tfo 
 
 
 Fine Arts Library 
 Sibley Hall 
 
HD7293.V4T"""'"™'"""'"^ 
 Jum '*'''"°"'" Housing Association 
 
 3 1924 016 066 254 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 ''" f iMiiitti" 
 
 Trrt'4.:r 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i^^^peo^ 
 
 
 
 K^«^ 
 
 ^g^"9 
 
 
 
 ineo 
 
 i^^*a/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 QAYLOHD 
 
 
 
 PfllNTED IN USA 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924016066254 
 
THE NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION 
 
 BY 
 
 LAWRBNCl) VEILLKR 
 
 Secretary 
 
 I OS East 22ncl Street 
 N£W York 
 
 March igio 
 
ITHACA, N,X 14853 
 
 VJM A£t» Library 
 Sibley HaU 
 
Copyright by Underwood and Undcrvjood. Ncv' Vork 
 
 ROBERT W. DUFOREST. 
 President National Housing Association. 
 
THE NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION 
 
 A NEW ORGANIZATION "TO IMPROVE HOUSING CONDITIONS 
 
 BOTH URBAN AND SUBURBAN, IN EVERY 
 
 PRACTICABLE WAY" 
 
 LAWRENCE VEILLER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 To say that every American city has 
 its housing problem is perhaps a truism, 
 yet how few cities are awake to the fact. 
 This, was strikingly borne in upon the 
 writer ten years ago. Studying New 
 York's housing problem and tracing its 
 development through a long period of 
 years, he became impressed with the fact 
 that the two essential elements in bad 
 housing conditions are neglect and ignor- 
 ance; the failure of the members of the 
 community to realize tendencies while 
 they are developing and their evil conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Acting in the belief that the same con- 
 ditions which had developed to so alarm- 
 ing a degree in New York might, if un- 
 heeded, develop in greater or less degree 
 in other cities, the writer ten years ago 
 sought to stimulate interest in the largest 
 cities in America in their own housing 
 conditions and addressed to social work- 
 ers in those cities an inquiry on this im- 
 4)ortant subject. At that time in few 
 cities outside of New York, except Buf- 
 falo, Boston, Philadelphia and Washing- 
 ton, was there any consciousness of bad 
 housing conditions or any active en- 
 deavor to remedy them. 
 
 Now, at the end of ten years, it is 
 interesting to find that there are more 
 or less active movements for the im- 
 provement of housing conditions in about 
 twenty cities. Through this ten-year 
 period it has been the privilege of the 
 writer to act in an advisory capacity 
 from time to time, furnishing information 
 about methods of attacking housing evils, 
 helping formulate laws for their control, 
 discussing administrative problems, ad- 
 vising with reference to model tenements 
 and the best types of smaller houses, and 
 in every way practicable seeking to aid 
 and develop interest in this subject. 
 
 It 'has now seemed best to direct the 
 
 somewhat casual efforts heretofore 
 made, into more definitely organized 
 channels. Accordingly, at the beginning 
 of the year, a meeting was held in New 
 York of some of the people most deeply 
 interested in this movement, to consider 
 the formation of a new national organi- 
 zation, whose chief interest should be the 
 promotion of housing reform. At a sub- 
 sequent meeting a formal organization 
 was perfected and the National Housing 
 Association launched. At this meeting 
 Robert W. deForest, New York's first 
 tenement house commissioner and presi- 
 dent of the Charity Organization Society, 
 was elected president; John M. Glenn, 
 director of the Russell Sage Foundation, 
 treasurer, and Lawrence Veiller, "secre- 
 tary and director. 
 
 The purposes of the association, as set 
 forth in its constitution, are as follows: 
 
 To improve housing conditions, both ur- 
 ban and suburban, in every practicable way ; 
 
 To bring home to each community the im- 
 portance of right housing conditions and the 
 consequences of bad ones ; 
 
 To study in various cities the causes of 
 the drift of the population into the cities, 
 and the methods by which the population 
 may be distributed over larger areas ; 
 
 To encourage the formation of improved 
 housing associations where they do not ex- 
 ist, and to aid in the work of all such asso- 
 ciations by advice and direction ; 
 
 To act as a clearing house of informa- 
 tion for such agencies, and to furnish ad- 
 vice and suggestions to those interested in 
 housiilg reform, and generally to promote 
 popular interest in the subject. 
 
 To aid in the enactment and enforcement 
 of laws that will : (a) prevent the erection 
 of unfit types of dwellings ; (b) encourage 
 the erection of proper ones ; (c) secure their 
 proper maintenance and management; (d) 
 bring about a reasonable and practicable im • 
 provement of the older buildings ; (e) secure 
 reasonable, scientific and economic building 
 laws. 
 
 To aid in defending such laws when once 
 enacted, from the attacks of adverse inter- 
 
JANE ADDAMS. 
 Chicago. 
 
 ests, and in correcting them from time to 
 time to suit changing conditions and meet 
 new needs as they develop. 
 
 To train and equip workers for the va- 
 rious phases of housing reform work. 
 
 The movement is in all senses national, 
 including representatives from nineteen 
 cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as 
 far east as Boston, as far west as Los 
 Angeles, as far south as New Orleans 
 and as far north as Buffalo., The board 
 of directors, composed at present of 
 thirty-seven members, represents: Balti- 
 more, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleve- 
 land, Cincinnati, Elizabeth, N. J. ; Evans- 
 ville, Ind. ; Hartford, Los Angeles, Louis- 
 ville, New Haven, New Orleans, New 
 York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Provi- 
 dence, St. Louis and Washington. Prac- 
 tically every city in which there is today 
 an organized movement for housing re- 
 form is included, and the leaders in the 
 housing movement in their respective 
 cities are participating in this new na- 
 tional association and serving as its 
 directors. 
 
 A statement may not be amiss as to the 
 personnel of the board of directors as it 
 is at present constituted. 
 
 In Baltimore the association has as its 
 member J. B. Noel Wyatt, a leading 
 architect, who is chairman of the Housing 
 Committee of the Baltimore Associated 
 Charities and under whose leadership 
 
 were carried on the very effective inves- 
 tigation made by Miss Kemp and' the re- 
 sulting campaign for securing a better 
 building code and a more effective ordi- 
 nance dealing with housing construction. 
 
 From Boston come Philip Cabot, Ed- 
 ward T. Hartman, Joseph Lee, Frederick 
 Law Olmsted and Robert A. Woods. 
 Mr. Cabot has for years been actively in- 
 terested in the Improved Dwellings Asso- 
 ciation of Boston, and has given more at- 
 tention and thought to this problem than 
 probably any other man in Boston. Mr. 
 Hartman as secretary of the Massachu- 
 setts Civic League has been leading a 
 militant campaign in recent years for the 
 improvement of housing conditions not 
 only in Boston but throughout the state. 
 Mr. Lee and Mr. Woods are so well 
 known and have beeii working for so 
 many years, not only for the improve- 
 ment of housing conditions but in all 
 other forms of social effort, that any 
 further comment with regard to them 
 is superfluous. •Frederick Law Olmsted 
 is another member of the board of direct- 
 ors representing Boston. His reputation 
 as one of the country's leading landscape 
 architects and his deep interest in the 
 city planning movement are well known. 
 
 In Buffalo the board of directors is 
 represented by Frederic Almy of the 
 Buffalo Charity Organization Society. It 
 was the Tenement House Committee of 
 
 ALFRED T. WHITE. 
 Broolilyn. 
 
that society which many years ago, as 
 early as 1892, started so eiJective a 
 movement for housing reform, that the 
 Buffalo ordinance, passed as a result of 
 their work, served in a number of re- 
 spects as a mpdel ■ for the present New 
 York state law. 
 
 The Chicago delegation is particularly 
 strong, headed by Jane Addams, Mrs. 
 Emmons Blaine, Charles B. Ball, Victor 
 Elting and Allen B. Pond. Miss Ad- 
 dams, notwithstanding all her other ac- 
 tivities, has, with Mrs. Blaine, for years 
 been actively interested in improving 
 housing conditions in Chicago. Mrs. 
 Blaine has been the life of the local 
 housing reform body, ■ the City Homes 
 Association. To that association was 
 due the initiative in housing reform in 
 its city. Starting with the investigation 
 of housing conditions made by Robert 
 Hunter, Prof. Frank A. Fetter and others 
 in 1900, it culminated in the publication 
 of the report on housing conditions in 
 Chicago, and the enactment of Chicago's 
 ordinance regulating the construction of 
 new tenements, -followed a few years 
 later by the appointment of Charles B. 
 Ball as its chief executive officer, and the 
 excellent work done under Mr. Ball's di- 
 rection in seeing to it that the ordinance 
 was properly enforced. Chicago's poli- 
 ticians are not likely soon to forget the 
 
 ROBERT A. WOODS. 
 Boston. 
 
 GEN. GEORGE M. STERNBERG. 
 "Washington. 
 
 inquiry undertaken by the City Homes 
 Association into the methods in vogue in 
 the building department, resulting as that 
 investigation did in the ultimate removal 
 of the then head of that department. 
 Since that time Mr. Ball has been an 
 active apostle of reform, not only in his 
 official capacity as chief sanitary inspec- 
 tor of Chicago's Health Department, but 
 in every other way, aiding not only Chi- 
 cago in improving her housing conditions 
 but many other western cities. His serv- 
 ices in advising St. Louis, Cleveland and 
 Louisville as to best methods to pursue 
 have been of great value. Mr. Elting is 
 one of Chicago's best citizens. His work 
 in the Municipal Voters' League and the 
 City Club has brought him into active 
 touch with housing conditions, especially 
 with relation to the city government. 
 Mr. Pond is an architect of large prac- 
 tice and much public spirit who has given 
 especial thought and attention to matters 
 relating to city planning and taken an 
 active interest in the wonderful scheme 
 for the development of the newer 
 Chicago. 
 
 Cincinnati is one of the more recent 
 western cities to take up housing reform. 
 Among the leaders in the movement 
 there, is Max Senior, a leading manufac- 
 turer who has always shown great in- 
 
PAUL D. CRAY ATH. 
 New York. 
 
 terest in the welfare of the working peo- 
 ple. Cincinnati is keenly aroused to the 
 importance of bad housing and the neces- 
 sity of working in an organized way for 
 its improvement. Under the leadership 
 of Charles M. Hubbard, secretary of the 
 Associated Charities, the work has been 
 going on quietly for some years. An 
 ordinance regulating not only the con- 
 struction of new tenements but providing 
 for the improvement in several respects 
 of the older ones, was adopted by the 
 City Council and is now being enforced 
 through the local building department. 
 A strong committee of active social 
 workers with Mr. Hubbard at the head 
 is aiding in this enforcement and study- 
 ing Cincinnati housing conditions with 
 a view to preventing further slum de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Cleveland is a city which excels in so 
 many respects that it is not strange that 
 it should have been one of the leaders in 
 the housing movement. The movement 
 there — a very strong one — is under the 
 auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. 
 About seven years ago this work was 
 taken up bv that body in a thorough and 
 well organized way. An excellent study 
 of local conditions was made by Howard 
 Strong, secretary of the Chamber of 
 Commerce housing committee, and later 
 a very good building code was enacted 
 containing special sections devoted to the 
 
 construction of new tenements. Cleve- 
 land's building code is the best in the 
 country and it is due largely to the work 
 of the Chamber of Commerce committee, 
 in which the prominent architects and 
 builders of Cleveland actively co-operat- 
 ed. Among the leaders is Paul L. Feiss, 
 a merchant, who is the Qeveland mem- 
 ber of the board of directors of the 
 national organization. 
 
 New Jersey is peculiar in being the 
 only state which regulates and controls 
 housing conditions through an adminis- 
 trative state board rather than through 
 local branches of the city government. 
 Seven years ago, following closely upon 
 the work of the New York Tenement 
 House Commission of 1900, and stirred 
 into action by the disclosures made by 
 Mary B. Sayles and Cornelia Brad- 
 ford in the investigation of housing con- 
 ditions in Jersey City, a movement was 
 launched for their improvement and 
 after a hard fight a State Tenement 
 House Board created. At the same time 
 a comprehensive law for New Jersey, 
 modeled largely upon the New York stat- 
 ute, was enacted. A leader in this move- 
 ment from the verv start was Clinton 
 Mackenzie, an architect practicing in 
 New York but residing in Elizabeth, who 
 is the New Jersey representative on the 
 board of directors. 
 
 The work in Indiana to secure the re- 
 
 HENRY W. FARNAM. 
 New Haven. 
 
form of bad housing conditions is unique 
 in the fact that it has been largely done 
 by one woman, Mrs. Albion Fellows 
 Bacon of Evansville, who a few years 
 ago started unaided and alone to bring 
 about reform in her own city. Notwith- 
 standing the opposition encountered she 
 was able through her wisdom, efficiency 
 and pfersistence to secure, practicall}- 
 single-handed, from the Legislature of 
 Indiana, the enactment of a compre- 
 hensive housing law applicable to Evans- 
 ville and Indianapolis. Mrs. Bacon is 
 the Indiana representative on the board 
 of directors. 
 
 Housing reform has been carried on 
 steadily in Hartford for some eight years 
 past. Starting originally with the Char- 
 ity Organization Society of that city at 
 the initiative of David I. Green, its very 
 efficient executive officer, the movement 
 has gradually broadened out. Concern- 
 ing itself at first chiefly with the con- 
 struction of new houses and the passage 
 of a, law to control them, it has in re- 
 cent years addressed itself also to the 
 larger question of the maintenance of 
 existing houses and the necessary legis- 
 lation to secure proper results through 
 administrative control. Rev. Ernest L. 
 Miel, one of Hartford's progressive 
 clergymen, has for years been most 
 active in this work. He is the represen- 
 tative of Hartford on the board of di- 
 rectors. ' 
 
 CHARLES B. BALL. 
 Chicago. 
 
 FREDERIC ALMY, 
 Buffalo. 
 
 The movement for housing reform in 
 Los Angeles is somewhat recent but has 
 been, very effective. Through the efforts 
 of a few devoted citizens an official hous- 
 ing commission was appointed four 
 years ago by the mayor and council. 
 This commission has made a valuable 
 investigation into the local conditions 
 and an admirable report. It is now 
 actively engaged in bringing about the 
 reforms that were found to be urgently 
 needed. Dr. Titian Coffey, chairman of 
 this commission, is the California repre- 
 sentative in the national association. 
 
 The movement for housing reform in 
 Louisville is very recent. From an agita- 
 tion originating in the women's clubs 
 and led by Mrs. George H. Gray, ex- 
 traordinary progress has been made in 
 a very short space of time. An excellent 
 investigation has been completed by Miss 
 Ivemp, who made the Baltimore investi- 
 L;ation, and tUe report of the commission 
 Ijublished. The commission, of which 
 \V. W. Davies is chairman, has formu- 
 lated its proposed legislation and is now 
 engaged in securing its enactment by the 
 state Legislature. Mrs. Gray is the 
 Louisville member of the board of di- 
 rectors. 
 
 Louisville has not been the only south- 
 i_rn city which has taken up the move- 
 ment for housing reform. New Orleans 
 has also been active through Eleanor 
 McMain, head worker of Kingsley 
 
GROSVENOR ATTERBURY. 
 New York. 
 
 House. Miss McMain is very appro- 
 priately the New Orleans representative- 
 on the board of directors. 
 
 To New Haven the state of Connecti- 
 cut owes its present housing law, and 
 to Prof. Henry W. Farnam of Yale, on 
 whose initiative this movement was un- 
 dertaken, it is especially indebted. About 
 six years ago Professor Farnam, con- 
 scious of the bad housing conditions in 
 certain portions of New Haven and ap- 
 preciating that these conditions existed 
 in other Connecticut cities, started a local 
 investigation which culminated in the 
 passage of a state law regulating the 
 construction of new tenements. This 
 law, which has proved very satisfactory, 
 applies to Hartford and other cities as 
 well as to New Haven. Professor Far- 
 nam, notwithstanding his many interests, 
 has consented to serve as the Connecti- 
 cut member of the board of directors. 
 
 New York, where housing conditions 
 are at their worst and where the efforts 
 for reform have been greatest and the 
 results largest, is naturally strongly rep- 
 resented in the new national movement. 
 The New York members of the board of 
 directors are Robert W. deForest, the 
 president of the association, Alfred T. 
 White, the president of the Improved 
 Dwellings Association of Brooklyn, a 
 member of the Tenement House Com- 
 mission of 1900 and the president of the 
 Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. Mr. 
 
 White is the pioneer builder of model 
 tenements in America. He had the vis- 
 ion over thirty years ago, as early as 
 1877, to appreciate the significance of 
 bad housing and demonstrated in a 
 very practical way, by the building of 
 his Home and Tower Model Tenements 
 in Brooklyn, the possibilities of housing 
 the working people under decent condi- 
 tions. Mr. White's work then begun 
 has been carried on continuously and 
 has by no means been limited to this 
 one form of effort. The improvement 
 of housing laws both in New York and 
 Brooklyn has been his constant interest. 
 The association is particularly fortunate 
 in having him among its directors. Paul 
 D. Cravath, chairman of the Tenement 
 House Committee of the Charity Or- 
 ganization Society, vice-chairman of the 
 State Tenement House Commission of 
 1900 and one of New York's most dis- 
 tinguished lawyers, is another member of 
 the New York delegation. Others are 
 Grosvenor Atterbury and I. N. Phelps 
 Stokes, prominent architects, both of 
 whom have given probably more 
 thought and attention to the problem 
 of housing the poor than any other 
 two architects in the country. The 
 part played by Mr. Stokes in the New 
 York housing movement has been very 
 important. It was due largely to his 
 initiative that the Tenement House Ex- 
 hibition of 1899 was held, and he has 
 given unremittingly of his time and 
 
 H. D. W. ENGLISH. 
 Pittsburgh. 
 
 10 
 
thought to the work of the New York 
 Tenement House Committee. In ad- 
 dition, the New York delegation in- 
 cludes John M. Glenn, director of the 
 Russell Sage Foundation, whose inter- 
 est in housing reform in Baltimore, New 
 York and other cities, is well known ; 
 Prof. Frank J. Goodnow of Columbia 
 University and John Martin, both of 
 whom are actively interested in the hous- 
 ing movement and closely identified with 
 the Committee on Congestion of Popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Philadelphia, known for years as the 
 city of homes and justly so, has notwith- 
 standing a very serious housing problem, 
 and two people there have for fourteen 
 years past devoted themselves unremit- 
 tingly and with gratifynig results to 
 the improvement of housing conditions. 
 These are Helen L. Parrish and Han- 
 nah Fox, the two leading spirits in the 
 Octavia Hill Association whose work is 
 a model for other cities. Not content 
 with the splendid results achieved by 
 that association in the improvement and 
 management of numerous houses for the 
 working people. Miss Parrish, Miss Fox 
 and their associates have in recent years 
 enlarged their field of activity. It was 
 due to them that Miss Dinwiddle's ad- 
 mirable study and report on housing con- 
 ditions in Philadelphia were made in 
 1904, and it was also due largely to them 
 that the Philadelphia housing law was 
 
 CLINTON MACKENZIE. 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 JOSEPH LEE. 
 Boston. 
 
 secured after a strenuous fight. The na- 
 tional association is very fortunate in 
 having Miss Parrish and Miss Fox as 
 its directors from Philadelphia. 
 
 Pittsburgh was conscious of its bad 
 housing conditions and had taken active 
 steps to remedy them long before there 
 was any Pittsburgh Survey. Eight years 
 ago a movement was started there in 
 which the leaders have been W. H. Matv 
 thews of Kingsley House, Mrs. lams and 
 other representatives of the women's 
 clubs. In more recent years a special 
 committee of the Chamber of Commerce 
 and now" the Civic Commission have 
 taken up the movement. As president of 
 the Chamber of Commerce no one has 
 been more active in the betterment of 
 conditions generally in Pittsburgh than 
 H. D. W. English, and it is with especial 
 appropriateness that he represents Pitts- 
 burgh on the board of directors. 
 
 Providence, one of the older eastern 
 cities, has not been free from bad con- 
 ditions and for many years past it has 
 been actively at work seeking to remedy 
 them. The man who has been the most 
 important factor in the movement for 
 improved housing in Providence is the 
 local health officer. Dr. Charles V. 
 Chapin, who represents that city in the 
 national association. 
 
 Another western city, St. Louis, has 
 through a special committee of the Civic 
 
 11 
 
»'#V 
 
 
 j^^M^r W^^^B^^^'^^BBl^ 
 
 'JOHN M.. GLENN. 
 New York. 
 
 League carried on for several years an, 
 active movement for the improvement of 
 housing, securing the enactment of nec- 
 essary laws and now organizing to see 
 that they are carried out. Mayo Fesler, 
 secretary of the Civic League, has been 
 the active spirit in this cause. St. Louis 
 is represented in the national association 
 by Mr. Fesler. 
 
 Washington, the "model city," has not 
 model housing conditions. No one has 
 been more conscious of this than the peo- 
 ple in Washington. Starting many years 
 ago in 1894 by an investigation made by 
 Dr. George M. Kober and later taken up 
 actively and efficiently by Charles F. 
 Weller, the movement has progressed 
 with great speed and in many respects 
 with very satisfactory results. This has 
 been due largely to the active interest 
 of two physicians. Dr. Kober and Gen. 
 George M. Sternberg. These two 
 gentlemen have given not only to Wash- 
 ington but to the entire country a type 
 of model tyvo-family dwelling which may 
 well be copied in most American cities. 
 The great success of their efforts in the 
 Washington Sanitary Improvement Com- 
 pany, and the gradual extension of the 
 field of usefulness of this company by 
 the building of more houses, are well 
 known. More recently both General 
 
 Sternberg and Dr. Kober have been the 
 active spirits in the President's Homes 
 Commission, whose recent monumental 
 report has Jjeen so stimulating to other 
 communities. The national association 
 feels itself particularly fortunate in hav- 
 ing among its directors as representing 
 Washington, Dr. Kober and Dr. Stern- 
 berg. 
 
 Ihis embraces the personnel of the 
 board of directors as at present consti- 
 tuted. At an early meeting additional 
 directors will be elected, bringing the 
 number up to fifty and including persons 
 from other citi'es as well as others who 
 are active in the cities enumerated. 
 
 The government of the association will 
 be through its board of directors and an 
 executive committee of eleven members. 
 The cities represented on the executive 
 committee are Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, 
 New Haven, New York, Philadelphia 
 'and Washington. The members are 
 Robert W. deForest, chairman ; Frederic 
 Almy, Grosvenor Atterbury, Charles B. 
 Ball, Philip Cabot, Paul D. Cravath, 
 Henry W. Farnam, John M. Glenn, 
 Helen L. Parrish, George M. Sternberg, 
 Alfred T. White. 
 
 In addition to the directors, it is pro- 
 posed to have a large number of honor- 
 ary vice-presidents. Those thus far elect- 
 ed, who are to be considered merely a 
 nucleus, are: Jane Addams, Charles W. 
 Eliot, H. D. W. English, H. B. Frissell, 
 E. R. L. Gould, Frederick Law Olmsted, 
 Henry Phipps, Jacob A. Riis, Mrs. Rus- 
 sel Sage and Charles P. Taft. 
 
 The offices of the association are at 
 105 East Twenty-second street, New 
 York. The membership is divided into 
 three classes : Annual membership with 
 dues at five dollars a year ; sustaining 
 membership with dues at twenty-five 
 dollars a year and life membership upon 
 the payment of one hundred dollars. 
 
 It is the expectation and desire of the 
 directors to build up a large and repre- 
 senfative membership throughout the 
 country, so that the movement may be 
 national, not only in its scope but in its 
 constituency as well. 
 
 12