Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hull, opened to serve recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had expanded to 13 buildings. In 1912, the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club.Hull House MuseumJane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement; by 1920, it grew to approximately 500 settlement houses nationally.
The Hull mansion and several subsequent acquisitions were continuously renovated to accommodate the changing demands of the association. In the mid-1960s, most of the Hull House buildings were demolished for the construction of the University of Illinois Chicago. The original house and one additional building, a community refectory and meeting hall (which has been moved )Schulte, Franz and Kevin Harrington, Chicago's Famous Buildings, fifth edition, University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 212–3, . survive today. On June 23, 1965, it was designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. On October 15, 1966, the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On June 12, 1974, the surviving Hull mansion was designated as a Chicago Landmark.
Hull House was one of the first four structures to be listed on both the Chicago Registered Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places list (along with Chicago Pile-1, Robie House, and Lorado Taft Midway Studios). After The Hull House Association moved from the original buildings complex in the 1960s, it continued to provide social services in multiple locations throughout Chicago. It finally ceased operations in January 2012. The Hull mansion and a related dining hall, the only remaining survivors on the Hull House complex, are now maintained as a history museum, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.
Mission Addams followed the example of Toynbee Hall, which was founded in 1884 in the East End of London as a center for social reform. She described Toynbee Hall as "a community of university men" who, while living there, held their recreational clubs and social gatherings at the settlement house among the poor people and in the same style they would in their own circle.Polikoff, Barbara Garland. With One Bold Act : The Story of Jane Addams, p. 55, New York: Boswell Books, 1999. Addams and Starr established Hull House as a settlement house on September 18, 1889.
In the 19th century a women's movement began to promote education and autonomy, and to break into traditionally male-dominated occupations for women. Organizations led by women, bonded by sisterhood, were formed for social reform, including settlement houses such as Hull House, situated in working class and poor neighborhoods. To develop "new roles for women, the first generation of New Women wove the traditional ways of their mothers into the heart of their brave new world. The social activists, often single, were led by educated New Women.
Hull House became, at its inception in 1889, "a community of university women" whose main purpose was to provide social and educational opportunities for working class people (many of them recent European immigrants) in the surrounding neighborhood. The "residents" (volunteers at Hull were given this title) held classes in literature, history, art, domestic activities (such as sewing), and many other subjects. Prominent scholars and social reformers such as John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Max Weber, and W.E.B. Du Bois lectured at Hull House. In addition, Hull House held concerts that were free to everyone, offered free lectures on current issues, and operated clubs for both children and adults.
In 1892, Addams published her thoughts on what has been described as "the three R's" of the settlement house movement: residence, research, and reform. These involved "close cooperation with the neighborhood people, scientific study of the causes of poverty and dependence, communication of these facts to the public, and persistent pressure for [legislative and social] reform..." Hull House conducted careful studies of the Near West Side, Chicago community, which became known as "The Hull House Neighborhood". These studies enabled the Hull House residents to confront the establishment, eventually partnering with them in the design and implementation of programs intended to enhance and improve the opportunities for success by the largely immigrant population.
According to Christie and Gauvreau (2001), while the Christian settlement houses sought to Christianize, Addams "had come to epitomize the force of secular humanism." Her image was, however, "reinvented" by the Christian churches.Christie, C., Gauvreau, M. (2001). A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900–1940 McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP, January 19, 2001 pg 107 According to the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, "Some social settlements were linked to religious institutions. Others, like Hull-House [co-founded by Addams], were secular."
In 1895, the Hull-House Association released "Hull-House Maps and Papers." This publication consisted of essays authored by Hull-House residents and collaborators, overseen by Addams. Alongside the essays, the book featured two maps illustrating the spatial distribution of immigrants from eighteen different nationalities residing within a one-third square mile radius around Hull-House. "The book was notable for its impact on the University of Chicago Sociology Department ... Development of mapping as a statistical technique to reveal social group patterns became a major contribution of the Chicago School."Hassencahl, Fran. “Jane Addams.” Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800-1925: A Biocritical Sourcebook. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell (ed.). Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1993. pp. 3-4.
Settlement houses were established on the principles of Christian Socialism and the Social Gospel, which held the belief that the application of social sciences could address the challenges faced by urban residents in industrialized societies. Addams strongly asserted that the primary beneficiaries of the efforts at the settlement house were the residents themselves, rather than the local community.Reynolds, Moira Davison. Women Champions of Human Rights: Eleven U.S. Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991. p. 6 Nevertheless, she recognized that to effectively tackle these issues, it was essential to comprehend them thoroughly. Consequently, she mobilized teams to investigate social problems in the vicinity of Hull-House.
Hassencahl asserts that Hull-House evolved into a globally significant hub of intellectual activity, attracting leaders from various fields to engage in teaching, studying, and research. Deegan further elaborates that for women sociologists, Hull-House held a similar significance as the University of Chicago did for their male counterparts, serving as a central institution for research and social discourse. Alongside disseminating their discoveries, the insights derived from these inquiries played a crucial role in advocating for legislative reforms aimed at improving the conditions of immigrants and the impoverished.Hassencahl, Fran. pp. 3-4.Deegan, Mary Jo. Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School, 1892-1918/. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988. p. 33.Faderman, Lillian. “Social Housekeeping: The Inspiration of Jane Addams.” To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America—A History. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. pp. 115-135.
Addams didn't intend to become a sociologist. In the preface of Hull-House Maps and Papers, she mentioned that the residents of the settlement house typically didn't engage in sociological inquiries, which she distinguished from investigations into labor abuses or factory conditions. She expressed her opposition to viewing the neighborhood as a laboratory, emphasizing that Hull-House aimed to assist the neighbors rather than study them.Deegan, Mary Jo. p. 35. However, she ended up becoming a sociologist. Faderman describes Addams as "probably the first to take the work of female social scientists seriously."Faderman, Lillian. p. 122. She was one of the founding members of the American Sociological Association, established in 1905. Additionally, she lectured on sociology at both the University of Chicago Extension and the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy.
Addams' perspective aside, Hull-House represented a form of experimentation. Fortunately, it was replicable. By 1900, nearly 100 settlement houses akin to Hull-House had emerged across the United States. Moreover, Addams spurred a shift in the objectives of existing groups. Women's clubs, initially established by affluent women for cultural enrichment, joined forces to establish the Federation of Women's Clubs, directing their efforts towards civic endeavors such as eradicating child labor, establishing public libraries, and reforming tenements.
During that era, a familiar dichotomy emerged, resonating with contemporary readers. Male members of the University of Chicago Sociology Department tended to maintain a distance from their subjects. They operated from their offices within the university, using coordination for their studies. Women sociologists were often viewed by their male counterparts as mere data collectors. Conversely, women sociologists perceived sociology as a tool. While men regarded the data they gathered and the insights they derived as the ultimate goal, women viewed them as indicators of issues needing resolution. Their envisioned role was that of problem solvers.
Post-World War II, there arose a trend to quantify and "scientify" all aspects of what are now recognized as the social sciences. Consequently, sociology was embraced by business and science, with male faculty assuming predominant roles. By 1920, at the University of Chicago, all female professors were transferred from the Sociology Department to the Department of Social Services.
Hull House neighborhood One of the first newspaper articles ever written about Hull HouseChicago Tribune, May 19, 1890. quotes the following invitation sent to the residents of the Hull House neighborhood. It begins with: "Mio Carissimo Amico"...and is signed, Le Signorine, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr. That invitation to the community, written during the first year of Hull House's existence, suggests that the inner core of what Addams labeled "The Hull House Neighborhood" was overwhelmingly Italian at that time. "10,000 Italians lived between the river and Halsted Street."Jane Addams, Images of Hull House, p. 10.
By all accounts, the greater Hull House neighborhood (Chicago's Near West Side) was a mix of various ethnic groups that had immigrated to Chicago. There was no discrimination of race, language, creed, or tradition for those who entered the doors of the Hull House. Every person was treated with respect. The Bethlehem-Howard Neighborhood Center records substantiate that, "Germans and Jews resided south of that inner core (south of twelfth street)...The Greek delta formed by Harrison, Halsted and Blue Island Streets served as a buffer to the Irish residing to the south and the Canadian–French to the northwest. From the river on the east end, on out to the western ends of what came to be known as "Little Italy", from Roosevelt Road on the south to the Harrison Street delta on the north, became the port-of-call for Italians who continued to immigrate to Chicago from the shores of southern Italy until a quota system was implemented in 1924 for most Southern Europeans.