 The investors or factory owners built hundreds of boarding houses near the mills , where textile workers lived year @-@ round . A curfew of 10 : 00 pm was common , and men were generally not allowed inside . About 25 women lived in each boarding house , with up to six sharing a bedroom . One worker described her quarters as " a small , comfortless , half @-@ ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants " . Trips away from the boarding house were uncommon ; the Lowell girls worked and ate together . However , half @-@ days and short paid vacations were possible due to the nature of the piece @-@ work ; one girl would work the machines of another in addition to her own such that no wages would be lost . 
