Hull House

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Hull House
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Hull House (2006-12-08)
Location:	800 S. Halsted, Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates:	41°52′19.28″N 87°38′50.11″W / 41.8720222, -87.6472528Coordinates: 41°52′19.28″N 87°38′50.11″W / 41.8720222, -87.6472528
Built/Founded:	1889
Designated as NHL:	June 23, 1965[1]
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Governing body:	College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Hull House was co-founded in 1889, in Chicago, Illinois, by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr and is located in the Near West Side community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It was one of the first settlement houses in the U.S. and eventually grew into one of the largest, with facilities in 13 buildings. Because of the Hull House’s social, educational and artistic programs, it earned a reputation as the best-known settlement house in the U.S. and became the standard bearer for the movement that included almost 500 settlements nationally by 1920.^[2]

The original building and several subsequent acquisitions were continuously renovated to accommodate the changing demands of the association. The original building and one additional building (which has been moved 200 yards)^[3] survive today. The original building was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 12, 1974.^[4] It was designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark on June 23, 1965.^[5] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, which is the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted creating the register.

[edit] Mission

Hull House community workshop poster, 1938

Following the example of the original settlement house, Toynbee Hall (founded in 1885 in the East End of London as a centre for social reform), Hull House had, at its inception five years later, the main purpose of providing social and educational opportunities for working class people (many of them recent immigrants) in the surrounding neighborhood. The Hull House conducted careful studies of the Near West Side, Chicago community area, which housed many of Chicago's most recent European immigrants.^[6] The "residents" (volunteers at Hull were given this title) held classes in literature, history, art, domestic activities (such as sewing), and many other subjects. Hull House also held concerts that were free to everyone, offered free lectures on current issues, and operated clubs for both children and adults.

[edit] Accomplishments

During the first two decades of operation, Hull House attracted many female residents who later became prominent and influential reformers at various levels.^[2] The settlement was also gradually drawn into advocating for legislative reforms at the municipal, state and federal levels, addressing issues such as child labor, women's suffrage, and immigration policy. Some claim that the work of the Hull House marked the beginning of what we know today as "Social Welfare".^[7] At the neighborhood level, Hull House established the city’s first public playground and bathhouse, pursued educational and political reform, and investigated housing, working and sanitation issues.^[2] At the municipal level, their pursuit of legal reforms led to the first juvenile court in the United States, and their work influenced urban planning and the transition to a branch library system.^[2] At the state level Hull House influenced legislation on child labor laws, occupational safety and health provisions, compulsory education, immigrant rights, and pension laws.^[2] These experiences translated to success at the federal level, working with the settlement house network to champion national child labor laws, women’s suffrage, a Children’s Bureau, unemployment compensation, workers' compensation and other elements of the Progressive agenda during the first two decades of the 20th century.^[2]

[edit] Teachings

Hull House

Smith Hall along Halsted St., 1910‎

Women's Club building, 1905

Children in line on a retaining wall at Hull House, 1908

Later, the settlement branched out and offered services to ameliorate some of the effects of poverty. A public dispensary provided nutritious food for the sick as well as a daycare center and public baths. Among the courses Hull House offered was a bookbinding course, which was timely given the employment opportunities in the growing printing trade.^[8] Hull House was well known for its success in aiding American assimilation, especially with immigrant youth.^[9] Hull House became the center of the movement to promote hand workmanship as a moral regenerative force.^[10] The success of Hull House led Paul Kellogg to refer to the group as the "Great Ladies of Halsted Street.^[11]

The objective of Hull House, as stated in its charter, was: "To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago."^[12]

[edit] The Building

Starr, 1914

Addams in a car, 1915

Hull House was located in, and took its name from, the Italianate mansion built by real estate magnate Charles J. Hull at 800 South Halsted Street in 1856. The building was located in what had once been a fashionable part of town, but by 1889, when Addams was searching for a location for her experiment, it had descended into squalor. This was partly due to the rapid and overwhelming influx of immigrants into the Near West Side neighborhood. Charles Hull granted his former home to his niece Helen Culver, who in turn granted it to Addams on a 25-year rent-free lease. By 1907, Addams had acquired 13 buildings surrounding Hull's mansion. Between 1889 and 1935, Addams and Ellen Gates Starr continuously redeveloped the building.^[3] The facility remained at the original location until it was purchased in 1963 by what was then called the University of Illinois-Circle Campus.^[13] The development of University of Illinois-Circle Campus required the demolition of many surrounding Hull House buildings^[3] and the 1967 restoration to the original building by Frazier, Raftery, Orr and Fairbank removed Addam's third floor addition. Of the dozen additional buildings only the craftsman style dining hall (built in 1905 and designed by Pond & Pond) survives and it was moved 200 yards from its original site.^[14][3]

[edit] The Haunting of Hull House

Over the years, numerous stories of ghosts and hauntings have surrounded Hull House, making it a stop on many of the "ghosts in Chicago" tours. Charles Hull's wife had died in her bedroom, which was later used by Addams after the establishment of Hull House. Addams did not believe in ghosts, but noted that many believed that building to be haunted in her book Twenty Years at Hull House.^[15]

In 1913, another Hull House ghost story began circulating. According to this legend, after a man claimed that he would rather have the Devil in his house than a picture of The Virgin Mary, his child was born with pointed ears, horns, scale-covered skin and a tail, though the child, in fact, was born with no limbs, and an extended tail bone ("More Haunted Houses: Tortured Souls"^[16] ). The mother was said to have taken the baby to Hull House, where Addams attempted to have it baptized and wound up locking it in the attic.^[17]. While initially annoyed about the story, which had no basis in fact, Addams used the episode as a basis for her book, The Long Road of Woman's Memory. ^[18].

[edit] Theater

Addams felt that the community benefits from theater plays and thus established an amateur theater in the Hull House in 1899.^[19] In 1963, when road tours of Broadway productions became common, the Hull House Theater in the Jane Addams Center at 3212 North Broadway fostered the development of Chicago Theater companies for the rest of the century.^[19] Founder, Bob Sickinger created an environment to nourish young talent with professionalism.^[20]

[edit] Today

Addams ran Hull House as head resident until her death in 1935. Hull House continued to serve the community surrounding the Halsted location until it was displaced by the urban campus of the University of Illinois. Today, the social service center role is performed throughout the city at various locations under the Jane Addams Hull House Association umbrella organization. The association has, since 1962, perpetuated the name and many of the aspirations of the original institution.^[2] The original Hull House building itself is a museum, part of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is open to the public.

Also, Jane Addams Hull House Association is one of Chicago’s largest not-for-profit social welfare organizations. Its mission is to improve social conditions for underserved people and communities by providing creative, innovative programs and by advocating for related public policy reforms. The Association has more than 60 programs at over 40 sites throughout Chicago and serves approximately 60,000 individuals, families and community members every year.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Selected notable residents

• Edith Abbott
• Grace Abbott
• Jane Addams
• Neva Boyd
• Sophonisba Breckinridge
• Edward L Burchard, the first male resident, for about a year starting in 1891.
• Dorothy Detzer
• Alice Hamilton
• Florence Kelley
• Mary Kenney
• Julia Lathrop
• Mary McDowell
• Alzina Stevens

[edit] See also

• Jane Addams Burial Site
• John H. Addams
• John H. Addams Homestead

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Twenty Years at Hull House, by Jane Addams, MacMillan & Co, 1910, at Project Gutenberg
• Jane Addams Hull House Association
• Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
• The Pots of Promise Exhibit
• Urban Experience In Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889-1963
• Hull House Jubilee Article

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