[Genealib] Re: "Moving Day"

[Joy Rich]

>From a 1790 entry in the journal of William Maclay
(http://www.constitution.org/ac/maclay/journal06.htm):

"May 1st, Saturday. - This is a day of general moving in New York, being the day on which
their leases chiefly expire."


>From Reverend Isaac Fidler's "Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners, and
Emigration, in the United States and Canada Made during a residence there in 1832"
(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/Fem/fidler.htm)

"NEW YORK CITY. May 1832. The Practice of Switching Households Once a Year in May.
The first of May is noted among the people of New York for bustle and change. It is almost
impossible to rent a house or Iodgings longer than for one year; and in any part of a year
longer than till May day next ensuing. We had taken our apartments till that time, at the
the expiration of which Mrs. F. took other lodgings, during my tour through the States and
Canada. She described May-day as affording scenes exceedingly laughable; in every
direction were carts and waggons laden with furniture; the streets were literally filled
with chairs, tables, drawers, desks, carpets, &c., passing from one house to another, to
the great advantage of the carters, who find full employment, and are on that day paid
double charges. It is also not a little gratifying to New-York gossips, who are allowed a
peep into the lodgings of such strangers generally as have not permanent dwellings. As
May-day approaches, the landlord proposes to the tenant his terms. The tenant finds, for
the most part, an advance of rent, and prefers a change. The landlord annexes to the
door-post a written notice, and the tenant commences amusing himself with entering every
one's dwelling similarly circumstanced, and exposing his own to the gaze of others. It is
almost impossible for a stranger, who has occupied lodgings, and wishes to escape
imposition, to avoid such intrusion into his private rooms. We suffered this our selves,
and therefore speak from experience. Many American women, we were told, occupy much of
their leisure time about this period in prying into the abodes of foreigners, to see if
they are respectable, and have their rooms well furnished. Americans could not have
invented any domestic custom more inquisitorial, or which gives a readier access to the
privacies of strangers."



Joy Rich
Brooklyn, NY