This triggered the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, smallpox, and tuberculosis. As abysmal as the living conditions that immigrants faced upon arriving in New York City, life for them was still better than that in their country of origin.

It was not like living in mansions, condominium’s, or anything. These tenements were for poor immigrants that just came to the United States to start a better life. These tenements were overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe housing. At least 18 people lived in one tenement apartment.

The conditions were so crowded, so dismally dark, so unsanitary and so foul-smelling, that they were the single most important cause of America’s early immigration laws. Unfortunately, the laws were almost impossible to enforce and steerage conditions remained deplorable, almost beyond belief.

At the turn of the century more than half the population of New York City, and most immigrants, lived in tenement houses, narrow, low-rise apartment buildings that were usually grossly overcrowded by their landlords.

Emerging in U.S. cities during the late 1800s, tenements took many shapes and forms: multistoried buildings, row houses, frame houses, and even converted slave quarters. Between 1870 and into the early 1900s, U.S. population growth (buoyed by immigration in record numbers) outpaced construction.

The entire flat, which often contained households of seven or more people, totaled about 325 square feet. Only one room per apartment – the “front room” – received direct light and ventilation, limited by the tenements that would soon hem it in.