I recently came across an article from an 1896 copy of  “American Architect” and titled “Housing of the Poor”. It compared the differences between England’s and the United States’ attempt to provide affordable housing for the working classes. The article mentioned that, “the American houses are a great deal more comfortable to live in, more attention is paid to appearance and, above all, a great deal more room is given  to the tenants”. It then used the Willimantic Linen Company’s “Oaks” housing as an example. “The Willimantic houses are of wood and present a tasteful appearance and only cover one-tenth of the lot devoted to each house, each building being entirely isolated with an opportunity for lawn, garden, clothes-yard, etc.” The article went into detail (and had illustrations) about the room dimensions and amenities but was especially complimentary in describing the rental cost. The houses rented for $1.93 per week which was calculated to be about 12-1/2 percent of the tenant’s wages. A book published in 1885 had also lavished high praise on the Willimantic Linen Company and its President/Manager, Colonel Barrows for his efforts in providing affordable housing, especially at “The Oaks”. The author spoke with a family that lived in one of the houses and said, “Here is a family who, if they had fallen on careless employers would have helped further crowd (a squalid dwelling) but who had instead been lifted into higher conditions of life than they had ever previously known”. In the 1880s, the company employed over a thousand workers. The Quidnick-Windham Mills employed hundreds more. By 1890, newspaper articles were reporting that, “one of the greatest needs of the Willimantic borough is a better class of tenement houses”. A one-line news item a few months later said that “the great scarcity of tenements has led several people to convert barns to dwelling houses”. Besides “The Oaks”, the Linen Company had built tenements in Iverton and Carey Hill. Quidnick-Windham had tenements on Stone Row, Brick Row (today’s photo), Yellow Row and White Row. While newspaper reports spoke of the cotton mills, it is important to remember that there were 5 silk mills operating on Valley Street as well. There were multiple tenements along Valley, Meadow, Broad, Center, Temple and Union Streets, as well as Maple Avenue.  The word  “tenement” has a wide variety of definitions but the most common one that is applicable to this story is that tenements were buildings divided into two or more sets of living quarters for working class people. In the sources I used, I did not find any references to people being taken advantage of by landlords. Those who were fortunate enough to find housing in mill-owned tenements paid low rents for mostly decent housing. Two sets of my French-Canadian great grandparents, part of the 1880s wave of immigration,  first lived in mill tenements and within a few years bought their own houses as did many others. Several of them, like my great-grandfather Laramee, bought other tenement houses and became landlords. In early 1898, it became apparent that the American Thread Company would be taking over the Willimantic Linen Company. The feeling in the city was that it was, “about to enter into a new era of prosperity which will exceed any that it has ever before experienced”. Willimantic would become the center of operations since the Willimantic mills were more than double the capacity of any other mills acquired by American Thread and there was plenty of room to expand. At the outset, the new company planned on hiring at least 300 more workers with that number growing to almost a thousand in three years. Local business and civic leaders felt that, “Willimantic could expect an increase in population (from 1898 through 1900) from 2,000 to 3,000 and an increase of the earning power of its population of $1,000 per day”. One leader after another spoke glowingly about how the new company promised prosperity and stability for the city. Judge of Probate Charles Daniels, however, said that, “If the Willimantic plant is to be run to produce all it can, it must result in a decided increase in the working force, thus creating a demand for our tenements already built and call for the erection of new ones, thus furnishing work in all the building trades”. (to be continued) Visit threadcity.us for many more stories and photographs. (52)…….