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The most famous settlement house is Hull House located on Chicago's Near West Side. It was founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr and housed originally in an old mansion. Hull House operated educational, athletic, musical and other programs for inner-city children. By the 1920s the physical plant had spread out considerably and included a complex of thirteen different buildings, almost a city block, with a staff of at least sixty-five people. It catered to children of the surrounding immigrant neighborhood. It produced a number of very successful people and many professional people contributed
their services--doctors, lawyers, college professors, school teachers, social workers, students, musicians, actors, writers, poets, artists and politicians. Hull House is well known for its pioneering and imaginative innovations in service to the children of the American underclasses. Hull House is one of the earliest American institutions to cultivate and promulgate social and philosophical diversity.
The most famous settlement house is Hull House located on Chicago's Near West Side. It
was founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr and housed originally
in an old mansion.
Laura Jane Addams was born during 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. She grew up in a wealthy family, the youngest of four surviving. Her father of John Huy Addams, owned a prosperous grist mill owner and Illinois state senator (1854-1870). Her mother was Sarah Weber ( -1863). Jane's mother died when she was only 3 years old. He father married Anna Hostetter Haldeman the next year and there two step-brothers added to the the family. Jane was given a first class education by her father, not that common at the time. She was an able student. Addams went to Rockford Female Seminary (Illinois) and in 1881 graduated as valedictorian. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882. After finishing school, Jane traveled widely in Europe (1883-1885 and 1887-1888). She of course was an avid tourists, but she noticed more than just themain tourist attractions. She noted the urban poverty and efforts to address the needs of the urban poor. She was especially impressed with Toynbee Hall. After returning to America, Addams and an associate, Ellen Gates Starr, in September 1889 founded Hull-House to serve the immigrants in Chicago's 19th ward, one of the poorest secions of the city. The two women by 1893 had create an institution that offerred clubs, functions, classes, and a wide range of activities for the people in the neighborhood. Addams herself made Hull House her residence and lived there for 40 years. Hull House received international attention. Addams used Hull House not only to aid the poor, but to promote a range of social welfare policies, including immigrant issues, child labor laws and recreation facilities for children, industrial safety, juvenile courts, trade unions, woman suffrage, and world peace. Addams used her substantial inheritance as well as her income from books and articles to help finance Hull House. One of her best known books was Newer Ideals of Peace (1907) in which she promoted pacifism. She was criticised after the United States entered World War I (1917). Public opinion changed strongly to pasifism and isolationism after the War. Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Nicholas Murray Butler (1931). By then, her reputation as the Mother of the World was firmly established. Addams died of cancer and was buried in her birthplace Cedarville, Illinois (1935).
Hull House operated educational, athletic, musical and
other programs for inner-city children. By the 1920s the physical plant had
spread out considerably and included a complex of thirteen different
buildings, almost a city block, with a staff of at least 65 people.
It catered to children of the surrounding imigrant neighborhood. It produced
a number of very successful people.
Hull House was supported by Jane Austin and her ubstntil inheritance. Many professional people contributed
their services--doctors, lawyers, college professors, school teachers, social
workers, students, musicians, actors, writers, poets, artists and
politicians.
Hull House is well known for its pioneering and imaginative
innovations in service to the children of the American underclasses. Hull
House is one of the earliest American institutions to cultivate and promulgate
social and philosophical diversity.
The image here shows the Flash Arrows Boy's Club (figure 1). It was a group of Chicago
street boys (originally a kind of early gang) formed into a sports club under
the direction of one of the Hull House adult volunteers. The picture was
taken in Chicago in 1925. The boys are middle and older teenagers from about
16 to 18 years old. They apparently played baseball as is signified by the
crossed bats. Most of the boys wear knickers (both above the knee and below
the knee style) and long black stockings. It looks as though one or two of
the oldest boys in the back row have graduated to long pants although it is
hard to be sure. The Hull House yearbook for 1925 says that such clubs as the
Flash Arrows Boys' Club "are formed from the groups known on the streets as
gangs. Their gang organization and control, worked out automatically by the
boys themselves, are carried over from the street into the clubs." Note the
typical flat caps worn by all the boys. A few wear neckties. One boy in the
back row wears a suit jacket with no tie. Two of the boys in the front are
sporting sweaters with what appear to be rolled V-necks. The hightop shoes
are probably the shoes in which they actually played baseball games. Some of
them seem to be partly made of canvas resembling modern sneakers.
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