Moving Day was a tradition in New York City dating back to colonial times and lasting until after World War II. On February 1, sometimes known as "Rent Day", landlords would give notice to their tenants what the new rent would be after the end of the quarter,Staff (February 13, 1854) "Facetious Landlords" The New York Times and the tenants would spend good-weather days in the early spring searching for new houses and the best deals.Staff (April 30, 1873 "May Day: A History of Moving Day" The New York Times) On May 1,Oxford English Dictionary quoted at "Big Apple: Moving Day (May 1st)" all oral leases (the majority of tenants) in the city expired simultaneously at 9:00 am, causing thousands of people to change their residences, all at the same time.Straight DopeStaff (May 2, 1873) "Moving Day in Brooklyn" The New York Times
The tradition was likely derived from the practice of , with contracts in the Netherlands generally ending on May 1, while The Encyclopedia of New York City links it instead to the English celebration of May Day.*Erickson, Alana J. "Moving Day" in Washington Irving's satirical 1809 novel A History of New York gives an origin myth centering on a movement on that date of early Dutch colonists on the Communipaw Ferry route across the Hudson from New Jersey, while later fanciful writers such as Arthur Guiterman ascribe it as the date of the first crossing across the Atlantic from the Netherlands.Gelfand, et al. (2007), "Origins of Moving Day" p.2 While it may have originated as a custom, the tradition took force of law by an 1820 act of the New York State Legislature, which mandated that if no other date was specified, all housing contracts were valid to the first of May;the law was repealed in 1828Staff (May 2, 1856) "Moving-Day" The New York Times – unless the day fell on a Sunday, in which case the deadline was May 2.Staff (May 1, 1881) "Many Families Moving" The New York Times
History In 1799, an observer commented that New Yorkers "are seized on the first of May, by a sort of madness, that will not let them rest till they have changed their dwelling."Burrows and Wallace (1999), p.392 Because there were not enough cartmen to handle all the traffic, farmers would come from Long Island and New Jersey to rent out their wagons at high prices.Anonymous (May 2, 1856) Letter dated May 19, 1759 The New York Times By 1820, because of the large increase in the number of propertyless renters, Moving Day had become "pandemonium", with the streets gridlocked with wagons carting household goods.Burrows and Wallace (1999), p.476 The tradition was still in force in 1848, when the Tenant League denounced it as a way for landlords to raise rents every year.Burrows and Wallace (1999), p.767 The cost of moving was another concern, as cartmen sometimes charged more than the official rates set by city ordinances – people were known to pay up to a week's wages to be movedGelfand et al. (2007), "Movers of Moving Day" p.3 – and the truckman might, if the customer refused to pay on delivery, take their belongings to Police Headquarters, charging for the additional transportation.Staff (April 29, 1890) "What It Costs to Move" The New York Times
By 1856, some erosion of the strict adherence to the custom of Moving Day was noted, as some people moved a few days before or after the traditional day, creating, in effect, a "moving week". Once the economic depression of 1873 was over, more housing was constructed, dropping the price of housing down, and subsequently people had less need to move as often.
Second Moving Day Near the end of the 19th century, many people began leaving the city for the cooler suburbs in the heat of summertime, and as a result October 1 became a second Moving Day, as people returning to the city would take their belongings out of storage and move into their newly rented homes. The October date may be related to the English custom of paying land rents on Michaelmas, which falls on September 29. Eventually, the October date began to supplant the traditional May date, so that by 1922 the Van Owners Association reported only a "moderate flurry" of activity on the Spring day.Staff "May 1 Moving Rush a Thing of the Past" The New York Times The movers also attempted to get legislation passed to spread out the Fall rush to three dates: the firsts of September, October and November.Staff (November 19, 1922) "Want 3 Moving Days to Relieve October 1" The New York Times Over time, the tradition of a specific Moving Day began to fade, with the remnant evident in commercial leases, which still generally run out on May 1 or October 1.
At the height of Moving Day in the early 20th century, it was estimated that a million people in the city all changed their residences at the same time. Resistance to Moving Day was strong in the 1920s and 1930s, while it still made cultural appearances as in the 1926 Broadway song "Mountain Greenery", but it took the start of World War II to end the general practice, as the moving industry found it difficult to find able-bodied men to do the work. The post-war housing shortage and the advent of rent control finally put an end to the custom for good.Gelfand, et al. (2007), "Moving Day" p.1 By 1945, a newspaper headline announced "Housing Shortage Erases Moving Day."Gelfand, et al. (2007), "Moving Day" p.8
Common Law Basis
The basis for Moving Day within NYC was from English common law that had remained present within NYC, and other American cities. It existed as a form of tenant protection from at will eviction, for those without a written lease. The vast majority of tenants at the time depended on oral leases, a practice that existed under common law that had the same legal status as written leases.
Importantly, an old legal statute reenacted in 1896, stated that leases of unspecified duration would expire on May 1 annually. Effectively making any oral lease a year long. For this reason, a tenant could legally challenge a landlord who asked for a rent increase on October 1 on the grounds they had oral agreements that fixed the price of the rent until April 30.
Descriptions
In her 1832 book Domestic Manners of Americans, English writer Frances Trollope, mother of novelist Anthony Trollope, described the city on Moving Day:
On the 1st of May the city of New York has the appearance of sending off a population flying from the plague, or of a town which had surrendered on condition of carrying away all their goods and chattels. Rich furniture and ragged furniture, carts, wagons, and drays, ropes, canvas, and straw, packers, porters, and draymen, white, yellow, and black, occupy the streets from east to west, from north to south, on this day. Every one I spoke to on the subject complained of this custom as most annoying, but all assured me it was unavoidable, if you inhabit a rented house. More than one of my New York friends have built or bought houses solely to avoid this annual inconvenience.Trollope, Frances (1949) Domestic Manners of the Americans, ed. Donald Smalley, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp.349–350; quoted in Gelfand, et al. (2007), "Origins of Moving Day" p.2
John Pintard, a co-founder of the New-York Historical Society described moving day in a letter to his daughter Eliza in 1832 or 1833:
Tuesday 1st May. Hazy, raw. Yest[erda]y was very unfavorable for the general moving of our great city. High rents, incommodious dwellings, & necessity combine to crowd our streets with carts overloaded with furniture & hand barrows with sofas, chairs, sideboards, looking glasses & pictures, so as to render the sidewalks almost impassable. The practice of all moving on one day, & give up & hiring Houses in Feb[ruar]y is of an antient custom & when the city was small & inhabitants few in number, almost every body owned or continued for years tenants in the same houses. Few instances of removals were seen, but now N[ew] York is literally in an uproar for several days before & after the 1st of May. This practice of move all, to strangers appears absurd, but it is attended with the advantage of affording a greater choice of abodes in the Feb[ruar]y quarter.Pintard, John (1941) Letters From John Pintard To His Daughter Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson 1816–1833, Volume IV 1832–1833, New York: Printed For the New-York Historical Society. p.44; quoted in Gelfrand et al."Origins of Moving Day"
Frontiersman Davy Crockett described his experience of Moving Day when he came to the city to be guest of honor at a dinner given by the Whig Party in 1834:Crockett, David (1902) Life of David Crockett, the original humorist and irrepressible backwoodsman… an autobiography, to which is added an account of his glorious death at the Alamo while fighting in defense of Texan independence, New York: A. L. Burt Co. p.165
By the time we returned down Broadway, it seemed to me that the city was flying before some awful calamity. "Why," said I, "Colonel, what under heaven is the matter? Everyone appears to be pitching out their furniture, and packing it off." He laughed, and said this was the general "moving day." Such a sight nobody ever saw unless it was in this same city. It seemed a kind of frolic, as if they were changing houses just for fun. Every street was crowded with carts, drays, and people. So the world goes. It would take a good deal to get me out of my log-house; but here, I understand, many persons "move" every year.Crockett, Davey (1902) Life of David Crockett, the original humorist and irrepressible backwoodsman ... an autobiography, to which is added an account of his glorious death at the Alamo while fighting in defense of Texan independence, New York: A. L. Burt Co. pp.188–189. quoted in Gelfand, et al. (2007), "Origins of Moving Day" p.2
"Mrs. Felton", in her 1843 book American Life: A Narrative of Two Years' City And Country Residence in the United States gives another Englishwoman's perspective on the tradition:
By an established custom, the houses are let from this day [May 1st] for the term of one year certain; and, as the inhabitants in general love variety, and seldom reside in the same house for two consecutive years, those who have to change, which appears to be nearly the whole city, must be all removed together. Hence, from the peep of day till twilight, may be seen carts which go at a rate of speed astonishingly rapid, laden with furniture of every kind, racing up and down the city, as if its inhabitants were flying from a pestilence, pursued by death with his broad scythe just ready to mow them into eternity.Felton, Mrs. (1843) American Life: A Narrative of Two Years' City And Country Residence in the United States, Boston: Printed For the Authorities. p.52; quoted in "Origins of Moving Day"
In 1855, the New York Times look forward to that year's Moving Day: