Bessie BuchananDurham, North Carolina The mill houses built in these villages were simple constructions. In the 1800s, most houses were either two-story, four-room, I-frame clapboards or one-and-one-half story half-and-parlor style homes.

Mill owners initially built villages near textile mills to attract families of workers. By 1900, 92% of workers lived in mill-owned housing. A typical mill village in the 1920s consisted of about 350 houses located within walking distance of the mill. In most cases, the company owned the houses and charged workers rent. In 1908, rent averaged $3.57 monthly - about half that charged outside the mill community.

Mill villages proved beneficial both to workers and owners. Workers lived close to their jobs and neighbors, creating a strong sense of community within the village. By locating the housing close to the mill, owners could keep watch over employees both during and after work hours. Owners often built villages outside of city limits to avoid city taxes and laws and maintain a rural atmosphere familiar to most workers. D.A. Tompkins urged owners to remember that mill workers were "essentially a rural people. They have been accustomed to farm life, where there is plenty of room? the ideal arrangement is to preserve the general condition of rural life."

The boys slept in one room, and the girls slept in another. And mother and Daddy had a room. And the kitchen. We never knew what it was to have a dining room. We didn't have a living room or a den or nothing like that; we wasn't used to it.