Samoa Cookhouse

The Samoa Cookhouse is a historic restaurant in Samoa, California, in the United States. It is the last lumber camp-style cookhouse in the American Pacific Northwest.

Samoa Cookhouse
Location in California
Restaurant information
Established	1893
Street address	908 Vance Ave
City	Samoa
County	Humboldt
State	California
Postal/ZIP Code	95564
Country	United States
Coordinates	40°49′11.79″N 124°10′54.29″W
Website	www.samoacookhouse.net

Background

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]