Settlement House

Examples of Settlement House in the following topics:

• The Settlement House Movement

  • The Settlement House movement was a reform that intended for the rich and the poor to live together in interdependent communities.
  • Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, founded in 1894; Henry Street Settlement, founded in 1893; and University Settlement House, founded in 1886 (and the oldest in the United States) were important sites for social reform.
  • United Neighborhood Houses of New York was the federation of 35 settlement houses in New York City.
  • These and other settlement houses inspired the establishment of settlement schools to serve isolated rural communities in Appalachia.
  • The settlement-house concept was continued by Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker hospitality houses in the 1930s.

• Social Justice

  • The purpose of the settlement houses was to raise the standard of living of urbanites by providing adult education and cultural enrichment programs.
  • Hull House was a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.
  • By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings.
  • In 1912 the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club.
  • With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement that had grown, by 1920, to almost 500 settlement houses nationally.

• Tenements and Overcrowding

  • It is the lullaby of tenement-house babes.
  • The Tenement House Act of 1867 was amended by the Tenement House Act of 1879, also known as the "Old Law," which required lot coverage of no more than 65 percent.
  • In some cities, social reformers built "settlement houses" in poor urban areas, in which volunteer middle-class "settlement workers" would live, hoping to share knowledge and culture with, and alleviate the poverty of, their low-income neighbors.
  • The settlement houses provided services such as daycare, education, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor in these areas.
  • The most famous settlement house in the United States is Chicago's Hull House, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 after Addams visited Toynbee Hall within the previous two years.

• Jamestown, Virginia

  • Established in 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the American colonies.
  • Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia established by the Virginia Company of London in 1607.
  • This became known as the House of Burgesses.
  • The House of Burgesses instituted individual land ownership and divided the colony into four large boroughs.
  • Analyze and discuss the founding and growth of the Jamestown settlement.

• Hooverville

  • But the economic downturn greatly increased the numbers and concentrations in urban settlements, nearby soup kitchens and other charitable organizations.
  • Homeless people formed settlements on empty land which generally consisted of tents and small shacks.
  • Many shantytown residents were former workers who had construction skills and were able to build their houses out of stone.
  • Most people, however, resorted to making houses out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal and whatever other materials were available.

• The Election of 1824

  • John Quincy Adams was elected president by the House of Representatives in 1824, despite not winning the popular vote.
  • He favored an active federal government committed to internal improvements, such as roads and canals, to bolster national economic development and settlement of the West.
  • House Speaker Clay did not want to see his rival, Jackson, become president and therefore worked within the House to secure the presidency for Adams, convincing many to cast their vote for the New Englander.
  • This map illustrates the voting for candidates by state in the House of Representatives election of 1824.
  • Adams, despite not winning the popular vote, won 54 percent of the House votes and was elected president in 1825.

• Women in the West

  • During the early years of settlement on the Great Plains, women played an integral role in ensuring family survival by working the fields alongside their husbands and children.
  • However, life for these young women remained a challenging one as western settlement progressed.
  • Middle-class women arrived in the 1880s with their husbands and established boarding houses, organized church societies, and worked as laundresses and seamstresses.
  • Cashman established her first boarding house for miners in British Columbia during the Klondike Gold Rush.
  • In the late 1880s, Cashman set up several restaurants and boarding houses in Arizona.

• Virginia

  • In 1606, each company organized expeditions to establish settlements within the area of their rights.
  • The settlement, given the name of Jamestown, was an island, and thus favorable for defense against foreign ships.
  • However, the low, marshy terrain was harsh and inhospitable for settlement.
  • The Algonquian Chief Powhatan controlled more than 30 smaller tribes and more than 150 settlements.
  • This became known as the House of Burgesses.

• Bacon's Rebellion

  • Berkeley had refused to retaliate for a series of Indian attacks on frontier settlements, so others took matters into their own hands, attacking Indians, chasing Berkeley from Jamestown, Virginia, and torching the capital.
  • When they returned to the colonial capital at Jamestown, they found that the House of Burgesses had passed a number of reforms that limited the powers of the governor and expanded suffrage among freemen.
  • Governor Berkeley still refused to act against Native Americans, however, and Bacon and his army issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia," which accused Berkeley's administration of levying unfair taxes, appointing friends to high places, and failing to protect frontier settlements from Native American attacks.

• The Massachusetts Bay Colony

  • The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston.
  • Plans for the first permanent British settlements on the east coast of North America began in late 1606, when King James I of England formed two joint stock companies.
  • The council of assistants sat as the upper house of the legislature and served as the judicial court of last appeal.
  • The original settlements were along the Connecticut River at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield.
  • This map illustrates the early settlements in eastern Massachusetts, including the Massachusetts Bay Colony.