This essay examines room renting in West Oakland between 1880 and 1900,
directing attention to the gender and material culture of room renters
at select sites during a period of transition and change. The terms “room
renting” and “room renters” encompass the extent of
rental housing culture for men and women in West Oakland where room renters
included boarders—whose rent generally included meals—and
roomers, who purchased meals separately from housing (and could also be
known as lodgers). During the period under study, great changes occurred
with respect to this aspect of rental housing culture in the United States,
as boarding fell out of favor and rooming became the preferred practice
among many tenants across the nation. The two table settings pictured
here represent the two extremes of late-19th-century boarding in West
Oakland: room renting in individual homes (the McLaughlin household, top)
and institutional room-renting in hotels (the Railroad Exchange Hotel,
bottom). The table settings in both of these instances comprised sturdy,
utilitarian dishes.
Download Chapter
9 | Return to Part III |
.gif){kind=small}
