Tenement House
The "tenement house" is believed to have started in New York City, on Cherry Street in 1838. "Tenement" is from the Latin tenere (to hold).
(Oxford English Dictionary)
tenement house (orig. U.S.), a house or edifice let out in flats or sets of apartments for separate tenants
1858 W. A. BUTLER Two Millions 47 The *Tenement House, o'er which no friendly movement Has waved the Enchanter's wand of 'Modern Improvement'.
1879 H. GEORGE Progr. & Pov. IX. iii. (1881) 405 To substitute for the tenement house, homes surrounded by gardens.
1884 Q. Rev. Jan. 150 Tenement-houses, i.e. houses let to more than one family, are placed under still stricter conditions.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum's mission is: to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America.
Located in our country's most renowned immigrant neighborhood, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum interprets historic immigrant experience to illuminate the present. By stimulating dialogue on pressing social issues as a means of promoting humanitarian and democratic values, the Museum has established a new model for the museum and preservation professions.
At the center of the Museum's programs is its flagship tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. Built in 1863, this structure is the first homestead of urban, working class, poor and immigrant people preserved in the United States.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum -- Statement
What is the significance of 97 Orchard Street?
Built in l863, 97 Orchard Street is the first tenement and thus the first homestead of urban, working class, poor and immigrant people to be preserved in the United States. This humble abode is the only remaining example of the type of housing millions knew as their first place of settlement in America and New York City. It was the first building of its kind listed on the National Register of Historic Properties and to be designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Tenement Houses of New York City
By the Tenement House Building Co.
New York, NY: Press of Albert B. King
1891
Pg. 3:
The first tenement-house in America was built in 1838 in Cherry Street, and only a stone's throw from the site of the model houses of the Tenement-House Building Company. From that time forward the construction of tenement-houses and the conversion of old private dwellings into tenements proceeded with increasing rapidity, so that at present there is a larger population, relatively as well as numerically, in crowded tenement-houses in New York than in any great city; and the density of population to the acre in the tenement districts of New York is unequalled in any other city in the world. More than two-thirds of the population of the city live in tenement-houses.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
tenement house (orig. U.S.), a house or edifice let out in flats or sets of apartments for separate tenants
1858 W. A. BUTLER Two Millions 47 The *Tenement House, o'er which no friendly movement Has waved the Enchanter's wand of 'Modern Improvement'.
1879 H. GEORGE Progr. & Pov. IX. iii. (1881) 405 To substitute for the tenement house, homes surrounded by gardens.
1884 Q. Rev. Jan. 150 Tenement-houses, i.e. houses let to more than one family, are placed under still stricter conditions.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum's mission is: to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America.
Located in our country's most renowned immigrant neighborhood, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum interprets historic immigrant experience to illuminate the present. By stimulating dialogue on pressing social issues as a means of promoting humanitarian and democratic values, the Museum has established a new model for the museum and preservation professions.
At the center of the Museum's programs is its flagship tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. Built in 1863, this structure is the first homestead of urban, working class, poor and immigrant people preserved in the United States.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum -- Statement
What is the significance of 97 Orchard Street?
Built in l863, 97 Orchard Street is the first tenement and thus the first homestead of urban, working class, poor and immigrant people to be preserved in the United States. This humble abode is the only remaining example of the type of housing millions knew as their first place of settlement in America and New York City. It was the first building of its kind listed on the National Register of Historic Properties and to be designated a National Historic Landmark.
The Tenement Houses of New York City
By the Tenement House Building Co.
New York, NY: Press of Albert B. King
1891
Pg. 3:
The first tenement-house in America was built in 1838 in Cherry Street, and only a stone's throw from the site of the model houses of the Tenement-House Building Company. From that time forward the construction of tenement-houses and the conversion of old private dwellings into tenements proceeded with increasing rapidity, so that at present there is a larger population, relatively as well as numerically, in crowded tenement-houses in New York than in any great city; and the density of population to the acre in the tenement districts of New York is unequalled in any other city in the world. More than two-thirds of the population of the city live in tenement-houses.