The Ballard Boarding Mother
In 1891, a classified ad captures the informal, precarious economy of childcare in the rapidly expanding neighborhood of Ballard.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Wanted: Children to board and to take care of. Address L. Hisser, Ballard, Wash.
“WANTED—CHILDREN TO BOARD AND TO TAKE CARE OF.”
Long before Ballard became a hub for high-end condos and daycare centers, childcare was an informal, home-based service often listed alongside advertisements for day laborers and mill hands. L. Hisser's brief notice offers a window into the desperate search for domestic infrastructure in a booming, unrefined Seattle suburb.
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