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The Triple Decker
How Immigrants to New England Achieved the American Dream
I live in Providence, Rhode Island, a city that has long welcomed immigrants. Sitting out on my front porch on a summer’s evening, I can hear conversations in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Farsi. Many of my neighbors are graduate students or residents at the nearby hospitals, renting apartments in the triple-deckers that line our street. A few of my neighbors immigrated to Rhode Island many years ago, and were lucky enough to buy an entire triple-decker house. Living on one floor, while renting the other two floors, these families were able to achieve the American Dream of home ownership.
What is a triple-decker? It’s a three-story, wooden structure that contains a separate apartment on each floor. Thousands of triple-deckers were built in New England between the 1870’s and the 1930’s, as a form of housing for the immigrants arriving to work in the booming manufacturing industries. Many of these houses were built within walking distance of the factories.
While the walls are thin, and the stairwells narrow, the triple-decker offered a much improved living situation compared to the tenements of New York City. Each floor has a bathroom, a kitchen, two or three bedrooms, a living room, and a front porch. Also, the triple-decker has some style. The majority…
