It was considered improper for a single woman to live outside her parent's or a family member's house, so the commuity provided a place for for the teacher to live with one of the community's families. They were paid very little so having housing provided was almost a neccessity. In 1940 in Pratt Kansas a teacher made $500 for the year and if the school's money ran short they might not get paid in May. It was paid over the nine months of the school year and they teacher had to find a summer job to hold them over until school started again.
As schools changed from the one room school house and started using many teachers the community would build dorm like housing for all of the teachers to live together. This practice continued into the mid-20th century. Before my mother married she lived in teacherages in Kansas and Oklahoma. Once in Kansas when she taught in a very small school the superintendent had an apartment in his attic for the teacher. That was where she lived--she "took her meals" with the family.
This is a diagram (from my mother's description) of the teacherage
she lived in during WWII in Pratt, Kansas.
In LaMarque, where I attended school , there was a teacherage until about 1960. In the early 1900s the entire school grades 1 to 12 was housed in one building. Across the street was the teacherage. The teacherage later became the LaMarque Independent School District's Administration Building. The building that had once housed all the grades later became Lamar Elmentary.
In West Texas today some of the very snall rural districts still provide housing for their teachers. It may no longer be called a teacherage but the concept is the same.
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