(i) A tenement is run-down and often over crowded apartment house especially in a poor section of large city. (ii) In the 19th century, more and more people began crowding into American cities including thousands of newly arrived immigrants seeking a better life. The population got doubled every decade from 1800 to 1880 in New York city. This led to the division of single family dwellings into multiple living spaces to accommodate the growing population. (iii) These narrow low-rise apartment buildings also known as tenements were too often cramped, poorly built and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. (iv) A full two-third of the New York city population was living in the tenement in 1900.