The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 (Oxford History of the United States)

by Richard White

A five-story dumbbell housed from eighteen to twenty families, who in turn took in boarders and lodgers, so the building could contain from 100 to 150 people. At their most crowded, they offered about two square yards of floor space per inhabitant.