On the other end of the spectrum, in addition to merely recreating the home, some apartments went a step further in offering luxuries not traditionally found in middle-class dwellings. Apartment buildings permitted occupants, unable to afford single-family houses, access to amenities beyond their economic means. Via this choice of dwelling form, a family could aim to enter the ranks of the middle class with modern amenities and the location in an upscale neighborhood.109 As the name “apartment hotel” suggests, the buildings purported to offer high-end living and services, similar to those offered by hotels. This focus on luxuries helped distinguish apartments from tenements and thus attract respectable families.
106 JACOB RIIS,HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES (1891).
107 GILBERT,supra note 17, at 39.
108 An exception to this generalization, restrictive covenants often were specific in differentiating between high quality multiple dwellings and undesirable tenements. See infra Part VI.A.4.
109 SeeCROMLEY,supra note 2, at 7-8 (“an apartment house instead of a boarding house or a tenement, well decorated, with a particularly fine parlor and perhaps the right address could help mark and secure a family’s social status.”)
With hardwood floors, dumbwaiters, speaking tubes, gas and electric lights, and other modern conveniences, apartments created a sense of wealth and grandeur.110 Elevators, long present in commercial building, first found there way into hotels and apartments as early as 1897.111 While not required by ordinance or law, 112 as a rule all apartments with five or more floors had elevators, and some four story building and one three story building did as well—for a total of twenty-seven apartment houses in this study.113 Social norms appeared to dictate that five stories required an elevator.114 Most New Haven apartments, however, tended have four or fewer floors, so the technological advance does not appear to have caused upward building.115 Instead elevators were another signal of luxury enjoyed by apartment dwellers.116 Allocation of
110 See, e.g., Plastering Apartment Block, COMMERCIAL RECORD, July 2, 1910 at 21 (“The block is a well built structure, arranged for six apartments of six and seven rooms each, finished in hard woods, with hardwood floors and provided with every convenience. Dumbwaiters and speaking tubes will be required and gas and electric lights have been installed”). Building Permits (on file with the New Haven Building Office) (specifying not only an elevator, but also dumbwaiters at 1521-1523 Chapel).
111 In 1886, the Sanborn Map includes no examples of passenger elevators. In 1897, it shows elevators in hotels at 1151 Chapel (then “Hotel Majestic”), 137-149 Church (“Tontine Hotel”), and 990-998 Chapel (“New Haven House”); and in apartments at 1074-1084 Chapel (“The Roxbury”), 1044-1046 Chapel (“The Warner”), and 22 College (“The Hutchinson”). Compare SANBORN (1886), supra note 21, Nos. 4, 31, 32, 48, with SANBORN (1897), supra note 20, Nos. 4, 31, 32, 48.
112 New Haven’s ordinances first mention elevators in 1890 and continue to do so in later editions, but the regulations only speak to safety requirements, attendant requirements, annual inspection and approval by the Fire Marshall, and fines for violations. NEW HAVEN,CONN., ORDINANCES §§122-126(1890); NEW HAVEN,CONN., ORDINANCES §90 (1898); NEW HAVEN,CONN., ORDINANCES §§166-170 (1905).
113 See infra App. II.A.
114 In 1857, prior to the advent of elevators, according to architect Calvert Vaux, new apartments should have no more than four stories. NORTON, supra note 34, at 7. According to a 1946 guide on apartment construction, all apartment buildings of four or more stories should be equipped by elevators, even though New York state law at the time only required elevators for multiple dwellings exceeding six stories. ABEL, supra note 3, at 246.
115 The technology of elevators, and residential elevators was readily available during this period, but was not employed in most apartments in this study. Elevators were introduced into New York City apartments as early as 1870 and the first residential elevator was installed in a hotel in 1859. SeeNORTON,supra note 34, at 12. As early as 1897, there were three manufacturers of freight and passenger elevators in New Haven. See THE COMMERCIAL RECORD REFERENCE BOOK OF THE ARCHITECTS,ENGINEERS,CONTRACTORS AND BUILDERS OF CONNECTICUT 71 (The Record Publishing Company, ed., 1897) [hereinafter COMMERCIAL RECORD REFERENCE BOOK]. Height was limited by general notions of safety and economy. See WRIGHT, supra note 8, at 66 (garden apartments, in contrast to elevator apartments, provided more moderate-priced rentals). Additionally builders wishing to increase the size of their apartment houses in most neighborhoods could do so by increasing the footprint rather than building upwards.
116 Upper floor apartments in buildings with elevators bring in higher rents than those on lower floors. ABEL, supra note 3, at 246. Garden apartments, in contrast to elevator apartments, provided more moderate-priced rentals. See WRIGHT, supra note 8, at 66.
rooms for servants also reflected the affluence of apartment occupancy.117 Apartment living meant reduced housekeeping responsibilities.118
The grandeur, however, was at times only skin deep. The stone facades adorning some apartment buildings were a literal manifestation of the pretense of wealth.119 Apartment architecture critics warn against fancy adornments offered as a substitute for good spatial planning and durability.120
While the focus on creating
high-end housing units made apartments more acceptable to middle-class occupants, it also undercut the popularity of apartments by being beyond the means of the general demands of the growing population. High rents and policies against children made some apartments
inhospitable to many families.121
117 See, e.g., Building Permits (on file with the New Haven Building Office) (specifying that 404 Whitney had eight family units and a maid’s quarter in the attic).
118 See CROMLEY, supra note 2, at 3.
119 Through the use of stone facades, apartment developers created a visual illusion of great expense, without incurring the cost. There are no examples of stone apartment houses, aside from several constructed from cement block. The stone facades on 23-25 Davenport only extended as far as the first floor. 625-627 Orange, a corner lot, had a stone façade also only up to the first floor on both sides of the building that faced the street. See supra Figure 5.; SANBORN (1931), supra note 21; see also BROWN, supra note 5, at 67 (describing the Oxford, 34-36 High, as
“pure facadism, the front well designed while the sides are bare”).
120 ABEL, supra note 3, at2 (warning against flashy gadgets showing a drawing of a structurally unsound apartment building adorned with highly ornate architectural features with vacancies as compared to a plainer building with no vacancies).
121 Report of the Tenement House Inspector (1919), supra note 44 ( “Many large apartment houses are now being built in the city, but as the rents are high and no children, as a rule, are allowed, the situation is not relieved”)
Figure 5.STONE FAÇADE, THE KNICKERBOCKER (625-635ORANGE) Source: Photograph taken Spring 2007 by author