Dazzled by the potential of model housing as a solution to Boston's housing problem after the Civil War, Henry Bowditch founded the Boston Co-operative Building Company. Details of the company's operation provides insight into the nature of the housing problem and the mind of the nineteenth-century housing reformer. (Author/RM)

In the early nineteenth century, Boston was a small, pleasant seaport, but the large influx of immigrants after 1840 led to overcrowding in unsanitary housing for the newcomers. Gradually public pressure forced local government to pass legislation in 1868 which set minimum standards of light, ventilation, and safety for housing. (IS)