Fossils

[mme_hardy]

Oh, the chambermaid came to the door
Says, "Get up, you lazy sinner
We need those sheets for a tablecloth
And it's almost time for dinner!"

-- "No Booze Today!"

That was an song I learned in the 1960s, from a children's album. It was already forgotten in children's culture; I never heard it anywhere else. You can judge how obsolete the song was because it mentioned sending a child to the saloon with a growler to get beer, a custom I doubt revived after Prohibition.

Remembering the song did make me wonder where the boarding-house went. It was a city institution in America throughout the last part of the 19th century and at least until World War II. A boarding house gave you a bedroom, access to common rooms, and two meals a day. Young women going to the city were sent to "respectable" boarding-houses that would keep a watchful eye on their clientele. Jokes said that young men married just to get out of the boarding houses.

Then they went poof. What happened? When and how did single Americans decide that they'd put up with their own cooking in exchange for privacy?

Edit: My father, born 1929, habitually referred to grabbing a serving dish across somebody else -- as opposed to asking for it to be passed -- as "a boarding-house reach", both when he did it and when a child did it.

Comments

Also also wik

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

A new book by David Faflik, “Boarding Out” (Northwestern University Press), argues that boardinghouses fundamentally reshaped the consciousness of the 19th century, particularly as seen through literature.

With regard to the time given in the article, "Stage Door" (1937) is set in a boarding-house. I've definitely read passing memoir references to war workers living in boardinghouses, though. There was a housing shortage, and that may have prolonged boardinghouses' lifespan.

Re: Also also wik

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

During WWII, a lot of servicemen were stationed away from their own homes, so a lot of spaces were made into private quarters for them. Outdoor staircases were added to make private entrances to second-floor rooms; sections of houses were converted into small apartments; garages became garage apartments; etc.

Our town was full of these, but by the late 40s or early 50s it had only one boardinghouse sfaik. After the war, the servicemen had gone back to their own homes, leaving the new apartments etc as alternatives for people who would formerly have used boarding houses.

'Modern conveniences' also made one's own kitchen, even if small and improvised, competitive with boardinghouse dining.

For a cheerful view, see the old memoir Mama's Boarding House.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting! Thank you.

Edit: Your point about modern conveniences is very well-taken; you can't easily have a 2-room apartment with its own wood/coal cookstove.

Re:

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

The post-WWII marriage boom (followed by the Baby Boom) may have shifted some boarding house singles into private apartments with mod. cons. too. My impression is that married couples seldom lived in boarding houses; they waited to marry till they could afford homes of their own.

I wouldn't be surprised if some boarding houses had a 'no babies / no couples' policy; perhaps as much for respectability (marrying before you could afford your own home suggested poor impulse control) as for noise.