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... " These words from Jane Addams, spoken in 1991, express her one motivation for her desire to reach out to the urban poor. Jane Addams was one of the few settlement workers to spend her lifetime, after discovery, in a settlement house. ... One of her most famous lifetime achievements was the establishment of the Hull House, a settlement house that embodied everything she believed in.
This paper examines Hull House by first looking at the progressive ideas that helped fuel the founding of settlement houses. The paper also examines the people and ideas that distinguished it from other settlement houses and the social memories of residents and members of the surrounding neighborhood. The coming together of all these factors is what kept Hull House thriving for 74 years, making it arguably the most successful settlement house. ... Progressives fought to encourage social progress and felt that social order could and must be improved by people, for no miraculous act of God could improve society. ... (Davis 1967)
One such effort was the settlement house. ... Settlement house workers, in their work to find better solutions to poverty and injustice, also pioneered the profession of social work. It was usually the residents of a settlement house that made the place interesting, and not the actual building. (Davis 1967) One of the most famous, and arguably most successful, was the Hull House of Chicago.
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr started Hull House in 1889 after visiting Toynbee Hall in London, the first settlement house. Upon her return, Addams decided that she had “confidence that although life itself might contain many difficulties, the period of mere passive receptivity had come to an end, and [she] had at last finished with the everlasting ‘preparation for life,’ however ill-prepared [she] might be.” (Addams 1938) Discouraged by the role of women, especially after receiving an education, Addams strove to do something meaningful with her life. She surrounded herself with other college-educated women at the House. ... The Hull House offered to women wanting a career a way to have one and also experience the feeling of a family. ... The House was also ideal for women who sought social justice and recognition and felt limited because they had no voiced that was recognized by the extremely patriarchal society at that time. (Stebner 1997)
The Hull House served as a catalyst for social legislation, political reform, social science theory, and labor organization at city, state and national levels. Many of the residence were scholarly and many others came to deliver talks at the House. ... Starting with Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, Mary Keyser was one of the original residents. Other noteworthy women who took up residency at the House include Alice Hamilton, Julia Lanthrop, and Florence Kelley. ... " -Jane Addams (Wheeler 1995)
Denied a voice in political life through the electoral process, the women of Hull House are often thought to have used the settlement as an institutional base for collective political action. They did not have a vote, but through the transactions at the House, they found alternative ways to shape public policy and welfare. The Hull House Woman’s Club met once a week, and for many of the women members, it was the only time they left their home to do something for themselves. ... (Polacheck 1989)
Hull House began in a single mansion once owned by Charles J. Hull. As the number of clubs and organizations that met at Hull House grew, it eventually expanded to include a total of 13 buildings, encompassing more than a city block.
Approximate Word count = 2952
Approximate Pages = 11.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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