This photograph taken in "The Ward" shows a house built on the rear of a house lot. These ramshackle places were often built at a later date than the houses on the front of the lot. Rear houses enabled a landlord to collect as much rent from his property as possible. As the photograph shows, these houses were built of wood and kept in poor repair. Their muddy and dirty yards were often filled with refuse and sometimes equipped with open privy pits. Note the boxes and discarded objects that surround this woman and her children.
