Abstract
America’s Gilded Age industries were infamous for their labor abuses; however, new research indicates that companies also attempted to use the architectural layouts of workers’ houses to further manipulate workers and protect corporate interests. Drawing on existing architecture, oral histories, and proposed future floor plans, this article evaluates the potential motivations behind seemingly inconsequential changes between the houses built at Lattimer No. 2 and the proposed houses to be built at Lattimer No. 3 in northeastern Pennsylvania. Although the power structures inherent in company towns afforded the company control over every aspect of their workers’ lives, a review of architectural changes to workers’ houses over time reveals how the manipulation of physical space promoted community surveillance, increased formality, and decreased interaction with neighbors. While subtle, these types of modifications indicate a shift in the relationship between the company and its workers and can provide more insight into the experiences of workers in coal-company towns.
Resumen
Las industrias de la Edad Dorada de Estados Unidos fueron tristemente célebres por sus abusos laborales; sin embargo, una nueva investigación indica que las empresas también intentaron utilizar los diseños arquitectónicos de las casas de los trabajadores para manipular aún más a los trabajadores y proteger los intereses corporativos. Al basarse en la arquitectura existente, las historias orales y los planos de planta futuros propuestos, este artículo evalúa las posibles motivaciones detrás de los cambios aparentemente intrascendentes entre las casas construidas en el noreste de Pensilvania en Lattimer No. 2 y las casas propuestas para ser construidas en Lattimer No. 3. Aunque las estructuras de poder inherentes a los pueblos de la empresa permitieron a la empresa controlar todos los aspectos de la vida de sus trabajadores, una revisión de los cambios arquitectónicos en las casas de los trabajadores a lo largo del tiempo revela cómo la manipulación del espacio físico promovió la vigilancia comunitaria, aumentó la formalidad y disminuyó la interacción con los vecinos . Si bien son sutiles, este tipo de modificaciones indican un cambio en la relación entre la empresa y sus trabajadores, y pueden brindar más información sobre las experiencias de los trabajadores en los pueblos de las empresas carboníferas.
Résumé
Les industries de l'Âge d'or en Amérique étaient tristement célèbres pour les abus à l'égard de la main d'œuvre. Toutefois, une nouvelle recherche indique que les entreprises se sont également efforcées de tirer parti des plans architecturaux des maisons d’ouvriers pour manipuler plus encore les travailleurs et protéger les intérêts des entreprises. S ;inspirant de l ;architecture existante, de chroniques orales et de plans d’agencement futurs proposés, cet article évalue les motivations potentielles sous-jacentes aux modifications apparemment sans conséquence entre les maisons construites au nord-est de la Pennsylvanie à Lattimer n° 2 et les maisons dont la construction était proposée à Lattimer n° 3. Bien que les structures de pouvoir inhérentes aux cités ouvrières conféraient à l’entreprise un contrôle sur chaque aspect de l’existence de ses ouvriers, une étude des modifications architecturales apportées aux maisons d’ouvriers au cours du temps met en lumière la manière dont la manipulation de l’espace physique a pu promouvoir la surveillance de la communauté, une formalité accrue et des interactions réduites entre voisins. Ces types de modifications, bien que subtiles, indiquent un déplacement de la relation entre l’entreprise et ses ouvriers et sont susceptibles d’apporter un éclairage plus riche des expériences des travailleurs dans les cités minières.
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Notes
Although none of these studies is located in the Pennsylvania anthracite region, the studies provide important contemporary context for the types of general efforts coal-mining companies were implementing to gain control over their workforce. For that reason they will be discussed here.
The original map lacks a scale, which is why one is not shown on the figure. It is unclear whether the original map was drawn to scale. Instead, this map aims to convey the layout and massing of the company-town structures in Lattimer No. 2. As indicated by this map, there were no formal public spaces, although informal gathering spaces often arose around communal resources, such as water hydrants.
Residents were able to construct outbuildings, such as storage sheds or animal pens, on their company-house lots. Residents also often planted vegetable, herb, and flower gardens across much of the available house-lot space. Because these were personal choices made by individual families, the locations of gardens and outbuildings varied considerably and could even change within a house lot as new tenants moved in and instituted a different spatial plan.
Because these towns were largely populated by impoverished working-class immigrant families, very few 19th-century firsthand accounts of the houses or their interiors exist. Additionally, a large percentage of the working-class population in the region was illiterate, thereby reducing the odds that tenants kept diaries or wrote memoirs. For these reasons, this study relies upon oral histories.
The two bedrooms in the 1866 plan were used to separate the children by sex or to house all of the children in one room and rent the other room to boarders. That is why the parents slept in the living room.
For other examples of Progressive Era architecture adoption in Pennsylvania coal-company towns, see Mulrooney (1989:19–21).
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Acknowledgments:
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant DGE 1322106. Many thanks to Michael Roller and Justin Uehlein for their archival research, Donald Linebaugh for his comments on an earlier draft of this article, and the insightful comments of three anonymous peer reviewers.
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Westmont, V.C. Social Engineering at the Company Home Hearth: Coal Company Use of Architecture to Control Domestic Spaces in the Pennsylvania Anthracite Region, 1866–1889. Hist Arch 56, 782–803 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00380-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00380-1