Maid’s Room

Providing an adequate, even pleasant, bedroom was one action homeowners could take to try to retain domestic staff, who, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, were lured away from service by less demanding job opportunities in cities.

Domestic work was hard and encompassed a wide array of duties, including cooking and cleaning, laundry, childcare, gardening, care for the sick, even butchery. The hours were long, as servants were on call even after specific chores were done.