The Pennsylvania House

The Pennsylvania House. Boarding Houses Met An Important Timber Town Need. , The upper part of today's Stumptown Ales once accommodated a boarding house. Boarding houses provided single or shared bedrooms and hot meals served in a common area, and usually hosted both overnight guests and long-term tenants. In timber towns and other industrial communities, boarding houses served an important need. Most skilled workers lived in longer-term housing, often with their families. However, many basic labor jobs were filled by newly-arrived immigrants, bachelors, or itinerant workers requiring inexpensive housing that met essential domestic needs or could be left behind on a moment's notice. This building remained in use as a boarding house until the 1970s. A clothing store occupied its main floor, providing another vital service that helped to attract and retain a workforce in Davis., (Captions):, For workers at Davis' industries like those shown at right at the Babcock sawmill, as well as their families, merchants in the downtown business district met a variety of basic needs. The People's Clothier, located where public bar service occurs today at Stumptown Ales, was one such business., J.C. Cooper purchased the building in the 1920s, oeprating it as a company store that sold food, clothing, and other goods. It operated into the 1950s., Stumptown Ales occupies the building shown at far left in this photo from around the turn of the 20th century. At the time of the photograph, The People's Clothier occupied the street level of the building, and the Pennsylvania House occupied the upper floor., Bachelor workers, immigrant workers whose families awaited passage to the United States in their home countries, itinerant workers, traveling sales agents, and other visitors and residents could be found in a typical sawmill town boarding house., Photo credits: left | West Virginia and Regional History Collections, West Virginia University; right | Pete Johnson collection