Greetings!
I just a bought a City Classics Company house kit and am putting it together. Like all my other house/structure kits, I'm detailing this kit by adding flooring and lighting to add to the realism.
From the handy background info included in the assembly directions, it says that when these houses were originally constructed by the logging, steel, or mining companies, they were very utilitarian as the industries were more concerned with the "quantity" of housing for their employees than they were with the "quality" of the housing.
It goes on to say that these company houses (when initially constructed in the late 1800s/early 1900s) were "simple utilitarian structures with very little concern paid to comfort or unnecessary frills...were built to standardized plans as inexpensively as possible"...and had very little in the way of amenities: No plumbing, electricity or bathroom facilities. It's states that "a coal burning stove was often one of the only comforts in a home". Even the finishing coat of paint (usually one) is described as "inexpensive white...that soon became dirty or eroded from the surrounding industrial emissions."
It wasn't until after WWII that the industries began selling the company houses to their employees, "which gave homeowners the freedom to individualize their homes" by adding "built additions that included bathroom and laundry facilties, extra bedrooms or enclosed porches."
All of this leads me to the interior and flooring of the company house. What kind of floors were used in these company houses? Were they simple planking - e.g. 1 x 6 or 1 x 8? What about the surface? Was it generally bare wood or was it painted? And what would their condition be like ca. 1940-1945?
I have some V-groove styrene that I was going to use as flooring because it looks like 1 x 3 or 1 x 4 oak flooring, once it's painted. However, as I started pondering the construction quality of the company houses and their condition during my era (early 40s), it got me thinking that the floors were probably more like unfinished, or - at best - painted pine planking. Shellac oak or maple flooring would presumably be found in more expensive homes. Does this assumption seem correct to you?
Since I've already cut and fitted the flooring pieces, what I may do is to flip the styrene V-groove over and use the flat, plain side as the flooring surface. I could then use some 1 x 8 "stained" or painted wood glued to the top of the styrene floor. The "stain" would consist of applying an alcohol/ink wash on the surface of the wood to bring out the detail of the grain.
Does anything seem off kilter to you? I would appreciate any other tips you all might have for me. Sorry to be so long-winded. Thanks for the help in advance.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Are you wanting to model houses as built or as they were in 1940-1945. While they may have been unpainted wood in 1910, it was probably painted or covered with linoleum by 1940. I would also not use V groove for residence flooring, The wood would have been tight enough the cracks would be almost invisible in HO scale.
We remodeled a post WW1 farm house (which was now in the suburbs) and when we pulled up the linoleum flooring there were newspapers from late 1944 used as underlayment on unpainted wood.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Dave,
Thanks for the response. I want to model the company house(s) in the early 40s because that's the era that I'm modeling.
I was thinking that the floors might reasonably be painted by that point. However...if the "rentees" were not as concerned about the appearance of their properties as they were with providing housing for their employees, they might just as well let the floors remain bare to save on expenses.
I hadn't thought about linoleum. For the floor scrubbers, that must have been a real God-send, as compared to trying to keep a bare floor clean.
Company houses needn't remain in the company town.
The C&H Sugar Company (at Crockett, CA) developed the Contra Costa Golf Course in 1918, about a dozen miles inland (southeast) from the plant. It moved a number of houses to the center of the course for the use of its executives. They were known as "sugar shacks." While some have been demolished over subsequent decades, some still remain although modified and expanded. One young couple purchased a house and lot there in 1945 for $5900. I remember doing the Hokey Pokey at their annual neighborhood parties in the late 1950s.
Mark
My company house will be owned by the NYC as residence for their freight house and fueling facility employees.
In the town I grew up in the mill company houses were either of white painted wood or brick construction. Floors were strip oak (there was time when oak was considered plain while carpet was only for the well-to-do -- times have changed) in the main rooms and linoleum (the real stuff) in the kitchen. These houses had electricity and indoor plumbing when built by the way, but were heated with a coal stove. That coal stove would throw off a surprising amount of heat. Folks kept a kettle going just to add moisture to the house. Interior walls and often ceilings were beadboard (cheaper and less skill than plaster - this was before drywall). Standard layout was living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and small bath off the kitchen. Also every house had a front porch. In the 40's these homes would have still been in good shape, relative to the times. The mill company kept them in repair, even if not fancy. It was only after they were sold off that they began to run down.
Some other facts: We kids did not bust our heads on those cast iron stoves, nor did we get ourselves burned even with that coal fire going; you could get a surprising number of people in one of those houses on Christmas Eve; those hard wood floors were cold on a winter morning -- we would run to the room with the stove to get dressed, probably why kids were easier to get moving back then, we wanted to get warm.
Don't mock company-town houses. Tract homes built after WWII weren't much different. The nursery school I went to in the early 1950s was at the former hospital of the Cowell Cement Plant in Concord, CA which also had company housing. The former hospital was the size of a large house, and was a well-built and handsome structure, surrounded by old-growth trees and a large lawn.
tstage My company house will be owned by the NYC as residence for their freight house and fueling facility employees. Tom
Generally company houses were built by industries near their plant or mine, usually in a remote area. For example when Erie Mining Co. set up it's taconite operation in Hoyt Lakes, the company platted the city and had houses built of several standard designs that employees could buy. (BTW they reserved the larger houses for supervisors and company officials.)
I can't think offhand of any situation where a railroad set up company houses?? Certainly the areas served by New York Central had enough towns and cities on it's lines for it's employees to live in.
I guess in theory it's possible if they built a large shop facility in the middle of nowhere they might build houses nearby to sell or rent to their employees but I'm not aware of any examples of this. More likely, a developer would build houses near the new shop facilities and sell them to the employees. They might be of 1-2-3 standard designs so might give the look of a 'company town'.
The C&H Sugar Company (Crockett, CA where it processed cane sugar because of the then-shortage of sugar beets) had a 170-room hotel to house employees. It reopened in 1906 when C&H acquired it with the plant of the California Beet Sugar Company that had shut down in 1903. The hotel was also the center of social events in Crockett for years, including the annual Christmas party the company hosted, with a banquet and gifts for all employees and their families. When more and more employees bought homes, the need for the hotel fell, and it closed on the eve of WWII.
My grandparents lived in company housing in Hercules, CA, until my grandfather grew too ill to work anymore and they moved into their house in Pinole where my great grandmother lived. Her husband, my great grandfather, had been a section foreman on the Santa Fe until he retired.
The company house in Hercules, to stay on topic, was a two story home with detached garage. Upstairs were 3 bedrooms, and downstairs were a large living room/dining room, a bathroom at the end of the entrance hall, and a large kitchen in the rear of the house. Grama did laundry outside in a shed using an old wringer washer, and they had a chicken coop.
We lived in Sacramento in the early 50s, and made the trek along old US 40 almost every weekend. My first railroad memories - model and otherwise - are associated with Grama's house. I got my first wind-up tinplate train for Christmas in 1952, and Grama bought me a cast metal pull-toy train later in the year. Also, my older brother led me through the cow pasture at the end of the street to the main line of the SP, about half a mile away on San Pablo Bay. I remember being frightened by the huge steam locomotives with the large platforms between the smokebox and the tender pulling long trains!
Grama's house still exists. When Hercules got out of the dynamite business, they went into real estate development in a big way and converted all the land they owned as as an explosive safety buffer into housing developments. Now, Hercules is one of the largest towns in west Contra Costa County! The company preserved several of the company houses, and moved them into a cluster as a sort of museum, and Grama's house was one of them. I really need to check it out again the next time I get back to California!
Thanks for that story, as well as the info, Paul. That's gotta be sweet to know that your grandma's house is still around and, I would assume, being preserved.
If you plan to simulate the floors using linoleum, what would be the best way?
Add this to the question list---What was the average square footage of a 2 floor 3 bdrm company house in the first place?--does anyone know of a resource to find this out? I'm scratchbuilding a few for a small mine here---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
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Try doing a search on company towns, houses, etc. I found an amazing amount of information on there about my home town even though it was very small. A lot of historians are interested in them. In fact googlemaps has ground level photos of my town from their traveling van. If you have a particular town/region in mind you might take a look there for pictures you can use to model from. Though keep in mind many of these houses and towns are very run down today. In their prime they were model towns. Even when I was a kid all the houses were kept up with families in them. On Christmas every house in town it seemed would be decorated. BTW, this is one of the traps of modeling run down areas -- we tend to model things as we see them today, forgetting that they were once new and well maintained, not all worn out. I think Bob Hayden made that same comment on how people model the narrow gauge in AK's video of the old C&DR.
i think the IC and other railroads provided housing for section foremen in times gone by. as for company houses, williamson illinois started out as a company town for the staunton and mt olive coal company mine number 2. old timers around here still refer to williamson as number two. many of the original company houses are still standing today, although they have had additions and other improvements made to them. if you look closely you can still see what was the original square 4 room house. they were all single story with hip roofs originally and about 24' square. i was told they were built with used lumber salvaged from the buildings of the 1904 worlds fair in st louis but i can't confirm that fact but the timing would be about right. . the mine superintendent's house was much larger and more elaborate. it stood closest to the mine and was across the road from the company store. there are many small communities in central illinois that grew up around coal mines and a lot of them still have a few of the original company houses left although they have been modernized and improved.
i would imagine that company housing supplied by railroads was more for the convenience of having the employee close at hand when needed in a remote location. unfortunately, history has shown that the coal companies were not quite so benevolent since the miners were often charged for their living quarters and all their supplies and food that was only available at the company store so they never really got out of debt to their employer. or as ernie ford sang, "i owe my soul to the company store"
grizlump
grizlump9 or as ernie ford sang, "i owe my soul to the company store"
or as ernie ford sang, "i owe my soul to the company store"
Sir, that is Tennessee Ernie Ford. That's one of the first songs a sang along with at 76 rpm in the latter half of the 'fifties. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're much younger than I.
markpierce grizlump9 or as ernie ford sang, "i owe my soul to the company store" Sir, that is Tennessee Ernie Ford. That's one of the first songs a sang along with at 76 rpm in the latter half of the 'fifties. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're much younger than I. Mark
I must be much older than you are, cause I remember they were 78 RPM records, not 76.
My first phonograph played 78, 45, 33-1/3 and 16-2/3 RPM records. If you ever watch later episodes of MASH, it was exactly like the one Maj. Winchester had in the "Swamp".
BTW "Sixteen Tons" was written by Merle Travis, he also recorded the first version in the late forties....
wjstix I must be much older than you are, cause I remember they were 78 RPM records, not 76.
That's debatable. At the least it appears my brain is older (more worn out) than yours.
The kit you are building Tom is the right one for a railroad employee
it is much to large for a coal miners house
Miners more often lived in very small shotgun style houses
Here's a link with lots of photos to compare
http://community-2.webtv.net/DizHarris/SHINBRIERALMOST/page4.html
TerryinTexas
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http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
If you'd like a good overview of a company town, go to googlemaps and enter this address:
Canal Rd / S 1st St, Lockhart, SC
You can go to street view and tour the town, seeing what's left of the company houses and how they are today. You'll find some that are pretty much unchanged. Also interesting, if you go to this location, you can see a painted block wall with the town name. Up until the late 60s, the train depot sat atop that wall with the road on one side and canal on the other. The mill was across the canal (all that remains is the stack) and was reached by trestle across the canal. Company store was in the now vacant parking lot across from the wall. The old brick gas station was a Gulf station my dad owned for a time in the 50s. The railroad was pretty active until the mid 70s, but now it's gone, the mill is gone, and so is most of the town.