Challenges of Urbanization

Urbanization: Growth of Cities• Most immigrants move into city areas

– Cheapest and convenient

• Offered unskilled labor jobs in factories and mills

Mulberry St., N

ew York

Americanization Movement

• Plan to assimilate people into the dominant “American” culture

• Teach English, American history & Government, cooking & social etiquette

• Despite the plan, many ethnic communities form– Able to practice their customs, religion and speak their

native language. – become overcrowded

Housing Problems: Where to Stay?• Row Houses: single family “apartments” that

shared walls with others

• Tenements: when two or three families occupy a formerly single-family house.

• Often overcrowded and unsanitary

• Poor ventilation and plumbing

• Rats and cockroaches are common “roommates”

Mass Transit• Enabled workers to get to jobs easier & faster

• 1873: Street cars in San Francisco

• 1897: Electric subways in Boston

• Cities still struggle to keep up with demand

Clean Water Problems• Few residents of large cities have indoor

plumbing

• Deadly diseases (typhoid fever and cholera) could be transmitted in dirty water

• Filtration (1870s) and chlorination (1908) introduced

Sanitation Problems• Horse manure, human sewage, smoke from

factories, trash build up

• By 1900, many cities had developed sewer lines & sanitation departments

Police and Fire Departments• Increase in urban population = increase in crime

– 1844: NY City creates 1st salaried (paid) police dept.

• Fire Hazards:– Most buildings in cities built of wood– No electricity = flammables used– Limited water supply = fires rage!

• 1853: Cincinnati, OH creates 1st salaried Fire dept.

• 1900: most major cities have a fire dept.

Great Chicago Fire, 1871:-Fire burned over 24 hours-300 pple died-100,000 pple left homeless-3 sq. mi. + burned-$200 mill. property damage-17, 500 buildings destroyed

San Francisco Earthquake, 1906-Quake lasted 28 seconds-Fire burned for 4 days-1,000 pple died-200,000 pple left homeless-5 sq. mi. burned-$500 mill. property damage-28,000 buildings destroyed

Urban problems led to …

reformers

Social Gospel movement:

Christian-based movement that taught salvation came through service to the poor

led to establishment of “settlement houses” - community centers in slum neighborhoods

Settlement Houses

Provided:

- educational services: English, college extension courses

- cultural services: painting, music

- social services: health services (like nurse visits)

Usually staffed by middle-class, college-educated women, often living at the settlement house

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

One of the most important figures of the settlement house movement

Founded Hull House in Chicago 1889

Hull House

Jane Addams and Hull House children

Dance at Hull House