tenements
Run-down urban housing
Tenements are run-down apartment buildings, typically in urban areas, divided into small units for low-income residents.
The word evokes crowded, poorly maintained housing from industrial-era cities: immigrant families packed into Lower East Side tenements.
In legal contexts, tenement can mean any property held by a tenant, but the cramped urban dwelling dominates modern usage.
Impoverished, crowded districts
- ghettosIsolated, impoverished urban districts
- Lower East SideManhattan district below Houston
- fire escapesBuilding emergency exit routes
- airshaftsVertical passages for ventilation
gaslight · washboards · clotheslines · industrial revolution · building codes · settlement houses · landmarks · heritage
Urban corridor's appearance
- stoopsBends forward, or porches
- alleywaysNarrow urban passages
- sidewalksPaved pedestrian pathways
- rowhousesAdjacent attached urban homes
brownstones · neighborhoods · boroughs · fire escapes · street vendors · elevated trains · cobblestones · gas lamps
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
- squalorDirty, degraded living conditions
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- privationLack of necessities
want · neediness · child labor · piecework · low wages · struggle · survival · hunger
Property owner renting out
- rentPayment for temporary use
- leaseTemporary use contract
- flatLacking vertical variation
- apartmentRented unit in building
dwelling · lodging · rooms · boardinghouse · walkup · sublet · eviction · rent strike
Filled beyond capacity
- squalidExtremely dirty and neglected
- crampedUncomfortably lacking space
- congestedBlocked by overcrowding
- teemingAbundantly full of
stifling · airless · windowless · vermin · rats · bedbugs · disease · cholera
Historic immigrant processing center
- ethnic enclavesImmigrant community neighborhoods
- Little ItalyUrban ethnic enclave
- ChinatownAsian immigrant neighborhood
- pushcartManual wheeled vendor vehicle
peddler · sweatshop · steerage · Old World · melting pot · assimilation · greenhorn · boarders
slums
Impoverished, crowded districts
- ghettosIsolated, impoverished urban districts
- Lower East SideManhattan district below Houston
- fire escapesBuilding emergency exit routes
airshafts · gaslight · washboards · clotheslines · industrial revolution · building codes · settlement houses · landmarks · heritage · conservation
streetscape
Urban corridor's appearance
rowhouses · brownstones · neighborhoods · boroughs · fire escapes · street vendors · elevated trains · cobblestones · gas lamps · density
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- hardshipSuffering from difficult circumstances
- squalorDirty, degraded living conditions
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
privation · want · neediness · child labor · piecework · low wages · struggle · survival · hunger · malnutrition
landlord
Property owner renting out
apartment · dwelling · lodging · rooms · boardinghouse · walkup · sublet · eviction · rent strike · housing court
overcrowded
Filled beyond capacity
- squalidExtremely dirty and neglected
- crampedUncomfortably lacking space
- congestedBlocked by overcrowding
teeming · stifling · airless · windowless · vermin · rats · bedbugs · disease · cholera · tuberculosis
Ellis Island
Historic immigrant processing center
- ethnic enclavesImmigrant community neighborhoods
- Little ItalyUrban ethnic enclave
- ChinatownAsian immigrant neighborhood
pushcart · peddler · sweatshop · steerage · Old World · melting pot · assimilation · greenhorn · boarders · mutual aid
- housingapartments, home, house, houses, homes
- dwellingshouse, home, apartment, cabin, cottage
- 1800s AmericaOregon Trail, Trail of Tears, transcontinental railroad, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln
- Early 1900sroaring twenties, flapper, jazz, speakeasy, prohibition
- house typescabin, bungalow, chalet, farmhouse, ranch house
- urban neighborhoodsboutiques, galleries, row houses, cafes, bungalows
tenementsmansions
Large, stately houses
luxury apartments · penthouses · palaces · estates · manor houses
tenementssingle-family homes
Standalone dwellings for one household
detached houses · suburban homes · country estates · farmhouses · bungalows
- tenement building
- tenement houseDense low-income apartment building
- tenement housingCrowded low-rent urban dwellings
- tenement lifeExistence in crowded housing