| 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 / 40.8199417°N 124.1817472°W |
| Website | www |
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.
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]