Architecturally, the plan of most of Yonkers’ tenements resembled those of other industrial centers, featuring a common entrance and stairway and enclosed verandas leading to a fire–escape in the back. The newer tenements, however, were built to resemble “flats”; they featured separate corridors opening from the common entrance and a few boasted an outside stairway to the upper–story apartments. Occupants of these newer “flats” reportedly had substantially as much privacy as the occupants of a single–family house.

Unlike most industrial cities, Yonkers was fortunate in that few of its buildings were “rear tenements” and that only a very small percentage (9 percent) of the population investigated lived in basement units. Only 6.17 percent of the housing stock surveyed (sheltering 5.52 percent of the population) were classified as “rear tenements.” These secondary tenements, built at the back of lots and located behind tenement buildings fronting the street, were notorious breeding grounds of disease. Clinton Street and Vineyard Avenue had the largest number, almost half, of rear tenements located on the streets surveyed. Regarding basement and cellar units, the study reported, conditions were not as bad as they usually were in other industrial cities due to Yonkers’ hilly topography. “Many of the houses,” Bogart noted, “are built on steep declivities, and the basement floor, though below the level of the street in the front, is often above the ground at the rear, or the reverse.” Orchard Street had the largest number of people living in basement units, followed by Palisade, Vineyard and Clinton.

The typical three–room dwelling unit in which a majority of the Yonkers’ tenement population lived consisted of a living room and two bedrooms. (Kitchens are not mentioned.) A majority ofthe houses (70.88 percent) were reported in “good sanitary condition,” while only a small number (6.5 percent) were reported as “bad.” Common yards seem to have been well kept as only about 20 percent were labeled as “either disgusting or dangerous.” Generally, these yards were used for hanging out clothes to dry, and almost half contamed privies. Less than a third of the houses boasted water–closets indoors (usually shared by two families), and 4.4 percent had no sanitary facilities whatsoever. In comparison with other urban areas studied, however, Yonkers’ tenements were rather well outfitted with sanitary facilities.

Almost 15 percent ofYonkers’ tenements studied were owner–occupied, one of the higher percentages in the country, exceeded only by Baltimore, which would boast 19.56 percent ownership. Bogart noted that the greatest percentage of owner–occupied tenements housed the Irish and the few native–born Americans that figured in the study. African–Americans and Italians had the lowest figures of ownership.

Over 77 percent of the population studied lived in clean rooms, while about 10 percent of the rooms investigated (housing 11 percent of the population studied), were classed as dirty.

Rent in Yonkers was lower than in other cities whose working–class populations had been studied, with the exception of Baltimore. The average rent for a tenement dwelling unit in Yonkers in 1896 was between $8 and $9 per month, and approximately 13.5 percent of a family’s income was spent on rent. Palisade Avenue a business street in the heart of the city, had the highest average rent per room at $2.68 a month. Following were Elm and School streets, described as “both nice residence streets, where the houses are surrounded by small yards”; Clinton, Washington and Saint Mary’s, reportedly “very convenient to the factories where most of their population work”; and lastly, Garden, Carlisle,Mulford, Orchard, Parker and Vineyard, described as “situated in the suburbs of the city, where land is cheaper.” Bogart noted that “the rent in John Street…together with James Street…is lower per dwelling and room than in any other street. The reason is that the locality is a most undesirable one, both streets being back alleys, while the houses are small cheap frame structures.” The average rents on John and James streets were $1.62 and $1.76 respectively per month.