Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1909-12-14
TENEMENT HOUSE
REPORT TELLS OF
BIG INF MPROvEMENTS
Fiscal Year Statement Shows
Hundreds of Dwellings Have
Been Made Sanitary.
I,46l PLANS APPROVED
WITH Sll,590,O0O VALUE
Essex County Leads in Number
of New Structures Erected
in Twelve Months.
lsreelal o the Newark star.l

sixth annual report of the Board Of
Tenement House Supervision submitted
to the governor the field of operations
of this department has been extensively
Nidened during the past year, along the
same systematic plan OF extension
which was adopted by this board at the
beginning of its work. In accordance
with this idea inspectors have been
sent TO the smaller municipalities
throughout the State. with the result
that the tenement house conditions
have been improved in all municipall-
ties regardless of size or Location.
in the fiscal year ending October 81,
1851 plans for tenement houses were
approved the aggregate value of these
houses being Si1 100000. The past year
was second 10 1907, when tenements
costing sl2003 900 were erected; while
in 1903. due 10 the depression in busi-
ness. there was marked falling off;
enly s., POS, 600 worth being erected.
Supervision has been exercised over
tenements providing accommodations
for $3.50 families. or 1880 persons.
Besides this the board has served 1853
notices and 17l5 orders for the removal
of violations existing in buildings being
ished 271 backyard vaults and installed
1,135 sanitary closets in their stead.
The report goes on to show that
through the efforts of the board light
and air has been obtained for 1920 dark,
interior rooms and old tenements. 1t |
has also installed water In seventy-two
tenements. secured night lights in the
dark halls of 144 tenements, erected
q 20
law and affording direct egress from
each department from sos tenements, |
Investigated 1.526 complaints of con-
ditions existing iu old telements, served
1211 notices and 1,242 orders on COM
plant on old tenement houses, removed
the cause of complaint in 1853 cases
and referred to the attorney general for
prosecution forty-eight cases in which
the owners refused to comply with the |
la-r IN forty-three of these cases ST. |
4S6 were collected in fines and costs.
THAT the tendency in tenement house |
construction is toward better and
more substantial class of buildings"
the board says, SIS shown by the fact
ts9at while the year 1906 has record
OF more rew-law tenement houses
erected than is shown for the twelve
ranks higher in the expenditures of
tenement house construction. In 1906
the board approved plans for 1,179 new
law tenements, while last year the to-
tal buildings started was 1,153. while /
Tho cost in 1906 was s1o.SS20 900, as
against Sl1,2i7,000 for last year, or an
increase of cost of 1886, 900 for a lesser |
number of buildings.
tho orOanfza tfrf1 ne the dena RI
ment the board has approved S,6sS
plans. which provide for 5,e02 tene-
1nent houses. the aggregate cost of
Which was SAT 100000 expended in this
State in five and one-half years. The
new-law tenements erected under the
supervision of the board furnish ac-
commodations for 33,904 families, which
means that living accommodations have
been provided during that period for
approximately 165,520 persons, in SUBJ
stantial. well lighted apartments prop
erly protected against the spread OF
fire, each room with a window opening
directly 10 the outer air. no room with
less than seventy square feet of floor
area and at least one room in each
apartment with not less than 120 square
feet, sink and running water and
proper toilet facilities in each apart
inent, all stairs and halls properly
lighted and ceilings nine feet or more in
height
1.-The new law tenement houses may
and probably do deteriorate. but it is
impossible that they shall ever get into
the condition that characterizes the
old buildings which We're erected be-
fore the enactment of the tenement
house law. Every tenement house more
than three stories high erected since
March %, 1904, is provided with a serv-
iceable fire-escape directly accessible to
each apartment. 1t is not possible that
such houses will ever be without ad-
equate means of escape from fire. nor
is 1t at all likely that the running wa
ter and water-closets in the apart
ments win ever be removed from these
houses. The growing popularity of the
new law tenement with the rent-paying
population is forcing the owners OF old
tenements, in many sections. to i'm
prove conditions and to try, In a meas
ure, to inset the demand of the ten
ants for better living conditions.
"In the preceding fiscal year Hudson
county led the State in the number of
new tenement houses erected, but dur
ing the last twelve months Essex has
pushed up to first place. while Hudson
dropped back to second. Essex coun-
tr's w.rk in the erection of new law
tenenents was 1918 per cent. of the
total for the year, while Hudson
planned and started 3S.14 per cent. of
the whole. Hudson still retains the
lead, however, in the expenditures for
new tenements and alterations TO build
ings, having laid out s5,0e1 900 for 557
houses of all classes. old and new, while
Essex, with only one more In the num-
Der of houses, spent but Sc. .70S 900.
Next in Importance to Essex and
Hudson in the number of buildings
erected and altered and the amount OF
money expended is Passaic, where the
cost of 214 houses of all classes reached
s1,257.000
Late In the year Atlantic county
filed plans for two fireproof tenement
houses. nine stories high, to cost $780,
n00 The work on the proposed build
ings had not started at the close of the
fiscal year. The only seven-stcry ten
ement started in the State during the
last year is in Atlantic county. ant
cost $4,000.
within the year Essex county ex-
pended 81. .799, 900 in the construction O.
400 three STORY frame houses. as agains
t1.454 900 spent for 29T houses of tina