The Creation of Urban Homes: Apartment Buildings in New Haven, 1890-1930 Emily Liu For Professor Robert Ellickson Urban Legal History Fall 2006 I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 II. Defining and finding apartments ............................................................................................ 4 A. Terminology: “Apartments” ............................................................................................... 4 B. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 9 III. Demand ............................................................................................................................. 11 A. Population: rise and fall .................................................................................................... 11 B. Small-scale alternatives to apartments .............................................................................. 14 C. Low-end alternatives to apartments: tenements ................................................................ 17 D. Student demand: the effect of Yale ................................................................................... 18 E. Streetcars ........................................................................................................................... 21 IV. Cultural acceptance and resistance ................................................................................... 22 A. Transition architecture ...................................................................................................... 23 B. Disruption of the private home ......................................................................................... 25 C. Low-class: confusion with tenements ............................................................................... 26 D. High-class: luxuries .......................................................................................................... 27 E. Immature residents ............................................................................................................ 30 V. Supply ................................................................................................................................... 30 A. Rise of the apartment construction industry ..................................................................... 31 1. Term of investment: the builder-investor ..................................................................... 32 2. Repeat players ............................................................................................................... 34 3. Naming of buildings ..................................................................................................... 35 4. Who are the owners? ..................................................................................................... 35 5. Corporate entities .......................................................................................................... 37 6. Apartment architecture and local professionals ............................................................ 38 B. Large-scale construction practices .................................................................................... 41 1. Technological developments ........................................................................................ 41 2. Economies of scale in housing construction ................................................................. 42 C. Financing construction: development of the mortgage market ......................................... 43 D. Investment risk and foreclosure ........................................................................................ 45 E. External economic forces .................................................................................................. 47 1. Periodic economic downturn ........................................................................................ 47 2. World War I (1916-1918) ............................................................................................. 48 3. The Great Depression ................................................................................................... 48 F. Loss of existing apartment stock: other uses .................................................................... 49 VI. Law ................................................................................................................................... 51 A. Non-zoning law ................................................................................................................. 52 1. New Haven: municipal ordinances and regulations...................................................... 52 a. Building lines ............................................................................................................ 53 b. Building codes: ordinances ....................................................................................... 54 2. Connecticut state law: Tenement House Act ................................................................ 57 3. Nuisance law ................................................................................................................. 59 4. Restrictive covenants .................................................................................................... 60 B. Zoning ............................................................................................................................... 64 1. The road towards zoning and the anticipatory apartment boom ................................... 64 2. Building Zone Ordinance (1926): zoning districts ....................................................... 68 c. Residence “A” districts ............................................................................................. 69 d. Residence “AA” districts .......................................................................................... 71 3. Building Zone Ordinance (1926): supplemental provisions ......................................... 72 a. Yard requirements ..................................................................................................... 73 b. Height ........................................................................................................................ 73 4. Board of Zoning Appeals .............................................................................................. 76 5. Zoning: conclusion........................................................................................................ 77 VII. How many apartments were built, and where? ................................................................. 78 A. Numbers: slow start .......................................................................................................... 78 B. Distribution ....................................................................................................................... 81 1. Apartments by neighborhood ........................................................................................ 81 a. Downtown New Haven: the Nine Squares (Ward I) ................................................ 81 b. Chapel and Whitney-Orange corridors: West River, East Rock, Prospect Hill and Dwight-Edgewood (Wards II, VIII, IX, and X) ................................................................ 83 c. Working-class neighborhoods: the Hill, City Point, East Long Wharf, Wooster Square South and North, and Fair Haven South and North (Wards III, IV, V, VI, VII, XI and XII) ............................................................................................................................. 85 d. Outer New Haven: Westville, Fair Haven Heights, Morris Cove (Wards XIII, XIV, and XV) ............................................................................................................................. 86 2. Clustering of apartment houses ..................................................................................... 88 VIII. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 89 Appendix I: Maps.............................................................................................................................i A. Ward Designations................................................................................................................i B. Apartment Distribution........................................................................................................ii C. Fire Districts.......................................................................................................................iii D. Zoning Map (1926) ............................................................................................................iv Appendix II: Tables.........................................................................................................................v A. New Haven Apartments (1890-1930)..................................................................................v B. Apartment Dwellings by Neighborhood and Time Period................................................xv C. Density by Ward...............................................................................................................xvi D. Population Growth by Ward............................................................................................xvii