Well to be fair, peasants helping eachother to raise a barn is technically working from home. This idea of commuting has only been possible with a means to move labor from one region to another versus having cottage industries ran out of the home. That came with the horsedrawn streetcar.
It was true when "industry" was in the first floor of your house or two houses down on the estate/plantation. This was not that long ago. If you visit historic sites from the 1800s it was extremely common to find workshops among the servant housing. Not only for the estate, but for export to the local community.
Long commutes aren't practical when the roads are bad and the fastest mode of personal transportation is a horse.
