Worker Housing
In the early days of Pennsylvania agriculture, farm workers were usually local people hired by the day, season, or year. They would live in the farmhouse, or sometimes in separate housing on the farm, or off the farm. During the twentieth century, especially during and after World War II, migrant labor became more important in some parts of the state, chiefly in the Lake Erie shore and Adams County fruit belts, the Potter and Lehigh County potato regions, and scattered areas where cannery crops or tobacco were grown. These workers needed housing. At first, housing was improvised and often below standard. Later, government regulation ameliorated migrant housing conditions somewhat. Migrant housing older than 50 years old is probably rare.
Migrant quarters and packing house, Erie County, c. 1940.
The upper level was used to house workers from the Caribbean and later Texas Mexican workers.
Migrant worker housing, Adams County, date unknown.
In many cases, migrant housing is sited literally within the orchard.
Note
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on August 26, 2015.
Pages in this Section
- Overview
- House Types
- Barn Types
- Barn Features
- Outbuilding Types
- Overview
- Bake Oven
- Butcher House
- Carriage House
- Cider House
- Combination Structure
- Cook House
- Corn Crib
- Dryhouse
- Fruit Cold Storage
- Garage
- Grain Bin
- Granary
- Greenhouse
- Hay Drying Shed
- Hog House
- Horse Barn
- Ice House
- Machine Shed
- Maple Sugar House
- Milk House
- Packing House
- Potato Storage Cellar
- Poultry Housing
- Privy
- Roadside Stand
- Root Cellar
- Scale House
- Shed
- Silo
- Smokehouse
- Spray Shed
- Springhouse
- Summer Kitchen
- Wagon Shed
- Wash House
- Wood Shed
- Worker Housing
- Workshop
- Landscape Elements
- Archaeological Features