Boarding-house keeper

Boarders rented a room by the night or for weeks, months or years, and usually ate family-style meals in a common dining room. Boarding houses were long taken for granted as respectable homes for students, single workers, immigrants and newlyweds, but became less common in the United States by the 1930s.

The 1900 census named boarding-house keeper and hotel keeper as separate occupations. From 1910 the instructions said everyone living in a boarding house counted as one census family, so the keeper often heads a long list of boarders.