Itinerant Worker Bunk House / Shanties (02-12)

Historical narrative

Nestled between the large tobacco warehouses on the southwest corner of Marlboro Pike and U.S. 301 in the early to mid-20th century was an enclave of shanties, identified as bunk houses on the 1949 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, for itinerant tobacco workers. While riding the school bus in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Steve would wonder what life was like for these people. The memories remain so vivid that, even today, Steve can reconstruct in his mind—and then in watercolor—how the shantytown appeared at the time. Even after some 65 years, Steve can still almost smell the earthy, pungent aroma of smoke rising from the bunk house's wood-burning stoves and drifting through the air.

Watercolor

© Stephen B. Hales — All Rights Reserved