Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Hull-House

Powerful Essays
1901 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hull-House
HULL-HOUSE

Laura Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, into a privileged middle class family. As a young child, Jane, as they called her, knew hardships. At the age of two her mother died. Soon after, Addams had been struck with tuberculosis leaving her with a deformed spine. Still having her father to carry her through, she would try to live life as normal as possible. Jane often would travel to the mills her father owned; playing in the piles of grain in the storerooms. At the age of seven, while on route to one of her father’s mills, she saw a neighborhood that was very impoverished. Addams found out that the world was not all ice cream cones, clean clothes, and having others wait on you. Addams decided at that young age, that she was going to have a “big house” in the middle of a poverty stricken neighborhood.
Addams grew up and attended Rockford Seminary for Females in Rockford Illinois, following in the footsteps of her three sisters in 1877. There she studied religion and how to become a graceful and efficient homemaker. While attending Rockford Seminary, the college curriculum was changed so the women there learned basic college studies such as mathematics, philosophy and foreign language. In 1881, Addams graduated but was not prepared for the choices she had ahead of her. College did not prepare women for an entrance into a man’s work world. At the time, women had the choice of settling down and starting a family, or being single and becoming a school teacher. Addams was not interested in either of these options. Her family was not supportive of her choices. They gave her the option of marrying or settling to help out the family. Addams wanted to put her new knowledge to good use after college.
For the next eight years, Addams drifted, trying to decide on a career choice. She entered a woman's medical college, but dropped out after one term due to her physical disability. Her crooked spine caused her such pain that she was bedridden for six months. In late 1882, surgeons finally repaired her spine, but this left her frail for the rest of her life. When her father died in 1881, the substantial inheritance he left to her gave her enough money to live on. Addams traveled to Europe several different times during an eight year period. During one of these trips, she made a decision on what she wanted to do with her life.
In 1888, Addams and her friend and college roommate, Ellen Gates Starr visited Toynbee Hall in London, England. Operated by Oxford University students, Toynbee Hall served one of London's poorest neighborhoods.1 Toynbee Hall was a community center that offered recreation and educational programs to improve the life of the poor. Addams and Starr left England determined to set up a similar "settlement house" in the United States.
Upon their returned home from their excursion to Europe, the two women began their search for the perfect spot to start their “settlement house.” Searching in the slums of Chicago, they found the perfect building for their project. It was a large vacant mansion, built for Chicago businessman Charles Hull, and was more than thirty years old.2 This building was in Chicago’s Near West Side and had housed a factory, a pre-owned furniture store and a home for the elderly run by Little Sisters of the Poor, prior it becoming a settlement house. There were suspicions of the attic being haunted in this building. As a result the individuals who had lived on the second floor left a pitcher of water on the stairs leading to the attic. Their belief was that the ghost would not pass through running water. Despite the rumors of the alleged ghost, Jane and Ellen, along with Mary Keyser, who did household chores, moved into the Hull House. The owner of the mansion, Helen Culver, allowed them to rent the entire house including the second floor and attic. The building was located near an urban neighborhood with Italian, Irish, German, Greek, Bohemian, Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants surrounding it on all sides. These people had come to America searching for a better life. They worked in the factories nearby earning just enough to feed their families.
On September 18, 1889, Addams and Starr opened the Hull House to the public. Addams used portions of her inheritance to better the building to make it seem homier for those she was expecting to walk through those doors. Addams was intent on improving the lives of the struggling people in the neighborhood. Addams even appointed herself to be the trash inspector. She rose every morning at six and followed the garbage collectors to make sure that they were doing their job correctly. The Hull House started to provide many opportunities for those in the neighborhood who were not fortunate enough to experience educational opportunities. A young Russian boy named Solomon Saranoff, or Solly as he was often called, dearly wished he could play the piano, but he could not do so due to the fact their family barely earned enough money to pay for food. Paying for a piano or lessons was out of the question. Solly’s sister, Rosie, and some friends took him to the Hull House. There at the house Solly found a piano. He was thrilled by this and the sound that they keys made as they were struck. The director of the Hull-House found Solly sitting at the piano and asked if he would like to learn how to play. Solly took piano lessons at Hull House, while his parents learned to speak English in the language class. During a Hull House party, Solly and his family met Jane Addams. Solly's father told Jane that he had never heard his son play the piano. "Well, that is too bad," Addams said. "I must see that you hear him soon." A week later, Solly brought home a card announcing his piano recital at the Hull House Music School. At the concert, tears rolled down Solly's father's face as he heard his son play.3
Stories like Solly’s were the reason Jane Addams wanted to start the House, so that those who could not afford to pay for such luxuries had the opportunity at the Hull House. Starr and Addams furnished the home with items they had collected from Europe, as well as mahogany furniture from their own personal belongings. After they had finished furnishing their building, they forgot to close and lock a side door the first night after the enthusiasm from settling in their new space. The next morning Addams and Starr found the door open as well as unlocked, both were pleased at the honesty of their new neighbors.4
The Hull House also provided the neighborhood with new luxuries such as classes for kindergarten, speech classes and Boy Scouts. The House was also an employment bureau, a library, a gymnasium, theater, art gallery, music school, auditorium, cafeteria, cooperative residence for working women, nursery, post office, meeting and club rooms, art studios, and a dining room and apartments for the residential staff. By the year 1900, there were over 100 of these settlement houses in the United States. Hull House became an alternative for those living on the streets and in the saloons.

The Hull-House is one of the greatest achievements by Jane Addams By these efforts, Addams and the Hull House helped to pass new laws. One law that The Hull House and Addams help with was in 1903, Illinois passed a child labor law. This law limited how long a child could work. Due to this law another was passed saying that children must go to school until the child reached a certain age. In addition from her leadership with the Hull House, she helped to get women’s work days shortened to eight hours. Along with this new laws were passed that helped to aid workers who were sick and or hurt on the job.6
The Hull-House played a vital role in redefining American democracy in the modern age. Addams and the residents of Hull-House helped pass critical legislation and influenced public policy on public health and education, free speech, fair labor practices, immigrants’ rights, recreation and public space, arts, and philanthropy. Hull-House has long been a center of Chicago’s political and cultural life, establishing Chicago’s first public playground and public art gallery, helping to abolish slavery in the Chicago Public Schools, and influencing philanthropy and culture.
During its first two decades, Hull House attracted a remarkable group of residents, most of them women, who rose to prominence and influence as reformers on the local, state, and national levels. In the neighborhood, these residents established the city's first public playground and bathhouse, campaigned to reform ward politics, investigated housing, working, and sanitation issues, organized to improve garbage removal, and advocated for new public schools. These residents helped establish the first juvenile court in the United States, fought for neighborhood parks and playgrounds, advocated for branch libraries and initiated housing reform. Also, Hull-House residents initiated and lobbied for protective legislation for women and children, child labor laws, occupational safety and health provisions, compulsory education, protection of immigrants, and Illinois' pioneer mothers' pension law. Hull House residents joined with settlement house leaders and reformers nationwide to fight federally for national child labor laws, women's suffrage, the establishment of a Children's Bureau, unemployment compensation, workers' compensation, and the many other reforms that made up the progressive government agenda in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Hull House received recognition as the best-known settlement house in the United States and became the forerunner of a movement that included nearly five hundred settlements nationally by 1920. 5
Hull House continued to be active in its location on Halsted Street until the 1960s, when it was replaced by the University of Illinois' new urban campus. Due to the fact the Hull House had not been run by charging the residents, the House had kept open as long as it could without income until the House finally had to close its doors and file for bankruptcy. The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities then turned the building into a museum. The Museum is located in two of the original settlement house buildings. The Hull Home and the Residents' Dining Hall, a beautiful Arts and Crafts building that has welcomed some of the world's most important thinkers, artists and activists thus becoming a National Historic Landmark. Today it continues under the name of Jane Addams Hull House Association, an organization composed of several social service centers across the city. The Museum and its many vibrant programs make connections between the work of Hull-House residents and important contemporary social issues.
Jane Addams had put faith, money and a large portion of her life into the Hull House. The Hull House was not just a place where those who were not fortunate enough to have enough money went; it was a safe haven for those in desperate need of help and shelter. Addams had been an advocate for all those who had walked through the doors of the Hull House. Caring for so many influenced her to become a sociologist. Addams work around man different ethnic groups and cultures exposed her to different human behaviors, leading her take on other sociological challenges.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Soci 2013

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    16. Although she made contributions to sociology, Jane Addams is perhaps best remembered for her embrace of praxis, meaning that she what?…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    knew that going to this school would have big changes to her in her family life. the…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jane Addams spent nearly 50 years working towards women’s rights and world peace. She founded Hull House which was a home “where women assisted the needy and provided social uplift for those suffering from what she called the ‘wrecked foundations of domesticity’”, (Bowles, 2011). “Addams's life and work can act as one possible study of the personal developing into the political; as Addams matured in years and experience, she became more and more political in her activities”, (Alonso, 2004). Addams was also named Nobel Peace…

    • 1173 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Uncommon Soldier

    • 1881 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Born on January 16, 1843, in what would become Afton, New York, to Harvey and Emily Wakeman, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was the eldest of 9 children, seven of whom were female. To Harvey and Emily’s dismay, Sarah and her two siblings that followed were all female, which was less than to be desired during the era. Sarah was nearly nine years old before Emily was able to give Harvey a son (Burgess, 101). At that time, children were expected to begin helping the parents by contributing as soon as there was work compatible and “appropriate” for their age and gender. This is how Sarah’s transformation was necessitated. To understand these driving forces in more depth, one must take a look at the role Sarah played in her home life.…

    • 1881 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Essays

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As settlement housing improves slum families. Many think it’s for pity. Some think it’s for the betterment of city families and neighborhoods. Jane Addams, a influential member of the movement says settlement houses help people “learn from life itself”. But Jane Addams wasn’t the only influential members of the movement. Ellen Gates star founded Chicago’s first “Hull House” in 1889. Along with many others, like Locust Street social settlement in Hampton, Virginia. Founded by Janie Porter Barett. Also the very first settlement house for African Americans. These settlement houses cultivated urban cities and helped keep responsibility for the urban poor. But the argument still stands whether it was for them and society or because they felt bad. Recent reports from Jane Addams say that she thinks "Private beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of the city's disinherited." This being said at least Jane Addams supports the betterment of society.…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    * Early-mid 19th century education- previously most common with wealthy; 1830s, demands for tax-supported public schools; Horace Mann, education public; slow increase in women’s educational opportunities beyond elementary school such as Emma Willard’s Troy Female Seminary(1821) and Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary(1837);…

    • 1172 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Addams was always intersted in women and how they were treated. She served as an officer in the National Women’s Suffrage Association.…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane Addams was one of the most well-respected of the first-generation of college-educated women, and decided to give up having a family to dedicate her life to social reform. In 1889, Addams, who was inspired by English reformers who intentionally lived in lower-class areas, and her college friend, Ellen Starr, moved into a mansion in a Chicago immigrant neighborhood. This house became known as Hull-House, which is where Addams resided for the rest of her life, and where much philanthropy and political action took place. Hull-House became an example for poor settlement work. Addams valued the needs of the poor and took notice to the fact that the streets were filthy, there were not enough schools, sanitary legislation was not enforced, lighting was poor, paving lack quality or lacked completely, and the stables were disgusting. She responded to these conditions by organizing a nursery, dispensary, kindergarten, playground, gymnasium, and cooperative housing for the young working women of the community. However, she quickly discovered that the neighborhood could…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Addams felt ashamed of her appearance. She would often walk with her uncle on Sunday to avoid be connected to her father. According to Addams, she felt like she was the ugly duckling and an outsider. Her father and stepmother got married when she was about eight years old. Mr. Addams political life had an important impact on Jane. Jane met president Abraham Lincoln who was very influential person towards the lives of the immigrants and as well as Jane. Addams attended Rockford Female Seminary, where she took course in the liberal arts and science. Her stepmother “set high standards for intellectual achievements.” (Janeaddamsproject.org) Addams graduated from Rockford Female Seminary on 22nd of June of 1881. She enrolled into Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Addams didn’t finish her medical career due to her illness. Instead she decides take a tour of Europe, she is not amused and becomes bored. When she returns for her second tour of Europe, she found her meaning to life in…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laura is like her creator—because she stops everywhere to wonder at the beauty of things, the friendliness of the workmen putting up the marquee, the “darling little spots” of sun on the ink-pot, the lovely lilies. Suddenly, surprised and horrified that a tragedy has happened. A man killed outside the front gate. (Nathan…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before 1920 a few women attended seminary or an academy for women to learn and be educated but women were not allowed to attend universities and college campuses; this was for men only and women believed they too could benefit from obtaining a degree and becoming part of the work force, helping their families and being able to move up the ladder economically. This was considered by many women as the beginning of a long fight to establish their rights and place in the world. Women believed they deserved the same opportunities as men in regards to education. Women for years attended the seminary and academies that they were allowed but continually fought to attend a college or university, even fighting to attend co-educational colleges with men; this was an upward climb but women were determined to become part of society and their families as equals.…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    been better if she presented herself as a scholar who was writing a book and conducted interviews, instead of writing it as a story. Like the quote says, “The best way to find out what a certain life would be like is to walk in the shoes of one who lives it.” (Anonymous) Even if she did try to place herself in the position of the working poor, she is never going to feel the same way that they will. They did not start their…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Oprah Winfrey was born on a small farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 29th, 1954, and life was immediately rough for her. Her grandmother raised her for the first six years of her life, while her teenage mother was looking for work up north. Whilst living with her grandma, it was very primitive and poverty was a normality. She would often wear clothes made of potato sacks and garbage bags, having kids in the neighborhood laugh at her constantly. Her only friends at the time were the animals on the farm, but that didn’t stop her, as she would dress them up and have tea parties with them. Albeit she didn’t have an ideal upbringing, she was able to get by with her grandmother by her side. Oprah was taught how to read very early and by the time she was three years old, she was already singing bible verses in church.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hillary Clinton and Jane Addams both saw a need for labor reform nearly one hundred years apart. Clinton and Addams’s progressive ideas are similar in which they want all workplaces to be safe for the employees, a day’s wage to increase in order to satisfactorily provide for employees families, and a stable future for when the workers reach retirement. Jane Addams drew her focus on child labor. The industrial revolution brought the concept of child labor. Children were working in places such as mills and factories, with unhealthy working conditions and little to no wages. Addams was strongly against child labor and it’s abuse and at the 1903 annual meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, she stated that, “…It has come…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emmy could not be a real mathematics student at the University because women were not allowed to study alongside men at the time (O’Connor 2014). Noether had to obtain special permission from the professor to listen in on lectures (O’Connor 2014). Luckily at this time, rules were changed and women were allowed to attend university alongside men in Germany (Dick 1981). Emmy’s hard work payed off and she received her doctorate (O’Connor 2014). She was only one of two women students in the university at the time (Dick 1981). Noether kept pursuing her studies of mathematics even though society was preventing her from doing so. Her perseverance showed how ambitious and hardworking she is as an individual. In addition, her dedication to her studies even when being prevented from doing so is astounding. These qualities she possessed seem to be a common trait for women who pursued science in the early…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays