Tenements on East 24th Street between Second and Third
Avenues, c.1890
During the nineteenth century, the most squalid tenements in Rose Hill and Kips
Bay were located closest to the East River. One account described the blocks
east of Second Avenue as being
"inhabited by the poorest, most filthy, wretched,
and degraded class, in bad state of repair, very filthy within, and usually
with filthy pestilential surroundings." Conditions improved as one moved
west:
"Between Second and Third Avenues the population is mixed, the domiciles
ranging from third-class tenements to very good private residences."
