House Raising
William P. Chappel American
Not on view
As Manhattan’s population expanded in the early nineteenth century, many working-class residents relocated to the city’s more rural northern wards to escape rising downtown rents. This tenth-ward scene takes place on Grand between Eldridge and Allen Streets (in today’s Lower East Side). A master builder and several journeymen, some with long pike poles, work to raise one side (called a "bent") of a timber-frame house. For years, New York had tried unsuccessfully to prohibit wood structures in favor of more fire-friendly brick or stone. At right, what are possibly the flames from a forge can be seen through the window of a blacksmith’s shop.
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