Urban Growth 1870 1900 Expanding Cities 1880 1920

Urban Growth: 1870 1900

Expanding Cities • 1880 -1920 11 million Americans leave farms for the cities – Many of them African Americans due to Boll Weevils destroying cotton crops • Growing suburbs – Horse carriages on rails, elevated trains (NYC 1868), electric trolleys (Richmond 1888), subways (Boston, 1897), later-mass production of automobile (1910) • Skyscrapers – Elevators (1857)

Characteristics of Urbanization: during the Gilded Age 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Megalopolis. Mass Transit. Magnet for economic and social opportunities. Pronounced class distinctions. - Inner & outer core New frontier of opportunity for women. Squalid living conditions for many. Political machines. Ethnic neighborhoods.

New Architectural Style New Symbols of Change & Progress Make a New Start New Use of Space New Class Diversity New Energy The City as a New “Frontier? ” New Levels of Crime, Violence, & Corruption New Culture (“Melting Pot”) New Form of Classic “Rugged Individualism”

William Le Baron Jenney C C 1832 – 1907 “One of the fathers of the Modern Skyscraper”

W. Le Baron Jenney: Central Y. M. C. A. , Chicago, 1891

Louis Sullivan C C C 1856 – 1924 The Chicago School of Architecture Another father of the modern skyscraper

Louis Sullivan: Bayard Bldg. , NYC, 1897

Louis Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott Dept. Store, Chicago, 1899

Daniel Burnham C C 1846 – 1912 Use of steel as a super structure.

DH Burnham: Fisher [Apt. ] Bldg, Chicago, 1896

D. H. Burnham: Marshall Fields Dept. Store, 1902

DH Burnham: Railway Exchange, Chicago, 1904

Urban Life (For the Poor)

Growing Work Force • Positive: – Plentiful work brings 8 to 9 million Americans to cities, and 14 million immigrants (1860 -1900) • Negative: – Leads to tenement housing

“Dumbbell “ Tenement

“Dumbbell “ Tenement, NYC

Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lived (1890)

Tenement Slum Living

Lodgers Huddled Together

Struggling Immigrant Families

Hester Street – Jewish Section

Pell St. - Chinatown, NYC

Factory Work • Positive – Plentiful • Negative – 12 hr days, 6 days wk – Paid by amount of finished productpiecework – Many worked in sweatshops

Increasing Efficiency • Positive – Good for owners • Negative – Led to layoffs

Division of Labor • Positive – Only need to learn one task • Negative – Repetitive; assembly line – “Taylorism” – Rarely see finished product

Working Environment • Positive – You have a job • Negative – Ruled by the clockcould be fined or fired – Many not safe: noise deafening, lighting, ventilation poor, faulty equipment

Working Families • Positive – None • Negative – End of 1800 s 1 in 5 children aged 10 -16 worked, some as young as 6 – Everyone needs to work to eat

Experiences and Challenges for Immigrants

Statue of Liberty • Given as a gift of international friendship from France; they built the statue, the U. S. built the pedestal • Dedicated October 28 th, 1886

Why they came… • Desire for a better life; chance to improve their life • Some heard of the Homestead Act • Desire to go to school • To escape persecution • Freedom of religion

Coming to America • Between 1865 and 1920 close to 30 million immigrants come; highest numbers come between 1880 -1910 • Most came by boat; had to travel on lowest deck, conditions were filthy • Disease and death were common

Arrival • Port cities: Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, San Francisco, Seattle • 70% come through “golden door”, NYC • 1892 open Ellis Island

Ellis Island Experience • Inspection process degrading: medical exams, followed by 32 background questions-2 minutes to complete process • Some immigrants had names changed by inspectors • If diseasedquarantined or deported

Where do we go? • Some went to family, if none here you were on your own • Tried to settle in places with people from their homeland • Rise of ghettos: areas where an ethnic/racial group dominated – Some result from restrictive covenants: agreements not to sell homes to certain groups of people

Continued… • Most settle in big cities where jobs are • By 1900 4 out of 5 of the people living in NYC are immigrants or the child of one

Growth of Social Movements • Charity Org. Mvmt – Tried to make charity a scientific enterprise – Distinguish between those deemed “worth” of help or not – Want immigrants to adopt American standards of child raising, cooking and cleaning • Social Gospel Mvmt – Through churches – Sought to treat problems that drove people to drink, gamble, etc. – Seek labor reforms

Continued… • Settlement Movement – Kind of community center in poor neighbors; witness first hand, live there-work there – 1889 Hull House (Jane Addams and Ellen Starr) – Sets up childcare centers, playgrounds, health clinics, help people find jobs, etc. – Launch investigations into economic, political and social conditions

Movements and Immigrants • Nativism (favor native born over immigrant) – Calls for teaching American culture and English language – Demand tighter rules on immigration and employment of aliens • Prohibition-Temperance Mvmt – Org set up to elimination alcohol consumption – Saw as cause of evil especially with immigrants • Purity Crusaders – See increase in immoral/corrupt behavior – Won law for banning obscene materials sent in mail (includes info on birth control)

Women HUGE Role in Movements • Organizations promote causes public health, libraries, playgrounds, etc. • Social reforms – National American Women’s Suffrage Assoc. 1890 • Gives experience in public speaking, finance, writing – First steps towards public life