Annual report of the Homestead Commission (1914) (14593171770)

Identifier: annualreportofho1914mass (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Homestead Commission
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Massachusetts. Homestead Commission
Subjects: Massachusetts. Homestead Commission Housing Housing policy Working class Cities and towns Housing
Publisher: Boston : Wright & Potter
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



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estion shown in 1914. A half century ago thisblock was in the midst of an open field. A few years laterstreets began to be cut through, and about 1870 the first houseswere erected. They were of single and two family types, andwere placed 10 feet from the street line in the middle of lots40 to 50 feet wide and 70 to 100 feet deep. With the excep-tion of a line of tenement houses a few blocks away, the wholeneighborhood was built up in this open manner. Later, Slavshuddled in indescribable density in the tenement section, whichearned the sobriquet hells kitchen. Little by little theyfound their way into the dwelling houses. In the early 90sItalians found homes in the tenements of hells kitchen.Other foreigners followed, and each set of newcomers competedsuccessively for the dwelling houses. They not only took overthe houses, but built others, many of them on the interiors PUBLIC DOCUMENT —No. 103. 17 V777\ 0~e//,n9j fTTTTTtn Owe//,nSS „,/■/, Sror, factor,*;, W-URD sr ! Barni Sfl^^
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REILLEY ST SCALE 50 = 1 of lots. This practice has continued, until to-day we find thepeople herded like cattle, in blocks whose percentage of openarea is decreasing each year. Here is a slum in the making.An examination of the accompanying diagram, comparing theblocks in 1876, 1896 and 1914, will show its gradual evolution.Great numbers of blocks in the cities and large towns of Massa-chusetts are tending toward the same conditions. It is theoffice of city planning to change that tendency. IS THE HOMESTEAD COMMISSION, WOODEK BUILDING ES3 BRICK BUILDING fTTTTTn 1814annualreportofho1914mass