Flophouse

Bunks in a Seven Cent Lodging House, c. 1890

A flophouse (US English), doss-house or dosshouse (British English) is a place that offers very cheap lodging, generally by providing only minimal services.^[1]

Characteristics

Occupants of flophouses generally share bathroom facilities and reside in very tight quarters. The people who make use of these places are often transients. By the early 21st century, the typical cost might approach US$9 per night. Quarters in flophouses are typically very small, and may resemble office cubicles more than a regular room in a hotel or apartment building.^[2]

In the past, flophouses were sometimes called "workingmen's hotels" and catered to hobos and transient workers such as seasonal railroad and agriculture workers, or migrant lumberjacks who would travel west during the summer to work and then return to an eastern or midwestern city such as Chicago to stay in a flophouse during the winter. This is described in the 1930 novel The Rambling Kid by Charles Ashleigh and the 1976 book The Human Cougar by Lloyd Morain. Another theme in Morain's book is the gentrification which was then beginning and which has led cities to pressure flophouses to close.

A flophouse-style room

Some city districts that currently have or once had flophouses in abundance became well-known in their own right, such as the Bowery in Manhattan, New York City. As of 2006, building prices and value in the Bowery have significantly increased, and this combined with increased gentrification in the area seriously threatens the ability of flophouses and inexpensive boarding-style hotels to remain open.^[3][4]

In popular culture

• John Steinbeck refers to the "Palace Flophouse Grill" in his book Cannery Row where the central characters of the novel establish their residence in what is described as a storage shed that had to be cleared of fish meal prior to making it a suitable residence.
• Seasick Steve references flop-houses in his song "Shirly Lov" on the album Dog House Music. In the song the term flop-house is used to describe what seems to be a brothel, or a place where prostitutes can be found easily.
• George Orwell discussed dosshouses in the UK in his book Down and Out in Paris and London. He described them as having rather poor cleanliness standards, often issuing unwashed and badly stained blankets, and sometimes renting beds in a large common room resembling barracks more than private rooms. He noted that at the time he wrote the book (1933) the term "dosshouse" was already falling out of use.
• Jack Kerouac stayed in such places in San Francisco and other cities, referring to them as "skid row hotels" in his books. The low prices allowed him to stretch his money from writing, and from jobs such as firewatcher and railroad brakeman. He would often keep a typewriter and hot plate in his room.
• The Charlie Chaplin film The Kid (1921) depicts a barracks-style flophouse.
• In a number of his plays, notably in Vieux Carre, Tennessee Williams makes reference to flophouses, generally in New Orleans, as places favorable for short-term usage for homosexual encounters.
• The affluent fashion photographer in Blowup (1966) claims to have spent the night in a "dosshouse".
• The film Staying Alive (1983) features its lead character living in a flophouse.
• The character Elwood Blues lives in a flophouse next to the elevated train tracks in Chicago at the beginning of the film The Blues Brothers.
• A slang meaning for "flophouse" was referenced in the film Kids. The definition is a house or apartment (usually apartment) where substance abusers stay to party and abuse drugs or alcohol.
• They Might Be Giants's song The Shadow Government, mentions a flophouse -- Crawling out of the flophouse/I saw the mayor stealing my junk/I doth protest, citizen's arrest/Now my body's in his trunk
• Johnny 5 refers to his new home as a flophouse in the movie Short Circuit 2.
• In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Dagny finds the eldest Starnes heir living in a flophouse.
• "At the Flophouse" is the title of a song co-written by Pete Doherty and Dot Allison and released by Doherty's band Babyshambles.
• In the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", Kirk told Spock, "We have a "flop", a place to sleep".
• The ska band Smash Mouth in their song "Heave-Ho" tell of being accused of running a flophouse by their "whiney neighbor."
• In an episode of the British sitcom TV series The Good Life, snooty neighbour Margo apologizes to Lady Truskett for her having spent time in the Good home. Tom shouts, "Oi! It's not a dosshouse, you know!"
• In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, after Donald Love lost his entire fortune he moved into a flophouse.
• In the video game Back to the Future: The Game, a flophouse is present in 1931 Hill Valley. During episode 2, Doc stays in that flophouse.
• Meridel Le Sueur discusses flophouses during the Great Depression in her 1932 short story "Women on the Breadlines". In this story, the inclusion of flophouses is connected to the larger issue of the limited resources available for women in cities during this era.

See also

• Hostel
• Single room occupancy
• Capsule hotel

References

Notes

1. ^ The Last of the Mohicans—Searching for a place to flop on what was once skid row
2. ^ N.Y. Court says flophouses fall under rent stabilization laws
3. ^ From flophouses to fancy on the Bowery from The Real Deal Magazine
4. ^ The Big City; Save the Flophouses