Thursday, January 16, 2014
Might as well conform to Google's stereotype.
Might as well continue 1940-censusing disappeared places. Especially since Google has algorithmically figured out what I'm doing. Each time I visit Youtube now, it "recommends" a whole bunch of abandoned-places clips!
Following up on this little story about the rented house on South Lincoln in Ponca. Here's a floor plan. The main rectangle was about 24 by 18 feet. The kitchen was added on, possibly in the '50s, a few steps below the rest of the house. Sunny and spacious, it was the only pleasant room in the house. Before it was added, the little passage on the right must have been the kitchenette. When I lived there, it was just wasted space. Note also the wasted space in the hall. Dead ends both ways, not formed into closets.
This house does appear in the 1940 census. At that time it was owned and occupied by a husband and wife about 50 years old, plus the wife's 80-year-old mother. The husband is listed as "interior decorator", which seems to have meant "painter" in Census coding. Presumably the phrase hadn't yet acquired its fairy connotation.
Even if the back kitchen was already added then, I can't imagine three people in such a small space! But living alone was EXTREMELY rare in 1940. After skimming lots of pages, I'd estimate that only 5% of dwelling units had a single occupant. Most of those seem to be single-room apts, i.e. hotel rooms labeled as apts. Nearly absolute rule: A residence with more than one room housed more than one person.
¶ 2:36 AM 
This house does appear in the 1940 census. At that time it was owned and occupied by a husband and wife about 50 years old, plus the wife's 80-year-old mother. The husband is listed as "interior decorator", which seems to have meant "painter" in Census coding. Presumably the phrase hadn't yet acquired its fairy connotation.
Even if the back kitchen was already added then, I can't imagine three people in such a small space! But living alone was EXTREMELY rare in 1940. After skimming lots of pages, I'd estimate that only 5% of dwelling units had a single occupant. Most of those seem to be single-room apts, i.e. hotel rooms labeled as apts. Nearly absolute rule: A residence with more than one room housed more than one person.
¶ 2:36 AM
