Photos: New York’s Rich History of Housing Activism
A new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York highlights crucial moments in the local tenant movement, including rent strikes in the 1920s and the unlivable conditions that drove tenants to action.
Tenants in Harlem on a rent strike, unknown maker, 1919. Courtesy Bettmann via Getty Images. Photo courtesy of Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York has added on to its ongoing exhibition, Activist New York, with a section exploring the history of housing activism. The display outlines crucial moments of the tenant movement in the city. These include rent strikes (resulting in the city’s first rent control laws in 1920!) and the unlivable conditions that drove tenants to action.
All images except those by the author are courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.
Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement, Five Cents a Spot. Photo by Jacob A. Riis, 1889, digital reproduction. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Roger William Riis, 1990.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers Apartments. Photo by Wurts Bros., 1929, digital reproduction. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Richard Wurts.
Amalgamated Clothing Workers Apartments. Photo by Wurts Bros., 1929, digital reproduction. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Richard Wurts.
The Chelsea Tenants League. Photo by Lucy Ashjian, 1936-1943. Museum of the City of New York, gift of the Estate of Lucy Ashjian
Moving Day. Etching by Philip Reisman, 1929. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Philip Reisman. ACA Galleries, New York.
Eviction Scene. Photo by Arnold Eagle, 1935, digital reproduction. Museum of the City of New York, gift of Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Federal Art Project
The entrance to the Activist New York exhibition. Photo by Brad Farwell
The exterior of the Museum of the City of New York. Photo by Lara Heard
I visited the exhibition for Shelterforce. Here are a few things I learned:
Fights with landlords over the thermostat are nothing new. A coal shortage in 1917 made for a brutal winter. The pushback resulted in a new law in 1918 that required heating in the colder months.
Women were major players in the tenants rights movement of the early 1900s—but their stories have been largely lost to time.
When housing opened in the Stuyvesant Town complex in the 1940s, it was only open to white New Yorkers. Fair housing laws followed a few years later, but the fight would be a long one. With recent decreases in enforcement, it’s also ongoing.
The exhibition is on view indefinitely at the museum. If you’re a cardholder at one of the city’s public library systems, you can score free tickets!
The exterior of the Museum of the City of New York. Photo by Lara Heard
In Houston, where a Housing First strategy has dramatically decreased the number of people without a place to stay, artists and unhoused residents teamed up to create public art works.
Alex Strada worked with 300 shelter staff members and residents to create "Public Address." The project will travel across New York City's five boroughs.
Perhaps you know of this. Well researched. Jared consulted when NYC’s tenement museum was established. https://www.tenement.org/
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/urban-castles/9780231114035/