Frederick Victor
In the 1930s, laundry lines were a normal part of New York City life. In every borough, clothes flapped above alleyways, courtyards, and narrow streets. These lines stretched between tenements, often tied from one fire escape to another. Women pulled ropes using pulleys, sending shirts, sheets, and socks across open air.
Dryers existed by then, but they were not common. Most families couldn’t afford one, and laundromats hadn’t yet spread widely. Drying clothes indoors was slow and risky. Wet air inside made homes colder in winter and hotter in summer. So people turned to the sky. Sunlight and breeze were free.
New Yorkers washed clothes in tubs using washboards. Water had to be heated by hand on stoves. Soap left rough marks on skin. Washing was a full-day task. After wringing out clothes, women carried heavy loads up flights of stairs to the roof or out to the fire escape. Some buildings had shared backyard space for clotheslines, but rooftops were more common.
Each building had its own system. Some lines were fixed, others used a pulley so the user could stand still and move the laundry out. In crowded areas like the Lower East Side or Harlem, lines crisscrossed overhead in layers. A single building could have dozens of drying lines.
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The sight of laundry hanging was constant. Clothes waved over sidewalks and sometimes dripped on people passing below. Residents hung white sheets, underclothes, work shirts, baby clothes, and rags. Darker clothing often showed signs of soot or coal dust, even after washing. Air pollution made perfectly clean laundry rare.
Weather mattered. A dry, windy day meant faster drying. Rain delayed everything. When a storm came quickly, people rushed to the windows or roof to pull in the wash. If they waited too long, laundry became heavier and harder to dry again. In winter, wet clothes froze stiff and had to be broken loose before being brought back inside.
In some neighborhoods, lines of laundry became colorful displays. Italian, Jewish, and Puerto Rican communities in places like Mulberry Street and the South Bronx added bright patterns and fabrics to the sky. Each block had its own texture and color.
Rooftop drying was not always allowed. Some landlords locked roof access or didn’t build enough space for drying. That led to illegal lines stretched between poles or out of windows. In a few cases, police or building inspectors cut the lines or fined tenants.
As the 1940s approached, coin-operated laundromats began appearing in working-class neighborhoods. These places offered fast, shared machines. By the 1950s, electric dryers became more available. People began to see line drying as old-fashioned or even shameful. Some housing groups banned it altogether, calling it unsightly.
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