Hull House
Hull House is the name of a pioneering institution of the Settlement movement in Chicago. The Hull House was founded in 1889 in the Near Westside neighborhood by Jane Addams, who had shortly before become acquainted with Toynbee Hall during a visit to London and had been inspired by it.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Chicago had a population of 3.4 million, around 80% of whom were European migrants. Corruption, mafia and cartelisation were the order of the day. The consequences were devastating for a large part of the population: unhealthy housing, huge mountains of waste, toxic drinking water, spoiled food, diseases (smallpox, typhus, ...), bad air and extreme noise in the factories, high infant mortality, malnutrition in general, unemployment, alcoholism, lack of opportunities to take part in educational processes, etc. These problems formed the reason for Jane Addams to create.
When Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened the Hull House on Halsted Street in 1889, their goals were moderate. They wanted to offer a place as a meeting place for less fortunate people in immigrant neighborhoods to introduce them to art and literature. However, the house quickly developed beyond their imagination and, at the request of their neighbors, they began offering classes in English to help them integrate more quickly. Soon they added cooking and sewing classes, also handicraft classes, as well as American history, government and laws. Add to this the founding of the Working People's Social Science Club or even the founding of labor unions. Thus, the knowledge generated there "formed the basis, among other things, for socio-political advances to the government, the Sanitary Department, for legislation against child labor." The activities of Hull House also extended to the supervision of refuse collection in the Settlement, support for strikes, the establishment of public bathhouses, mediation efforts in labour disputes and lectures at universities.
In the meantime it had become a settlement, a "Settlement". Men and women could now live here for a low rent. In return, they took on services in the public kitchen or baths, supervision on the playground or in the toddler or kindergarten group. They received influential support from William James and John Dewey, who conducted his social studies here and tested "learning by doing" on the children.
Hull-House became not only a cultural center with music and theater performances, but also a safe haven for immigrants on Chicago's near West Side. Here they found companionship and the support they needed to live in a modern metropolis in the "New World." However, the focus was on change and criticism of the prevailing early capitalist conditions, which is why it became the target of police raids, CSI surveillance (starting in 1915), and cuts in donations.
Hull House was conceived not only as a center of neighborhood outreach and adult education for the predominantly Italian-speaking neighborhood population, but also as a social science research facility. It is now affiliated with the University of Illinois.
The house has been considered a National Historic Landmark since June 23, 1965. Hull House was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a landmark on October 15, 1966.
On January 19, 2012, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Hull House would have to close after 120 years due to financial difficulties. The "Jane Addams Hull House Association" had offered help of various kinds to 60,000 people per year. One regretted this especially in today's difficult economic situation.
