The Tramp House
I stopped in Middleton yesterday to take some pictures of the Old Town Hall, an 1848 building, expanded in 1878, that I’ve long admired. I pulled into the parking lot behind the building to turn my car around and discovered the Tramp House, built in 1878 and recently restored. I didn’t know this building existed, and I’d never heard of “Tramp Houses” before, but a quick search on Google turned o
Tramp House
(Behind old Town Hall)
38 Maple Street
Middleton, Massachusetts
Text from Placque
In the decades following the Civil War, thousands of itinerant men, ‘tramps,’ followed the railrose to points north in search of work. By the 1870’s, the problem of coping with the increasing numbers of tramps prompted the town to purchase a plot of land from A.A. Averill for $25, and to contract with George B. Flint to build a lock-up or ‘Tramp House’ for $355. The Tramp House was completed in 1878, and was used to temporarily shelter these homeless men. In the early 20th century, as the tramp problem diminished, the Tramp House was utilized as a jail and briefly as the Police Station.
A Few Tramp House Links:
- Veterans, Tramps, and the Economic Crisis of 1873 — Interesting essay by Charles Baker from the Voices in Wartime website
- An Interview with Todd DePastino — Interesting interview with the author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America on the tramps of the 1870s evolved into the hobos of later decades
- Tramp House, New Vernon, New Jersey — Photo on Panoramio by alan_edelson
- Tramp House, Weare, New Hampshite — Photo on Panoramio by JBTHEMILKER
- Tramp House Reminds Us of Giving — Article and photo by Meg Collinson in the Lewiston, Maine Sub-Journal, November 28, 1991, about the New Sharon, Maine, tramp house