A century of overcrowded homes: How we reported the story of housing
In this photo, taken from the 1916 edition of The Saturday Evening Post, a man takes a seat in what is one of the longest row ever found in an American row house, at the corner of South 2nd Street and Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia. While the building was one of the largest in the city, it had only 48 rooms — a little less than half of what is standard in today’s row houses. (AP Photo)
The early decades of the 20th century were marked by a kind of cultural phenomenon: the overcrowded home.
It wasn’t just that some neighborhoods required new housing to accommodate growing populations. It was also that no matter where a new neighborhood grew, there weren’t enough homes for everyone.
For those who weren’t living in the city, that meant moving away.
The story of the era of the overcrowded home is deeply political. For an idea of how it was reported and how it was covered, you need to look no further than the way the period was covered by the press.
The story of the era of the overcrowded home is deeply political. For an idea of how it was reported and how it was covered, you need to look no further than the way the period was covered by the press.
Housing’s crowded era
Homes had been crowded up to that time. In 1848, when the number of U.S. residents was only about 6 million, they occupied only a little more than half of what was needed for a stable nation with a growing population.
But all that changed in the 1890s. The population was about 10 million, the number of rooms was already growing, and the housing market was on the rise, too.
In the early 1900s, people weren’t just moving to the city to look for a job. A young man
