Apartment House Construction in American Cities, 1928

TH

HERE is no abatement of the trend toward apartment houses as dwelling places in the cities of the United States. Figures taken from permits issued in 257 cities in the United States having a population of 25,000 or over show that the popularity of the multifamily dwelling is still growing. A multi-family dwelling is one designed to accommodate three or more families. The term is equivalent to the more generally used appellations "apartment house" or "tenement house."

Reports have been received from 257 identical cities continuously since 1921 showing the number of families provided for and the class of dwelling with which they were provided. This information is shown below in Table 1.

In 1928 homes were provided in new buildings for 388,678 families; 53.7 per cent of these were in apartment houses; 35.2 per cent in 1-family dwellings, and 11.1 per cent in 2-family dwellings. This is the first year since the compilation of these data by the bureau that more than half of the families provided for in new buildings were housed in apartment houses. In new construction in 1921 only 24.4 per cent of all families provided for were housed in apartment houses, and 58.3 per cent in 1-family dwellings.

TABLE 1. PER CENT OF FAMILIES PROVIDED FOR IN THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF DWELLINGS IN 257 IDENTICAL CITIES, 1921 TO 1928, INCLUSIVE

This is the third consecutive year that more family units have been provided in apartment houses than in 1-family dwellings. Just what effect this change in the type of dwelling will have on the social, economic, and political life of the country is hard to determine. That it will have its impress on the character and life of the people is an undoubted fact. Few apartment-house dwellers are home owners. As has been pointed out before by the bureau, apartment-house construction is changing the character of building labor by giving more opportunity for work to certain trades, namely, structural-iron workers, concrete workers, marble and stone cutters, etc., and less to other trades, especially carpenters.

Comparison of Conditions in Cities of Over 500,000

IN THE 14 cities of the United States which have a population of 500,000 or over 67.2 per cent of the families provided for in 1928 were housed in apartment houses, 22.1 per cent in 1-family dwellings, and 10.7 per cent in 2-family dwellings. In 1927 the same classes of dwellings housed 60.8 per cent, 25.8 per cent, and 13.4 per cent, respectively. These 14 cities provided for 236,113 families in 1927 and 232,681 families in 1928, as shown in Table 2.

Data are shown in this table for New York as an entity and for each of the five boroughs separately. Chicago provided for a larger portion of families in apartment houses than any other city, 80.7 per cent of the total housing units in new dwellings being in this class of building in 1928 as compared with 12.2 per cent in 1-family dwellings.

The per cent of families housed in new apartment houses in New York practically equaled that of Chicago, 80.3 per cent of the new housing units being in apartment houses and 12.4 per cent in 1-family dwellings.

There was a great difference, however, in the class of homes provided in the different boroughs. In Manhattan 99.9 per cent of new housing units were in apartment houses and only one-tenth of 1 per cent in 1-family dwellings. In the borough of Richmond 60.3 per cent were in 1-family dwellings and only 23.3 per cent in apartment houses. Baltimore built a larger proportion of 1-family dwellings than any other city in this population group, but even in Baltimore there was an increase in the percentage of families provided for in apartment houses in 1928 as compared with 1927. Detroit and San Francisco were the only cities in the United States having a population of 500,000 or over where a larger percentage of the families provided for in new buildings were housed in 1-family dwellings in 1928 than in 1927. In 1927 there were 15,614 families provided for in new buildings in Detroit; of this number 35.9 per cent were accommodated in 1-family dwellings. In 1928 of the 15,929 families provided for, 42.7 per cent were housed in 1-family dwellings.

Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee built large numbers of 2-family houses.

TABLE 2. PER CENT OF FAMILIES PROVIDED FOR BY THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DWELLINGS IN CITIES HAVING A POPULATION OF 500,000 OR OVER IN 1921, 1927, AND 1928

TABLE 2. PER CENT OF FAMILIES PROVIDED FOR BY THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DWELLINGS IN CITIES HAVING A POPULATION OF 500,000 OR OVER IN 1921, 1927, AND 1928-Continued

Comparison of Conditions in Cities Under 500,000

IN TABLE 3 are shown cities having a population of 25,000 or over which provided for 200 or more families in either 1927 or 1928. The table shows figures for 1921, 1927, and 1928, where data are available for these three years. When the information is not available for 1921 it is shown for the earliest year for which data were collected. A few of the smaller cities, which have reached a population of 25,000 since 1920, are shown for 1927 and 1928 only.

Most of the cities having a population of 500,000 or less built most of their new family housing units in 1-family dwellings. There are some exceptions, however, even in cities having a population of less than 100,000. In Mount Vernon, N. Y., for instance, 83.7 per cent of the family units built in 1927 and 77 per cent of those built in 1928 were in apartment houses. The Bureau of the Census estimated the population of Mount Vernon to be 54,700 on July 1, 1928. Evanston, Ill., with a population of 47,600, accommodated 70.5 per cent of the families provided for in 1927 and 75.6 per cent of those provided for in 1928 in apartment houses.

HOUSING

In most of the cities which might be classed as suburbs of larger cities the majority of the family units provided were in apartment houses in 1927 and 1928. Among cities in this class are Yonkers, N. Y.; White Plains, N. Y.; Elizabeth, N. J.; East Cleveland, Ohio; Cambridge, Mass.; and Highland Park, Mich. In the last-named city only one-half of 1 per cent of the family units for which permits were issued in 1927 and only 2.6 per cent of those for which permits were issued in 1928 were 1-family dwellings.

Albany, N. Y.; Bethlehem, Pa.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Medford, Mass.; New Britain, Conn.; and Pawtucket, R. I., were large builders of 2-family dwellings.

Richmond, Ind., was the only city where no apartment houses were built in any of the three years for which data are shown.

TABLE 3. PER CENT OF FAMILIES PROVIDED FOR BY THE DIFFERENT KINDS
OF DWELLINGS IN CITIES HAVING A POPULATION OF FROM 25,000 TO 500,000 IN
SPECIFIED YEARS.

Total

num-
ber of

Per cent of families
provided for in-

1-fam- 2-fam- Multi

pro

vided

ily
ily
dwell- dwell- dwell-

family

for

ings ings ings

1

1-fam- 2-fam- Multi-
ily family
ily
pro-
vided dwell- dwell- dwell-
ingsings 2

TABLE 3.-PER CENT OF FAMILIES PROVIDED FOR BY THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF DWELLINGS IN CITIES HAVING A POPULATION OF FROM 25,000 TO 500,000 IN SPECIFIED YEARS-Continued