Come for the Mountains, Stay for the Friends

Before the boardinghouse disappeared, a third to half of Americans lived in one or took in boarders. Rooms were private, the table was shared, and friendships were made for life. Today, rising rents and a lonelier world are bringing that old idea back under a new name: coliving.

What Coliving Is

Coliving is simple at heart: you have a private room of your own, and you share the rest of the house with people you come to know. The kitchen, the living room, the porch, the laundry, the parking lot. Rent is one monthly number that covers the room, the heat, the electric and the internet. There are no utility accounts to open and no furniture to haul up the stairs.

What separates coliving from simply having roommates is intent. A coliving house is set up on purpose to bring people together. The shared spaces are the point, not an afterthought, and the people who choose it are choosing community along with a roof.

An Old Idea With a New Name

The word may sound modern, but the practice is as old as New England. In the 1800s, boarding was simply how Americans lived. Historian Wendy Gamber estimates that between a third and a half of urban Americans in that century either boarded or took boarders into their homes. A boardinghouse keeper offered a room, housekeeping and meals at a common table. Philadelphia historians put it at roughly one house in four taking in boarders.

These houses were where workers, clerks, apprentices and newcomers got their start, saving toward a home of their own. Widows and single women earned a respectable living running them. Boardinghouses faded in the early 1900s as tenements, apartments and the single-family home took over, and by the 1970s they had nearly vanished.

The idea came back by way of Denmark. In 1964, architect Jan Gudmand-Høyer gathered friends to buy land outside Copenhagen for a shared community. Writer Bodil Graae pushed the cause with an article titled “Children Should Have One Hundred Parents.” By 1973 the first two communities, Sættedammen and Skråplanet, were built, with private homes arranged around shared space. Denmark had 22 such communities by 1982, and Sættedammen is still going today.

American architects Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett studied the Danish model and brought cohousing to the United States. Today's coliving is the next turn of the wheel: private rooms, shared common areas, all-inclusive rent and flexible terms, built for remote workers, seasonal workers and anyone starting fresh in a new place.

Why It Makes Sense Now

Two pressures are pushing coliving back into the mainstream. The first is cost. Housing in resort and rural areas has climbed out of reach for the people who keep those towns running. An apartment means first month, last month, a security deposit, utility hookups and a houseful of furniture. A furnished room with one all-in rent removes most of those hurdles at once.

The second pressure is loneliness. Public health researchers now speak openly of a loneliness epidemic, and a widely cited comparison holds that chronic isolation is as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We are more connected by screens than ever, yet many people go days without a real conversation. Remote work has made it worse; the office water cooler is gone for millions.

Coliving answers both problems with the same solution. Sharing the expensive parts of a home lowers the cost. Sharing the everyday parts of life lowers the isolation.

Where Friendships Are Made

Friendships rarely come from big events. They grow out of small, repeated moments: coffee at the same counter each morning, a hand jump-starting a car, a shared ride to the mountain, a Sunday supper that runs late. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have linked these casual daily interactions to better long-term brain health. Coliving puts those moments under one roof.

The early evidence is encouraging. Israeli operator Venn reported that its members' loneliness levels dropped by half within six months of moving in. A survey of Swedish coliving residents, using a standard academic loneliness scale, found similar social benefits. The Danish founders saw it too: Sættedammen's families have shared meals and celebrations for more than fifty years.

The benefits reach past friendship. A carpenter, a travel nurse, a remote software developer and a ski instructor living in the same house trade leads, skills and introductions. That is networking the old-fashioned way, across a kitchen table, and it tends to last longer than a business card.

The Three Mountain Inn Way: Coliving in Jamaica, VT

In the village of Jamaica, Vermont, the boardinghouse tradition is coming home. The Three Mountain Inn, a main house built circa 1793 on VT Route 30, has been reimagined as a small coliving community. It is the same idea that housed generations of working New Englanders, updated for the way people live and work today.

The property spans three buildings set around open grounds, with a village feel. There are nine private rooms, each named for a local hill or mountain:

• Turkey Mountain
• Ball Mountain
• College Hill
• Castle Hill
• Shatterack Mountain
• Attridge Mountain
• South Hill
• The Pinnacle
• Sage Hill

Most rooms have private baths, and one has its own deck overlooking the grounds.

The heart of the place is the Depot Street House, whose first floor is a shared kitchen and family room open to every resident. Add on-site coin laundry, a BBQ grill, a pavilion and the pool patio, and there is plenty of room to cross paths. Heat, electric and fast WiFi are included in the rent. Pets are welcome, stays run 28 nights or longer, and long-term rooms start at $916 per 28-night stay.

The location does the rest. Jamaica State Park is a walk away. The Stratton gondola is about 15 minutes off, with Magic Mountain and Bromley close by; Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend is also about 15 minutes. Residents are invited to join the Golden Triangle Ski Club, named for Stratton, Bromley and Magic, along with Sunday dinners and powder-day carpools. It suits remote workers, seasonal staff, travel nurses and locals alike. Employers looking to house staff are encouraged to reach out.

Come for the Mountains, Stay for the Friends.

The Time Is Right

For a century we chased the ideal of everyone in their own house, behind their own door. It gave us privacy, and it cost us neighbors. Rising rents, remote work and a lonelier country are pointing many people back toward an older, friendlier way of living. Earlier New Englanders knew it well: share the house, share the table, and look out for one another.