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Look at this picture. Where do you think these kids work?

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Do you think a worker or an owner lived here? Explain your answer.

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What do you think they use this cotton for?

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This is where the mill workers lived. Would you like to live

here?

                                             

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The mill owned the houses and charged workers a weekly rent. The houses were generally of a two-, four-, or six-room design, following the normal pattern for mill-owned houses in the South Since most parents raised their children as future millworkers, the company encouraged large families by building larger homes closer to the mill and smaller homes farther away: as employees walked to work, the closer houses were more desirable According to local historian Nell Collins Thompson, the typical Schoolfield house had a tin roof, chimney(s), water hydrant, and stick-style railings on the front porch. Each dwelling had a small front yard and a larger backyard with a privy about 50 feet from the back door. Sanitation was not a primary concern, and judging from early pictures showing stained walls, many upstairs residents simply emptied chamber pots out of the windows. Though not very large, backyards were often filled with gardens, cow sheds, flower beds, grape arbors, and chicken lots The interior of all company housing had plaster walls, fireplaces at the inside corners, and “adequate windows for light and ventilation”; pantries were available only in the larger homes. Fireplaces were typically found in the two front rooms, with flumes for woodstoves located in the adjoining back rooms for additional heating and cooking. Dormer windows on the second floor faced the street

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• Since the mill owned all Schoolfield property, it was up to the company to maintain both the houses and the streets. According to a 1924 report, the Schoolfield house-maintenance staff included two carpenters, two workmen to replace window sills and floors, two men for brickwork, two men to plaster and calcimine, seven painters, and a sanitation staff. As a way to dispose of coal waste from mill operations, cinders were dumped on the streets to provide the roads with a “black top” (This made it impossible for residents to keep the coal dust out of their houses Initially the houses were lit with kerosene lamps, streetlights providing the only electric light in the village Although electricity came to Schoolfield houses in 1917 the community did not have a sewage system until annexed by Danville in 1951 To bathe, a resident could use either a galvanized tub with water heated on the stove or a wash pot in the backyard (Thompson 1984:26). After the establishment of the welfare building there was also the option of paying a nickel to use using the showers there

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• The mill promoted a basic education for its employees. In the early years, most children attended school through the seventh grade, at which time the boys were legally old enough to start working in the mills. Later, educational opportunities were expanded to include high school Many children attended the school, where only a limited variety of subjects were taught and discipline was strict 7Adults who had not received a regular education as children on the farms could attend the night schools that were also available.

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