Workers who were just arriving
in the city, whether for the season or forever, typically lived
in boarding houses. Boarding houses were usually filled with
workers who had come from the same region, and a newly arrived
worker would seek out the boarding house from his region. There
he would likely receive a warm welcome and help getting adjusted
and finding a job.
Boarding houses typically
rented what they called furnished rooms by the night, week, or
month. The rooms actually consisted only of dormitory style plank
beds. Workers would often be assigned two to a bed with someone
they had never met before. They, however, probably saw it as
somewhat of an improvement over country life where families typically
slept with the livestock.
picture shows a cross section of a typical apartment building.
The working classes would occupy the fourth and most likely part
of the fifth floor.
House, about 1850.
Workers who had families,
or who had been established for longer often moved into apartments.
They typically consisted of one or two rooms, which might be
shared by more than one family or more than one generation of
the same family. In addition, they also served as a workshop
in many cases. For example, the husband of the family might be
a weaver, in which case the looms would be set up around the
apartment and the whole family would work on the weaving during
Apartment buildings of
the time were typically large stone buildings with very little
light or ventilation. The working class apartments in the building
often did not have a fireplace or any other source of heat, and
might not even have candles for light. this contibuted to the
great popularity of cafes. An apartment building might have shared
water and toilet on a landing or in a courtyard which all the
families in the building would use. Because all provisions, including
water had to be carried up the stairs, working class apartments
usually occupied the upper or upper two floors of any building.
The apartments might be as high as the sixth or seventh floor.