The History of Chicago Boarding Houses.

Forward

 

Behind the Doors of Chicago’s Boarding Houses

Before skyscrapers defined the skyline and condos dotted every block, Chicago pulsed with a different kind of housing rhythm—one shaped by the humble, bustling boarding house. This section invites you into the intimate, often overlooked world of shared meals, rented rooms, and surrogate families that once formed the backbone of urban life.

From the early taverns of Fort Dearborn to the industrial crescendos of the 1880s, boarding houses offered more than shelter—they were lifelines for immigrants, single workers, and women seeking financial independence. You’ll discover how married women, widows, and mature singles turned their homes into economic engines, hosting boarders who became part of their daily lives. Reformers praised these spaces for their moral influence, while newcomers found cultural havens where native tongues and familiar customs softened the shock of migration.

This section also explores the evolution of boarding—from cozy parlors and communal dinners to the rise of rooming houses and SROs (single-room occupancy hotels). As Chicago’s population exploded, so did the diversity of its housing: from “hot beds” shared in shifts to elegant residential hotels, each with its own rhythm and rules. And while postwar prosperity and suburban flight nearly erased the boarding house from memory, today’s co-living trends hint at a quiet revival.

So pull up a chair in the parlor, and let’s revisit the spaces where strangers became family, and where the city’s heartbeat could be heard in every clatter of dishes and creak of floorboards. The story of Chicago’s boarding houses is one of adaptation, resilience, and the enduring human need for connection.

Chicago Boarding House, 1890s.
A Chronology of Early Chicago Area Hotels.

Residential boarding arrangements in the Chicago area are at least as old as the Fort Dearborn trading settlement taverns. During Chicago's early boom years, when housing facilities struggled to keep pace with population growth, many visitors and newcomers found lodging and meals in the homes of private citizens.

By the 1880s, boarding was an established way of life. Private boarding houses typically consisted of a married couple (with or without children) who kept several boarders, generally single, unrelated individuals. While married couples occasionally boarded, families with children rarely lived in boarding houses.

Women usually took primary responsibility for the borders. For many women, keeping boarders and lodgers was a readily available way to earn money that permitted a flexible schedule and was compatible with caring for children. A married woman's income from boarding was often more reliable than her husband's income and could be the primary source of income for the household. Keeping borders was also a source of income for some widows and mature single women.

For many landlords and boarders, the household intimacy of boarding was part of its appeal. Boarders took their meals within the household and often participated in family activities. Boarding house residents met daily in the shared dining room and parlor spaces. Late-nineteenth-century reformers approved the family environment of boarding houses, which they felt was a welcome social restraint on boarders.

Native-born white and negro Americans often lived in boarding houses when they were single and new to the city. After the 1880s, an increasing number of single young women and men were employed in clerical jobs in the new skyscrapers, and many resided in boarding houses.

H.H. Holmes Murder Castle (the arrow is the front entrance), circa 1893.

Boarding was more prevalent among immigrants than native-born in early twentieth-century Chicago and other large cities. Boarding provided a cultural haven for homesick new immigrants who sought out households where they could speak their native tongues. Housing arrangements were often made through informal networks rather than public advertising.

The Transit House, 43rd and Halsted, Chicago, (1868). This boarding house served the visitors and patrons of the Union Stock Yards.

Larger and more commercial boarding houses existed in outlying industrial areas, such as near suburban railroad stops. Workers shared bedding in some more crowded arrangements and slept in shifts in a "hotbed." In some working-class boarding houses, each boarder's food was purchased and cooked separately. In other situations, residents took turns cooking for themselves.

Notice the building's main entrance has been moved to the second floor because Chicago raised the street level to improve water drainage, raising the streets out of the mud in 1858.

Well before 1900, other arrangements began to replace boarding. Many tenants preferred to lodge without common meals or to live in larger, more anonymous rooming houses, where a "light housekeeping room" included a gas fixture for cooking on a single burner. Residents could keep their own hours in a rooming house, enjoy greater privacy, and entertain guests more easily.

Packingtown (Back of the Yards Neighborhood), Chicago.

Landlords, too, could prefer lodgers to boarders for many of the same reasons. Boardinghouse families began to desire their privacy over the affective ties of an extensive surrogate family. 

The decline of boarding could be seen as a parallel to the transformation of the semipublic "parlor" or front room (frunchroom in Chicagoese) into the twentieth-century private "living room."

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.