Boarding house - Wikipedia
Boarding houses were common in most US cities throughout the 19th century and until the 1950s. In Boston in the 1830s, when the landlords and their boarders were added up, between one-third and one-half of the city's entire population lived in a boarding house. Boarding houses ran from large, purpose-built buildings down to "genteel ladies" who rented a room or two as a way of earning a little ...