In the early 1920’s, Perry Heights was promoted as a modern Dallas neighborhood – orderly, efficient, and comfortable. Its houses featured new electrical systems, planned layouts, and carefully designed streets meant to signal stability and progress.
But the daily life inside those houses did not run on architecture alone.
From the neighborhoods’s earliest years through the 1940’s, Perry Heights depended on domestic workers- most of them African American – whose labor made modern living possible. They cooked meals, scrubbed floors, washed clothes, tended yards, cared for children, and kept homes running quietly and reliably. Their presence appears clearly in census records and building plans, even though was rarely acknowledged in neighborhood narratives.
Who the Workers Were
In Jim Crow-era Dallas, domestic service was one of the few forms of steady employment available to African Americans, particularly women. In Perry Heights, workers were listed in census records as servants, maids, cooks, laundresses, nursemaids, chauffeurs, or yardmen.
Some were young – just out of their teens. Others were middle-aged, with decades of experience behind them. A number appear repeatedly in the records, suggesting long-term employment with the same household. For many individuals, a single census entry – name, age, occupation, and address—is the only surviving public trace of their lives.
Different houses, different arrangements
Not all Perry Heights houses used domestic labor in the same way.
The larger homes along Rawlins Street were more likely to employ live-in workers. These houses often included small attic bedrooms, narrow back staircases, or detached garage quarters—spaces designed for work and rest, but separate from family life.
Smaller homes on Hall and Vandelia generally relied on full-time day labor. Workers arrived early in the morning and left late in the afternoon or evening. They used kitchens and service areas, not formal rooms, and typically returned to their own homes elsewhere in Dallas at night.
Census records frequently list these workers as “living” at their place of employment, even when they did not sleep there—a reflection of how domestic labor was recorded, not necessarily how it was lived.
A typical day
A workday often began before sunrise.
Morning meant lighting fires or starting appliances, preparing breakfast, washing dishes, and making beds. Laundry—heavy, time-consuming, and often done by hand—could take most of a day. Midday brought cooking, ironing, polishing furniture, and caring for children. By late afternoon, dinner preparation began, followed by cleanup and resetting the kitchen for the next day.
In larger homes, evenings might include serving meals. Time off was limited, often restricted to a few hours one afternoon a week or part of Sunday.
The work was physical, repetitive, and largely unseen.
Rules, boundaries, and pay
Domestic workers operated under both written instructions and unspoken rules. They typically entered through back doors, remained in kitchens or service areas, and kept a deferential presence when employers or guests were nearby. Social boundaries were clear and enforced.
Wages were modest. In the 1920s and 1930s, day workers in Dallas typically earned six to ten dollars per week. Live-in workers earned slightly more, usually with room and board included. Many supplemented their income with laundry work or employment in multiple households.
Despite low pay and limited protections, domestic service provided a measure of stability in a segregated economy that offered few alternatives.
How they fit into the neighborhood
Domestic workers were part of Perry Heights’ daily rhythm. They walked its streets, waited for streetcars, carried groceries, tended yards, and moved between houses. They were familiar presences—but never considered neighbors in a legal or social sense.
Their presence remains visible today in architectural details: back staircases, detached rooms, isolated kitchens, and service-oriented floor plans. These features are not incidental. They reflect how labor was organized, managed, and kept apart.
Remembering their presence
Perry Heights was shaped not only by developers, architects, and homeowners, but by the steady labor of hard-working people whose names rarely appear in print. Recognizing our history in an honest way does not diminish the story of our neighborhood. Instead it reminds us of our city’s past and the contributions made by so many people “behind the scenes.”
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Occupations and arrangements reflect terminology used in historical records. Census documents do not consistently distinguish between live-in and day labor.