Lawrence Veiller

January 7, 1872 (age 87)

Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States

Veiller's interest in social issues was aroused during his college years by exposure to the writings of such English critics as Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin. During the 1890's, he worked as a volunteer for the University Settlement and Charity Organization Society of New York (COS). Direct contact with the poor convinced him that better housing was the key to social melioration. As a plan examiner in the city buildings department later in the decade, he acquired expertise in the technicalities of housing construction and finance. Veiller's career as the nation's leading housing reformer was launched in 1898 when he persuaded the COS to establish a Tenement House Committee. In order to provide a focus for the nationwide housing movement, he established the National Housing Association and served as director from 1911 to 1936. Also of national significance were the three volumes he published on the objectives and tactics of housing reform: A Model Tenement House Law (1910); Housing Reform: A Hand-Book for Practical Use in American Cities (1910); and A Model Housing Law. Veiller consistently opposed emulation of European subsidy or public housing programs. His influence diminished in the 1920's when it became apparent that while regulatory legislation might prevent the worst housing from being built, it could not ensure an adequate supply of good housing at low cost. Closely related to the housing reform movement of the early twentieth century was the advocacy of zoning legislation. He served as secretary of the COS Committee on Criminal Courts from 1911 to 1936 and was a member of the New York Citizens' Crime Commission from 1937 to 1940. Veiller died in New York City. Veiller's career signified a change in the nature of the social reform process. The moral imperatives of the nineteenth-century reformer, often religious in inspiration, were receding in favor of the bureaucratized technician and administrator. In the housing field, the transition was embodied in the contrast between Jacob Riis and Lawrence Veiller.

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Housing Betterment: February, 1918 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Housing Betterment: February, 1918 Organiza...)

Excerpt from Housing Betterment: February, 1918 Organization oi the company was effected on January 15, five days after the launching of the campaign for funds, the major portion of the necessary capital, having been subscribed in 22 minutes at the annual meeting of the Cham ber of Commerce on January 10 when the project first was outlined and the need for it made apparent by a preliminary report on Wilmington's housing conditions by John Nolen, city planner, who was engaged some time ago by the Bous ing Committee of the Chamber of Commerce to make a sur vey and recommendations. As soon as the necessary was assured, the Hons ing Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and interested citizens went to W'ashington to confer with officials of the War Shipping Board with the result that a tentative agree ment granting government aid to the extent indicated was drawn up by the counsel of the Shipping Board. Actualwork on the first of the proposed dwellings will be be gun as soon as the official papers are drawn up and signed. Wilmington and those government shipbuilding interests of which Wilmington is the seat have been suffering for months from a housing shortage. The Penn Seaboard Steel Corporation and the Pusey and Jones Company in particular have been seriously hampered. Both concerns, it is said, could and would use twice as many men as they now have in their employ if suitable houses were obtainable. Each of these concerns has subscribed to the housing com pany. Mr. Nolen, in his preliminary report to the Chamber on Wilmington's housing needs, pointed out not only the intimate connection between adequate housing and the success of our army abroad, but also its importance with regard to the tu ture of Wilmington. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Tenement House Legislation in New York: 1852-1900 (1900)

(Originally published in 1900. This volume from the Cornel...)

How England is meeting the housing shortage

Tenement House Reform in New York, 1834-1900

(Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic boo...)

Russell Sage Foundation. A Model Tenement House Law

( About the Book Legal history is the study of how law ha...)

Special Report on Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws in Leading American Cities (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Special Report on Housing Conditions and Ten...)

Excerpt from Special Report on Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws in Leading American Cities Dear srrz - Permit me to submit herewith a report on housing conditions and tenement regulations in leading American cities. This report has been prepared from personal observation, from investigations carried on by correspondence in certain cities with persons in a position to know intimately the conditions of the houses of the poor in their own city, and also by a study of the laws and ordinances which I have collected. In nearly every case photographs have been taken of the worst housing conditions, and also of typical housing conditions in each of these cities, so as to verify the facts previously gathered; these photographs are available for use in any way deemed desirable. Following the description of the housing conditions in each of these American cities will be found a comparative table of the more important building and health ordi nances in each city as they affect tenement houses. I have also placed at the end of this report two appendices, one containing certain features of the different laws which are not included in the comparative table; these are ar ranged under a grouping similar to that employed in the table, namely, as Fire Provisions, Sanitary Provisions, etc. The other contains the exact text of those tenement house requirements in certain cities which seem to me to be Of especial value. I would especially call the attention of the Commission to the provisions of the laws in the cities of Philadelphia and Washington. Respectfully submitted, lawrence veiller, Secretary, Tenement House Commission. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Model Tenement House Low

(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

The National Housing Association: -1910

(Originally published in 1910. This volume from the Cornel...)

Lawrence Turnure Veiller Edit Profile

reformer

Background

Lawrence Veiller was born on January 7, 1872, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was the son of Philip Bayard Veiller and Elizabeth du Puy.

Philip Veiller was a broker and the owner of syrup factories in Brooklyn and Illinois.

Education

As a result of family migrations connected with his father's business activities, Lawrence attended public and private schools in Chicago, Newton, Massachussets, and New York City.

At the age of fourteen, he entered the City College of New York, from which he received the B. A. in 1890.

Career

Veiller's interest in social issues was aroused during his college years by exposure to the writings of such English critics as Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin. During the 1890's, he worked as a volunteer for the University Settlement and Charity Organization Society of New York (COS). Direct contact with the poor convinced him that better housing was the key to social melioration. As a plan examiner in the city buildings department later in the decade, he acquired expertise in the technicalities of housing construction and finance. Veiller's career as the nation's leading housing reformer was launched in 1898 when he persuaded the COS to establish a Tenement House Committee. In order to provide a focus for the nationwide housing movement, he established the National Housing Association and served as director from 1911 to 1936.

Also of national significance were the three volumes he published on the objectives and tactics of housing reform: A Model Tenement House Law (1910); Housing Reform: A Hand-Book for Practical Use in American Cities (1910); and A Model Housing Law. Veiller consistently opposed emulation of European subsidy or public housing programs. His influence diminished in the 1920's when it became apparent that while regulatory legislation might prevent the worst housing from being built, it could not ensure an adequate supply of good housing at low cost. Closely related to the housing reform movement of the early twentieth century was the advocacy of zoning legislation. He served as secretary of the COS Committee on Criminal Courts from 1911 to 1936 and was a member of the New York Citizens' Crime Commission from 1937 to 1940.

Veiller died in New York City. Veiller's career signified a change in the nature of the social reform process. The moral imperatives of the nineteenth-century reformer, often religious in inspiration, were receding in favor of the bureaucratized technician and administrator. In the housing field, the transition was embodied in the contrast between Jacob Riis and Lawrence Veiller.

Achievements

Veiller influenced the content of most of the local and state housing legislation in the first two decades of the twentieth century. If Veiller raised the housing reform movement in the United States to a new level of effectiveness and organization, he also helped ensure that it would be limited mainly to a strategy of regulatory legislation. Veiller's contributions in housing reform movement included participation on the New York City Advisory Committee on the Height, Size and Arrangement of Buildings, whose report of 1913 served as the basis for the nation's first comprehensive zoning law in 1916. Veiller also prepared the Standard Zoning Law for the United States Department of Commerce in 1921. A long-time secondary interest concerned court reform, particularly the magistrate and children's court frequently encountered by the tenement population.