3.2. City Life
The population of American cities grew rapidly in the late 1800s. In 1860 about 15 million people lived in the cities and by 1900 over 30 million Americans
were city-dwellers. This rapid increase was partly due to the number of immigrants to the United States, which we will examine closer in this section. It was also because
many Americans gave up their farms to move to cities. Farmers hoped to make a better life in the cities because they often worried all the time and never got to be
around very many people City life could be difficult and dangerous. New workers found it difficult to
afford decent housing because of the low wages they were paid in their factory jobs. They usually lived in overcrowded, run-down buildings with no pluming or heat.
Disease was very prevalent in this type of situation. Fire was also a constant danger because the buildings were made of wood and were built so close together.
The Great Chicago Fire is a prime example of the danger of the city structures. To house the large number of immigrants that flocked to the Midwestern
city, small wooden buildings were built quickly without regard for fire safety. One night a fire started, although the cause was never determined, and spread quickly.
The fire lasted 24 hours, and by the time it was finally put out the Great Chicago Fire had killed hundreds of people, nearly 100,000 people were left homeless, and 13 of
the city of Chicago had been destroyed. As cities grew, many took on a similar shape. Poor people lived downtown, in
the oldest section of the city. Farther out, the middle class lived in neat rows of houses or new apartment buildings. Beyond them lived the rich. They had fine
houses with big lawns and plenty of trees. There were exceptions to this pattern, but most cities held to it.
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The poor lived in areas called slums. A slum is a poor, crowded section of a city with run-down and unsafe housing. Similar to the slums were the ghettos.
Ghettos were poor areas where people of the same background lived together and kept their culture alive. Often the poor lived crowded together in tenements, which were
buildings that were carved up into small apartments. Often families of six or seven people lived together in one or two rooms. Under these crowded conditions is where
disease spread and outbreaks of typhoid ad cholera were common. Most tenements had no windows, heating, or bathrooms. They were also and death traps for when fire
broke out. The middle class included doctors, lawyers, office workers, and skilled crafts
people. They lived outside of the slum areas in well-kept houses with a patch of lawn and a tree or two. Disease was kept under control in these areas. Many middle class
citizens joined clubs, bowling leagues, singing societies, and charity groups. These activities gave them a sense of community and purpose.
The rich built mansions of the rims of the cities. In New York, huge houses dotted 5th Avenue, and in Chicago 200 millionaires lived along the exclusive
lakefront. They lived like European royalty and filled their mansions with priceless art works and gave lavish parties.
The amount of people pouring into the cities in the late 1800s meant that there was not enough clean water, loads of litter in the streets, areas filled with pickpockets
and thieves, as well as other problems for city-dwellers. So in the 1880s, city- dwellers campaigned to improve city life. They forced governments to hire engineers
and architects. In New York City, for example, underground tunnels were built north to the Catskill Mountains which brought millions of gallons of pure water to the city
every day. Cities passed building codes which required new buildings to have fire
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escapes and decent plumbing. Zoning laws passed in many cities put factories in different neighborhoods than apartment buildings. This cut back on the amount of air
pollution where people lived. Cities hired workers to collect garbage and sweep the streets. They set up professional fire companies and trained police. Many cities
improved public transportation as well. Street lights were put up in many cities. City planners found ways to make the best use of open spaces. Recreational areas, art and
history museums, and concert halls were built for entertainment purposes that all helped strive for a better living environment in the cities.
Because there was less space and more ideas of expansion in cities, in the 1880s, architects got the idea to build up instead of out. This is where skyscrapers
were invented. They were called skyscrapers because their tops seemed to touch the sky. New technology made the buildings possible and elevators were invented to zip
people up to the top floors quickly. Traffic was beginning to become a problem as the streets filled with horse drawn buses, carriages, and carts. New advances in
transportation now became prevalent in the cities. This included steam engines, trolleys, streetcars, and subway systems. Department stores also were born in cities.
This was a store that offered shoppers everything they needed in one place.
3.3. Settlement Houses
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