with some slight ornamentation about the exterior, shelter white tenants and bring $15.00 per month in rent.

In addition to the two general types just described, there are many habitations of a typical sort, which have been built in communities like Deanwood, Burrville, and Barry Farm by colored people, at a cost of $200 to $400. These houses are two or three room structures, usually one story in height, set upon piers, and without water supply; gas and sewer connections are out of the question. Figure 23 shows a dwelling of this sort in Deanwood; it was said to have cost $200 and at present brings $6.00 rent.

Most of these little houses are owned by their occupants, however, and there is no commercial movement to build such shacks. It may be of interest to note that according to information obtained from colored people in the Barry Farm neighborhood the shacks in that village are being bought by certain real estate dealers as fast as they are offered for sale and that as soon as they fall into the hands of these dealers the rentals asked are immediately advanced.

IV.

TYPES OF HOUSES OCCUPIED BY THE LABORING CLASSES IN
PHILADELPHIA AND BALTIMORE.

For the purposes of this report a special investigation has been made in the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore to ascertain the types of houses now being built in these cities for the laboring classes

and the rents paid, especially by unskilled workmen. These cities have been selected because climatic and other conditions are similar to those which obtain in Washington and there is a tendency in both these cities to provide independent homes for the working classes rather than to have them in tenement houses of three or more stories. The investigation of housing conditions in these cities has been made. for the Committee by Dr. H. C. Macatee, whose report follows:

The city of Baltimore has its housing problem, no less than Washington, as may be ascertained by perusal of a pamphlet published by the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, entitled "Housing Conditions in Baltimore." But an inquiry into the question of construction and rentals of small dwellings reveals a wide difference between that city and Washington. In the older portions of Baltimore, the same squalor and overcrowding, which as yet is a condition inseparable from urban life, exists as in our worst alley hovels; aggregation in large tenement houses obtains there, also, but not to the extent that this evil has reached in New York and Chicago. We wish, however, to see what is the state of affairs in the newer portion of Baltimore. There has been, and now is, great activity in the construction of small houses of low cost in the northeastern section of the city. Block after block of dwellings of the same type may be seen, some giving the appearance of well-seasoned habitations, some showing signs of recent occupancy, and others under construction.

Three features are so universally prevalent as to be characteristic of the city: (1) White marble trimmings and front steps; (2) cellars, and (3) frame extensions in the rear of the second story, overhanging the back yard.

(1) The white marble trimmings and front steps appear to be indispensable appurtenances to a respectable dwelling place. On fashionable streets, bordered by homes of the wealthy, or upon minor streets, giving access to monotonous rows of six-room dwellings, each doorway is guarded by a white marble pile of such immaculate cleanliness as to forbid approach. No matter what time of day, somewhere in the block may be seen the housewife or domestic on her knees, with scrubbing brush in hand, scouring this emblem of respectability. Even in rows where the cost has been so reduced as to preclude stone, the wooden steps are painted white, and scrupulous care is given to these also, for here and there may be seen a temporary portable bridge-like set of steps to give entrance to the house, while a fresh coat of paint is drying.

(2) Even the cheapest alley houses are provided with cellars, though in such cases unpaved. This customary excavation is a source of difficulty in older portions of the city because of stagnation of water, overflow of privy vaults, or because used for improper purposes, such as storage of edibles, or keeping of poultry. In new dwellings, however, usually the cellar is cemented, and well lighted, and provided with a hot-air furnace.

(3) The frame projection in the rear may be an uninclosed porch, an addition to a bedroom, an additional room, or a bathroom-known as "swinging bath." The second-floor joists are set lengthwise of the building and extended through the rear wall, thus saving the construction of brick work.

The most prevalent type of dwelling in Baltimore is a fourteen-foot front, six-room, bath and cellar house. Such houses are two stories in height. They are set close upon the sidewalk in front, and have a small backyard. While these houses give the impression of comfort and respectability, and are sufficiently well lighted and ventilated to meet all sanitary requirements, construction has been reduced to a remarkable degree of cheapness. Outside walls and party walls are 9 inches in thickness; the interior trimming woodwork-doors, door frames, stairways, etc. are as light as possible; no mouldings, beadings, or other mill work are used when flat surfaces may be used instead. The floors appear to be laid with low-grade material. Furnace, range, and bath fixtures are cheap and do not appear very durable. The existing system of surface drainage, only now giving place to a sewer system, under construction at great cost, makes it necessary to use privy vaults, hence the water closet is almost always placed in the backyard, the only bathroom fixture being the tub.

Such houses as these are built for sale as a rule, and only the house itself may be purchased. The ground rent system prevails in Baltimore and few owners of cheap houses own the ground upon which they stand. The sale price of houses such as described above is $800 to $1,000; the ground rent being about $36.00 per year. It is thought that it would not be profitable to build houses of this grade for renting purposes, as the repair account would inevitably be very great.

Houses of this type, however, may be rented and bring $12.00 to $15.00 per month, the customary rent being $13.00.

Thus in Baltimore, a six-room house, improved with bathroom, with hot and cold water, range and kitchen sink with hot and cold water, hot-air furnace, cement cellar, papered walls, gas and gas fixtures, and electric call bell-and, indispensable item, white marble steps-may be

found without difficulty and rented for $13.00. This type of house in Washington brings $22.50; here it is no more sanitary nor comfortable, but it is decidedly better constructed, and the addition of bay windows, peaked roof, or tower, in front, hardwood mantels, and embellishments of mill work, add to the cost, and must be paid for in rent, but do not add to the hygienic quality of the habitation. The Washington dwelling will be habitable, however, long after the Baltimore house has fallen into decay.

The above-described type is the prevailing kind of dwelling now being erected. In alleys and minor streets, however, large numbers of four-room dwellings may be found which appear to have been

constructed some years ago. Such houses vary in the improvements provided; some were found without gas supply, and without separate bathroom, but with a kitchen sink and cold-water supply, and a bathtub in a bedroom upstairs. The rooms were papered; there was a cellar, and backyard, where the closet was placed. The tenant provided all the necessary stoves. Such dwellings rent for $7.00 per month; the owner paying for ground rent $24.00 per year, taxes $12.00, and water rent $2.50. In another and somewhat better location, slightly larger houses of the same type were found renting for $9.00; while on the opposite side of this same street were excellent four-room dwellings, provided with the "swinging bath" described above, and with a range for supplying hot water, which were rented for $10.00.

All of the dwellings spoken of were occupied by white tenants. There is no building of new dwellings for colored people in Baltimore; they occupy dwellings abandoned in the march to more fashionable or newer residence districts. In a section of Baltimore occupied chiefly by negroes (Druid Hill Avenue, and cross streets and alleys opening upon it) the rents were found to be comparatively higher. On the larger streets, the 8, 10 or 12 room houses were occupied by very respectable and well-to-do colored people, who paid from $25.00 to $35.00 in rent. The "room to rent" sign was frequently seen, and it is thought that there may be overcrowding here. In the minor streets. and alleys, giving upon Druid Hill Avenue, are very many houses of one type, all occupied by negroes. These are two and three stories. in height, all with basements and all two rooms deep. Occasionally such houses have running water in the kitchen, but usually there is only a hydrant in the yard. An eight-room house of this type (two rooms in the basement) rents for $15.00; a five-room house (one room in basement) rents for $12.00.

There is, also, an old type of four and five room and cellar house to be seen in the alleys, most dark, dismal and unsanitary, which rents by the week at from $1.50 to $2.50; but even these houses seemed better structurally than the old frame houses on our main streets which bring from $12.00 to $15.00. The Baltimore house of this type is, however, so small and situated in such narrow alleys that area congestion must enter into the equation.

In general it may be said that in Baltimore, housing of the negroes is a problem awaiting solution; the homes available for the least resourceful are unfit in many respects, and there is no building of new dwellings for colored people.