The VAF-NE Chapter spent a September day touring the historic and contemporary immigrant workers' communities of Montville and Taftville in southeastern Connecticut. This fall tour paired the 19th century immigrant textile mill workers' housing in Taftville with contemporary Chinese casino workers' housing in neighboring Montville and explored themes of architecture and order through cultural housing practices and public policies, as well as corporate paternalism and neoliberalism. The day included visits to the Ponemah Mill, once the largest cotton manufactury in the country, and walks around suburban subdivisions where Chinese immigrant casino workers have converted single family homes into multifamily communities, thus transforming the cultural landscape according to their pragmatic values and cultural traditions.
The New England Chapter's 2018 Annual Meeting--Vernacular at Mid Century, 1930-1970--is slated for Saturday, March 24 in Sturbridge, MA.
Interested in the New England Chapter? You can find more information here.
Interested in starting your own VAF chapter? You can find more information here.