Depression Era: 1930s: Depression
Click image to zoom in.Or view larger version. View of "Pipe City," at the estuary in Oakland, California. October 1932. M.L. Cohen, photographer. Gelatin silver print. Collection of Oakland Museum of California. Gift of Martin J. Cooney.
As hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their homes and farms, many began to live in makeshift housing in temporary villages, called "Hoovervilles." In Oakland, California, during the winter of 1932-33, some two hundred homeless men took up residence in surplus sewer pipes in a storage yard on the waterfront at the foot of 19th Avenue. It became known as
"Pipe City."