This research examines the phenomenon of company towns in the Northeast of Brazil from the second half of the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. It traces the fundamental aspects of the region’s industrial development, with its economic and social dynamics, in an attempt to understand the interconnections between the vicissitudes of the company towns and their industrial base. It analyzes the emergence of the company towns articulated within the social construction of the working-class home and of positive and negative dwelling archetypes in Northeastern Brazil. Furthermore, it provides a characterization of the company town phenomenon in the Northeast. It is initially looks into its historical development, examining the first housing experiences established by Brazil’s early manufactories, the birth of the first company towns at the turn of the nineteenth century, their expansion throughout the first half of the twentieth century and their decline during the crisis of the traditional Northeastern industrial base during the second half of the twentieth century