10. The Gilded Age saw the rise of the bedroom community
The emerging middle class during the Gilded Age followed the mores of their cousins, the Victorians across the ocean in London. Despite the protestations of the temperance and suffragette movements, the husband and father was expected to provide a living for his family, the wife and mother was to remain home and supervise the household and the children. As incomes grew, bedroom communities away from the foul air of the city, as well as its population of suspect immigrants speaking various tongues, grew rapidly. The house was a symbol of status as well as a home, and the room which reflected this status most openly was the parlor.
The parlor was the showpiece for the lady of the house, where she received visitors and practiced the art of taking tea. It was furnished with her most prized pieces of furniture and objets d’art, as well as newly acquired items which may have been purchased from local department stores or the catalogues issued periodically by Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward. Gentlemen callers pitched their woo to eligible young ladies in the parlor when inclement weather prevented them doing so on the front porch, another common feature of middle class homes of the Gilded Age. Often they were entertained by the viewing of stereographic picture slides which depicted the sights of Europe, the Orient, or scenes from the American west, or listened to Edison’s new phonograph.