Dungeness Audio Tour Stop 8

Job descriptions ranged widely on the self-sustaining Carnegie Dungeness estate.

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This area, referred to as “The Village,” provided support for life on the island. Employees lived and worked in this area without being seen by the more elite residents. Work schedules were typically five days’ work with two days off. While working, employees were housed in the dormitories to the north of this location. Housing was segregated, with black employees living separately from white employees. Pay was $0.50 to $1.00 per day depending on whether the person was considered unskilled or skilled labor.

Job descriptions ranged widely, including positions as household servants at Dungeness or another of the Carnegie’s mansions, as stable hands at the carriage house (the large white structure to the south of where you are standing), tending the cattle and poultry, working in the laundry, bakery, icehouse, or electrical plant, as well as landscaping and gardening. Many black employees owned land and homes on the north end of the island, living on the south end only during the work-week.