Laws That Affected the Tenements
  • Before 1867 there were absolutely no laws imposing responsibilities on slumlords to protect the health and safety of tenants.

  • The Tenement House Act of 1867 
Set construction regulations, for example, one toilet was required for every twenty people.

  • First Tenement Act of 1867
Passed legislation stating that all the tenement housing must have a fire escape and a window in every room.

  • Second Tenement House Act of 1879
Required all windows to face out to the streets in order to be open for fresh air.

  • 1887 Amendment to the Second Tenement House Act
Required air shafts in all tenement buildings.

  • New York Tenement Act of 1901
This law required that new buildings must be built with outward-facing windows in every room, an open courtyard, proper ventilation systems, indoor toilets, and fire safeguards. 

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The result of the Second Tenement House Act of 1879
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"No. 97 was not  affected by the next round of tenement laws enacted in 1879.  Only tenements built after that date had to meet its requirements: that all rooms have access to air.  Since inner rooms had no way of facing the street or back yard, the law effectively required windows opening on air shafts.  The result was the "dumbbell" tenements, so named because the indentations of the air shaft created a building footprint that resembles the shape of a dumbbell
weight." - Arnold Eagle, http://www.thirteen.org/tenement/eagle.html#lower


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"When these tenements were built, there were almost no laws regulating tenement construction. In the early 1860s, the laws mandated that there be a fire escape on a building, that it have a strong, fireproof party wall. But very little else was mandated, and even those rules that were on the books were largely ignored by owners because there was no way of making sure that these rules were followed." 
- The Architecture and Development of New York, http://ci.columbia.edu/0240s/0243_2/0243_2_s1_text.html