The Urban Game Resources needed a piece of

The Urban Game Resources needed: a piece of notebook paper, a copy of the features of a city (i. e. buildings, etc. ), a pencil or pen, and some imagination.

Preface Even the largest cities began life as small towns. After the Civil War, cities with ties to industry benefited most. Some were located close to sources of raw materials. Pittsburgh’s growth, for example, was fueled by the iron and steel industry located near the coal deposits of Pennsylvania. Cities located on major transportation lines benefited from industrial growth. Thanks to the railroad, even cities lacking water transportation could thrive. An example is Chicago. In 1833, Chicago was a town of 43 houses on the muddy shores of Lake Michigan. By 1880, there were 500, 000 people living in the “city of big shoulders. ”

Round One The year is 1865 in the nation of the United States. The scene is a rural village. Draw a river across your paper, connecting east to west: the river should be about 1 inch wide. Draw a wooden bridge across the river, draw a total of 4 roads, each of which will originate from a different direction.

Round One (cont. ) Draw the following structures: • • 10 houses 1 church 1 cemetery 1 store 1 pub 1 coal mine Lots and lots of trees.

Round One Information Life here in village USA is similar to other villages across America in the 19 th century. Change traditionally comes very slowly. One family was pretty much like the next. Home might be a wooden house shaded by trees. The house was on a dirt street that was muddy in winter and dusty in summer. The kitchen had a black stove that burned coal or wood. There was no running water or indoor plumbing. A well supplied water for drinking and cooking. Women spent most of the day running the household: canning foods, sewing, cleaning house, doing laundry. Children walked to and from school and also helped with the work at home.

Round Two It is now 1868. The United States is recovering from the Civil War. Many freedmen have moved to your village. There also a number of immigrants who have to work in the new textile factory.

Round Two (Cont. ) So, Draw: • 1 factory, • 15 houses, • 1 church, • 1 school, • 2 stores, and • 1 pub.

Round Two Information For the poor, conditions at work were as grim as those at home. Employees labored for 10 to 12 hours per day, six days a week. Pay average about $2 or $3 per day. The work itself consisted primarily of running machines. Those who let their minds wander could find their feet crushed, their fingers severed, or their hair ripped out to the scalp by the machines they served. Speed, not safety or craftsmanship, had top priority in these factories. Some of the worst conditions existed in the garment industry. Workers toiled long hours in dimly lit, poorly ventilated factories called sweatshops. Others worked at home, hunched over sewing machines in their cramped apartments. Similar conditions existed in other industries. Whole families might work dawn to dusk rolling cigars for less than $2 per day. Child labor was a fact of life for the urban poor. Employers found that children could perform many tasks – operating machines, running errands – far a fraction of the wages paid to adults. Some children began working laws forbidding children under the age of 14 from working. As a result, families often concealed children’s ages to obtain jobs for them.

Round Three Information By 1874, giant bridges did reach across rivers over 1, 000 feet wide. Horseless trolleys crisscrossed cities at 20 mph. Towns sparkled at night with the marvel of electric street lighting. American towns and cities had people who were eager to buy the new factory made goods ranging from machine produced shoes to canned meats that were being turned out cheaply and in large quantities by the nation’s many factories. The most striking innovations were the department store, the chain store, and the shopping center. In 1872, Montgomery Ward began a mail order catalog business, which could reach customers from coast to coast. In 1874, Frank W. Woolworth opened a five and dime store in Lancaster, Penn. By now, the cable car had been introduced. In 1873, there was a secret trial of the cable car at 5 AM. The motorman chosen to pilot the first car froze at the controls fearing the cable would break. Inventor Andrew Hallidie took his place and triumphantly ran the car down Clay Street. It was an instant success. By the 1890’s cable car systems were serving cities across the United States.

Round Three Despite the poor factory conditions, life is good. Business is thriving. The year is 1874. New factories are built in your town. So, . . Draw 3 new factories. And with these factories come swarms of immigrants and men from farms who thought their future in your town looked more glamorous than the view from behind a mule. These people need a place to live. So, . .

Round Three (Cont. ) Draw: • 3 Factories • 15 houses for your factory supervisors • 3 tenements to house your factory workers • 2 new churches • 3 schools • 2 additional pubs • 4 stores • 1 jail • 1 hospital • 1 cemetery • 2 giant bridges across your river and trolleys to connect the tenements to the factories

Round Four Information The steady stream of poor arrivals ensured a strong market for low cost housing. Entrepreneurs and established landlords took advantage of the situation to cram as many people as possible inside each building. At first, landlords divided single family homes into apartments. Then, in 185, the tenement appeared- an apartment building designed to house as many people as possible. Tenements lacked decent room, light and fresh air. Plumbing systems were primitive. Overcrowding and poor sanitation made tenements ideal breeding grounds for disease. Many neighborhoods did not have regular garbage collection; ratinfested piles of garbage mounted in the alleys and on street corners. Few cities had regulations banning the sale of spoiled food. Pollution control was almost unknown.

Round Four Information (cont. ) And the tenement conditions were most appalling in New York City. In 1879, the city sponsored a contest to come up with a new design for tenements. The winning design was the dumbbell tenement by Andrew Ware. Air shafts were built into the tenement to provide light and fresh air into the interior rooms. . Yet, they also allowed noise and the smell of garbage to waft upward. The air shafts also gave fire a way of spreading quickly through the building. By 1894, about half of New Yorkers live in them.

Round Four Information (cont. ) • Cities dumped sewage into rivers, lakes or any other handy place. Cholera, tuberculosis, and influenza took a heavy toll on the young and the feeble. • In 1878, yellow fever killed 5, 000 people in Memphis, Tennessee. To prevent such outbreaks, many cities improved their sanitation systems. New water treatment plants helped fight disease by providing city residents with cleaner drinking water. In 1880, the Chicago Times reported in disgust: “The river stinks. The air stinks. People’s clothing, permeated by the foul atmosphere, stinks. No other word expresses it so well as STINK.

Round Four Information (cont. ) Earlier, in 1871, Chicago had a fire department of only 17 horse drawn engines and had been helpless against a devastating fire. By 1880, cities were moving toward paid fire departments.

Round 4 • The year is 1880. The dumbbell tenement has been designed. Your town has grown! Draw 5 dumbbell tenements, 1 church, a shopping center, 2 new schools, 2 hospitals, 15 new houses, 1 jail, 2 theaters. Also add another bridge and four more main streets- anywhere you want.

Once caught, 19 th century crooks met with harsh justice. On the frontier, murderers, cattle rustlers, and horse thieves were often sent straight to the gallows- with or without due ceremony. But, in the cities, offenders were tossed into foul, disease-ridden prisons. By the end of the 19 th century, reformers managed to see to the building of more antiseptic prisons and tried to abolish capital punishment. A belief in the power of education sprang up in post. Civil War days and swept all segments of the country. Small town farmers, city dwellers, and professional educators all felt that their personal versions of the American dream would come true just as soon as the blessing of learning was available to anyone at any level.

Round 5 The year is 1890. Your city has hired its first non-volunteer fire department. Draw one fire department. Also, your city begins to use hydrants and steam powered fire engines instead of hand pumps. Draw 10 fire hydrants. Draw one additional jail- crime has increased. The number of factory workers has also increased. Draw 10 houses, 10 tenements, 3 shopping centers, 2 pubs, 2 factories, 1 church, 1 museum, and 1 cemetery.

• By 1900, the small town has become a city. There are new factories and expanding neighborhoods peopled by immigrants and ex-farmers. The streets are paved and lit at night by electric lights and even a bathroom. All members of the family now have some store-bought clothes. Young people still have homework and chores but they have more free time. They take the trolley into the city and maybe to school. Butchers buy meat from a meat-packing company. At the corner grocery store, people can buy all sorts of items

Round 6 • By 1898, 31 states saw to it that children received this blessing (of education) whether they wanted it or not by passing laws making attendance compulsory at elementary schools. Some 15 million youngsters were in school. • The year is 1900 - Your small town has become a city. Draw 5 new stores, 5 dumbbell tenements, 10 houses, 3 factories, 1 fire department, 1 theater, 3 new trolley lines, and 2 more schools.

In Baltimore, the first electric street railway began service and within a year was averaging 29, 000 passengers a month. New York’s elevated system was ina continual state of expansion. By 1897, Boston was building a subway. The first skyscraper- the Home Insurance Buildingwent up in Chicago in 1883, setting off a skyscraper boom in the 1890 s. Skyscrapers were possible because of steel frames and the elevator- invented by Elisha Otis in 1853 - and put into use in 1889. Hasn’t life in the city changed?

Totals Streets- 8 Houses- 75 Churches- 6 Cemeteries- 3 Pubs- 6 Coal Mine -1 Factories- 9 Schools- 8 Stores- 7 Tenements- 13 Dumbbell tenements- 10 Jails- 3 Hospitals- 3 Bridges- 4 Trolleys- 4

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