Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell recently moved from an apartment to a 115-year-old row house. The doors are so small that she couldn't get her existing furniture in the rooms they were meant to go, so she had to replace most of it with IKEA pieces to be assembled in place. The procedure made her wonder about the history of the house. How did people move their furniture to a new home 100 years ago? That question led her into research that we all wish we could do on our older homes. She found some actual data on the address, and added in speculation about its inhabitants and their lifestyle.
In order to glean how working people moved back in the early 1900s, I decided to focus on a few key areas of research:
What kind of wages the family would make, what they would spend it on and what kind of local industry they might have participated in.
What kind of stuff was being moved; (AKA what kind of furniture these folks bought and how much it cost)
What the costs were of moving services during this time, and whether they were affordable for the family in question.
The result is a fascinating look at working class home life in the early 1900s, complete with furniture prices and historical photographs. -via Metafilter