Progressive Housing in New York City: - Columbia University ...

In 1910 she was approached by Dr. Henry Shively to help fund housing for tuberculosis patients,
for which she agreed to build what would then become the Shively Sanitary Tenements. Dr.
Shively was the head of the Vanderbilt Clinic and was concerned in finding efficient treatments
for the disease. He thought patients would benefit of living in a building that had, quote, “all the
positives features of a sanatorium treatment brought to the patients in their own home”, end
quote.
The Shively Sanitary Tenements housed low-income tuberculosis patients and their families. It
was believed that fresh air cured the disease for which the architect, Henry Atterbury Smith,
provided every apartment with a balcony, a building complex with an open stair design, a roof
space, and a park-overlooking location for this purpose. Furthermore, the buildings at the New
York City designated landmark had electricity instead of gas with the purpose of keeping and
environment of fresh air and healing conditions for the tenants.
Shively Sanitary Tenements
Shively Sanitary Tenements Plan
Image from Dolkart, “East River Houses” Image from Plunz, p. 103.
The Tuskegee was another model tenement funded by philanthropic women, as were Caroline
and Olivia E. Phelps-Stokes. The Phelps-Stokes sisters came from a wealthy family and grew up
traveling around the world and witnessing other types of living conditions, which later in life
they would witness in their own city. Caroline and Olivia were reverent Christians and believed
that nobody should be discriminated regardless of color, race, or station. They were very
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