses, laundry and backs of tenement…(1904).

Row of outhouses, laundry and backs of tenement…(1904).

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Backyard of tenement (1903).

Backyard of tenement (1903).

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Dilapidated outhouses (1904).

Dilapidated outhouses (1904).

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Via: NYPL

 

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