tenement house
Crowded rental building
A tenement house is a run-down apartment building, typically in a poor urban neighborhood.
The term evokes cramped, poorly maintained housing that barely meets code—the kind of dense, multi-family dwellings that housed immigrant workers in industrial cities: Five families shared one tenement house bathroom.
Often shortened to tenement.
Manhattan district below Houston
- Mulberry StreetNYC Chinatown-adjacent avenue
- slum clearanceDemolition of substandard housing
- building codesLaws governing structure safety
- fire escapesBuilding emergency exit routes
air shafts · sweatshops · rent strike · landlordism · Gilded Age · Progressive Era · industrialization · tuberculosis
Elevatorless apartment building
- railroad flatRooms connected end-to-end
- cold-water flatApartment without hot water
- fire escapeOutdoor emergency exit route
- airshaftVertical passage for airflow
courtyard · stoop · brownstone · brick · narrow · alley · hallway · vestibule
Historic immigrant processing center
- ethnic enclaveArea where one group concentrates
- Little ItalyUrban ethnic enclave
- ChinatownAsian immigrant neighborhood
- assimilationAbsorbing into a whole
melting pot · pushcart · bodega · steerage · Old World · Yiddish · migration · traditions
Filled beyond capacity
- squalidExtremely dirty and neglected
- crampedUncomfortably lacking space
- congestedBlocked by overcrowding
- stuffyLacking fresh air
teeming · airless · vermin · disease · unsanitary · dilapidated · windowless · dark
Lower East Side
Manhattan district below Houston
- Mulberry StreetNYC Chinatown-adjacent avenue
- slum clearanceDemolition of substandard housing
- building codesLaws governing structure safety
fire escapes · air shafts · sweatshops · rent strike · landlordism · Gilded Age · Progressive Era · industrialization · tuberculosis · child labor
walk-up
Elevatorless apartment building
- railroad flatRooms connected end-to-end
- cold-water flatApartment without hot water
- fire escapeOutdoor emergency exit route
airshaft · courtyard · stoop · brownstone · brick · narrow · alley · hallway · vestibule · rooftop
Ellis Island
Historic immigrant processing center
- ethnic enclaveArea where one group concentrates
- Little ItalyUrban ethnic enclave
- ChinatownAsian immigrant neighborhood
assimilation · melting pot · pushcart · bodega · steerage · Old World · Yiddish · migration · traditions · dialects
overcrowded
Filled beyond capacity
- squalidExtremely dirty and neglected
- crampedUncomfortably lacking space
- congestedBlocked by overcrowding
stuffy · teeming · airless · vermin · disease · unsanitary · dilapidated · windowless · dark · dank
tenement housemansion
Large, stately home
luxury apartment · penthouse · palace · manor house · estate
tenement housesingle-family home
Freestanding residential dwelling
detached house · private residence · country house · ranch house · bungalow
tenement housecountry estate
Large rural landholding residence
farmhouse · rural homestead · country house · plantation house · ranch
tenement, house, tenant, tenable, untenable, tenure, tenancy, tenet, detention