Samoa Cookhouse

Originally it was a dining facility for the employees working the mills for the Vance Lumber Company and opened in 1893.[1] The cookhouse opened to the public in the 1960s and serves "lumber camp style", or family style, meals at long communal tables.[1][2] The building also houses a museum with artifacts and images that focus on logging and "maritime industry" history.[2] The building is large enough to seat five hundred workers and to make cleaning the floors more efficient there were holes drilled into the floor with a grate to act as drainage for water rather than mopping.[3] The second floor of the building functioned as a dormitory for the waitresses.[1][3][4] Waitresses were required to be single during the period when the Cookhouse served only company workers, were paid $30 a month, and worked seven days a week.[4] The dormitory has a curfew and was locked at night and the women were not allowed to date on the weekdays.[4] There was, however, a secret passageway that led to the kitchen that waitresses used to leave the dormitory at night.[4]

• Official website