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Story
February 9, 1910
The Dawson News
Dawson, Terrell County, Georgia
What is this article about?
In Manhattan, janitors and superintendents live in roof houses on skyscrapers, with gardens, pets, laundry, and playgrounds high above the streets, offering seclusion, fire safety, and protection from city illnesses like tuberculosis.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
CITY UP IN THE SKY
IN MANHATTAN MANY LIVE IN VERITABLE "CASTLES IN THE AIR."
Flower Beds, the Family Cat and the Weekly Wash Flying to Breezes Are Seen Hundreds of Feet Above the Pavements.
NEW YORK.-The announcement that New York's latest thirty-story "skyscraper" will have a roof garden has drawn attention to a phase of city life which is to be found nowhere else in the world but on Manhattan Island. This is a "city in the sky"-dozens of little homes with flower beds, and family cats, and clothes drying in the sun, hundreds of feet above the crowded pavement.
With the exception of the Singer and Metropolitan Life towers, most of New York's towering structures have flat roofs. On them have been constructed innumerable roof houses, where the janitors, and often the busy superintendents of these buildings are wont to dwell. Their homes are as quiet and secluded as if they were far out in the country.
The roof house is usually built of the same terra cotta hollow tile that is used in the floors and partitions of the "skyscraper" itself. Just as this material makes the body of the building safe from fire, so it provides security for the janitor's family against stray sparks that may be blown from surrounding chimneys.
These up-in-the-air homes were really the first examples of the use of terra cotta in dwelling construction. Now, in the neighborhood of New York fireproof dwellings have become more or less familiar, and several terra cotta colonies have sprung up. Not only the element of safety, but the saving on repairs and insurance premiums, is responsible for this.
In many cases little garden plots of shallow earth are cultivated around the tiny castles-in-the-air of the modern "cliff dwellers," and on Mondays the family wash is to be seen waving in the breeze three hundred feet above the sidewalk. This is true, for instance, of both the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Produce Exchange buildings.
When the janitor has children he surrounds the roof with a high fence and provides them with a safe playground, where there are swings and parallel bars, and formal board walks for the rainy weather. The cliff dwellers are a healthy race, and have no fear of the dread city scourge, tuberculosis, lurking many stories below near the sidewalks.
IN MANHATTAN MANY LIVE IN VERITABLE "CASTLES IN THE AIR."
Flower Beds, the Family Cat and the Weekly Wash Flying to Breezes Are Seen Hundreds of Feet Above the Pavements.
NEW YORK.-The announcement that New York's latest thirty-story "skyscraper" will have a roof garden has drawn attention to a phase of city life which is to be found nowhere else in the world but on Manhattan Island. This is a "city in the sky"-dozens of little homes with flower beds, and family cats, and clothes drying in the sun, hundreds of feet above the crowded pavement.
With the exception of the Singer and Metropolitan Life towers, most of New York's towering structures have flat roofs. On them have been constructed innumerable roof houses, where the janitors, and often the busy superintendents of these buildings are wont to dwell. Their homes are as quiet and secluded as if they were far out in the country.
The roof house is usually built of the same terra cotta hollow tile that is used in the floors and partitions of the "skyscraper" itself. Just as this material makes the body of the building safe from fire, so it provides security for the janitor's family against stray sparks that may be blown from surrounding chimneys.
These up-in-the-air homes were really the first examples of the use of terra cotta in dwelling construction. Now, in the neighborhood of New York fireproof dwellings have become more or less familiar, and several terra cotta colonies have sprung up. Not only the element of safety, but the saving on repairs and insurance premiums, is responsible for this.
In many cases little garden plots of shallow earth are cultivated around the tiny castles-in-the-air of the modern "cliff dwellers," and on Mondays the family wash is to be seen waving in the breeze three hundred feet above the sidewalk. This is true, for instance, of both the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Produce Exchange buildings.
When the janitor has children he surrounds the roof with a high fence and provides them with a safe playground, where there are swings and parallel bars, and formal board walks for the rainy weather. The cliff dwellers are a healthy race, and have no fear of the dread city scourge, tuberculosis, lurking many stories below near the sidewalks.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
What themes does it cover?
Survival
What keywords are associated?
Skyscraper Roofs
Roof Houses
Cliff Dwellers
Urban Gardens
Janitor Families
Where did it happen?
Manhattan Island, New York
Story Details
Location
Manhattan Island, New York
Story Details
New York's skyscrapers have flat roofs turned into homes for janitors and superintendents, featuring flower beds, family cats, drying laundry, and children's playgrounds hundreds of feet above the streets, providing quiet, fireproof, and healthy living away from urban diseases like tuberculosis.