The 1930s were a pretty rough time. Unemployment hovered around 20 percent nationally, while the city’s poorest neighborhoods, like Harlem, had a 50 percent out-of-work rate.
Where did Depression-era New Yorkers go when they had no money to pay rent? Some moved into the city’s many squatter camps.
These makeshift villages, many with disturbingly accurate nicknames, sprang up citywide, according to a March 26, 1933 New York Times article.
One called “Hardlucksville” formed off 10th Street next to the East River (at left). Five men resided there, selling firewood culled from the river:
“The three of them saw up the wood into stove lengths. the two others peddle the product in the East Side streets, trundling it from door to door in baby carts reclaimed from the junk pile. Among the five they earn a half-dollar a day, and that supports them,” the Times reported.
Another squat, “Camp Thomas Paine,” was home to dozens of World War I veterans; they lived in shacks in the West 70s near the Hudson River. And “Packing Box City” (above) popped up on Houston Street.
Central Park had its own Hooverville as well. Read more about it here.
Tags: Camp Thomas Paine, Central Park Hooverville, Depression-era New York City, hardlucksville, Harlem during the Depression, Hoovervilles, Hoovervilles in New York City, New York in the 1930s, Packing Box City, Squatters camps in New York City
November 4, 2009 at 12:09 pm |
In the 60s I spent many a night sleeping in the weeds of a playground at about 10 Street and the East River Park. Never knew it was a Hooversville. My book ‘East River Stories’ stems from that period but alas only two stories have made it into print, ‘Baby Doll’ and ‘Blow-Job Mouth’.