Slum Boarding House on the North Side of King Street East, February, 1912.
Single immigrant men flocked to the cheap boarding houses in the center of the city or along the tracks near their places of work. Sometimes labour contractors led workers to these gloomy, overcrowded rooming houses where several men shared a room. At the turn of the century, lodgings of this type cost $3.00 to $4.25 per week. This housing cost was substantial for unskilled labourers; in 1900, building trades labourers averaged $1.29 per day.
Note that the men in this photograph are holding photographs in their hands. These pictures are group photographs similar to this one. In the early twentieth century, municipal boards and private groups began to investigate conditions among the poor and the working class. In the process, documentation in the form of photographs and written reports were collected; they now provide an important source of historical evidence.
