Below are links to all of the posts regarding Settlement Houses.

  • Baltimore Settlements: Lawrence House and Warner House These entries about Lawrence House and Warner House are taken from the HANDBOOK OF SETTLEMENTS a national survey of settlements published in 1911 by The Russell Sage Foundation of New York. This collection of detailed information about settlements throughout the nation and operating circa 1910 was collected, organized and written by two settlement pioneers: Robert Archey Woods and Albert J. Kennedy. Information about these two Baltimore settlement houses is found in the handbook's section for Maryland (pages 100 and 103).
  • Chicago CommonsChicago Commons was established in the fall of 1894 and modeled on Hull House. Founder Graham Taylor had come to Chicago Theological Seminary to teach applied Christianity and wanted to live in an immigrant, working-class area. With his wife and four children, he moved to an Irish, German, and Scandinavian neighborhood in the northwest part of the city.
  • Christodora Settlement HouseWritten by Dr. June Hopkins, this article presents a well-documented history of an early settlement house serving immigrant families living in the crowded slums of the Lower East Side of New York City. It is an especially important part of American social we
  • Greenwich House, New York CityBefore founding Greenwich House, Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch had been active in supporting woman's suffrage and social welfare legislation, and she had worked several years in the settlement house movement. From these and other experiences she was convinced of the necessity for an entirely new approach to the problem of settlement work. She vigorously rejected the "Lady Bountiful" theory and and developed her own concept of settlement work as a social movement shared equally by contributors, staff workers, and neighbors in a cooperative effort. She envisioned Greenwich House as playing an integral role in the life of the neighborhood -- being a part of neighborhood life, rather than simply a provider of services to the population of the area.
  • Hudson GuildThe latter part of this long entry includes an excellent description of how the people of the neighborhood who participate in the programs of the Hudson Guild govern themselves. A description of this settlement house taken from the “Handbook of Settlements” published in 1911 reports: “…The Clubs' Council of Hudson Guild has been a success because real power has been placed in its hands; the power to do things which interest club members. The Council is composed of representatives from all the evening clubs using the house, and also elects the house court, which represents the judiciary. Many philanthropic organizations bring their beneficiaries together and make a pretense at self-government but keep all real authority out of the people's hands. The Clubs' Council has the power and self-developing capacity to be the legislative body of the neighborhood house; and through its committees has the executive functions as well…”
  • Hull HouseJane Addams and her friend Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House in 1889 on the South side of Chicago, Illinois after being inspired by visiting Toynbee Hall in London.
  • Hull House - circ. 1910This entry is a detailed description of Hull House as it existed in 1911. The entry is taken directly from the HANDBOOK OF SETTLEMENTS published in 1911. This valuable collection of national information about settlements and their activities was organized and written by two settlement house pioneers, Robert Archey Woods and Albert J. Kennedy, and published by The Russell Sage Foundation of New York.
  • Lawrence House BookletEstablished in the Fall of 1900. "Lawrence House is a neighborhood club house. It aims to be a center for things of interest to the people, to provide a place for amusements and social gatherings, to furnish opportunities for instruction in any subject for which there is a demand. In co-operation with its neighbors, it aims to work for the betterment of its particular community as well as the city."
  • Lenox Hill Neighborhood HouseLenox Hill was Established October, 1894, by the Alumna of Normal College as a development of a kindergarten and certain forms of social work growing out of it. "Normal College Alumnae House exists for the mutual benefit of its neighbors and the students and graduates of the Normal College. Its purpose is to give social expression to democracy; so to study its neighborhood as to gain insight into its best life and its special needs, and, as a result of this study to stimulate self-help and co-operation, and wisely to lead and share the movement of the neighborhood toward civic consciousness and righteousness." (Source: Handbook of Settlements)
  • Madison House and the Great DepressionThis retrospective view of Madison House highlights the contributions of Felix Adler and the Ethical Culture Society. Located in the Lower East Side of NYC, Madison House was funded by the Ethical Culture Society but was governed democratically by club members and staff who planned activities and programs for all ages.
  • Madison House in 1938When I found A Day at Madison House, I was overwhelmed. It captured the heart and soul of all the minutes, newsletters, reports that were in the archives and in the memories of those who loved Madison House. I wanted to take this document and send it to all local governments struggling so hard to fund accessible human and social services. To have under one roof preschool classes; health and dental care; recreation and athletic programs; art, drama, music; financial assistance; adult education courses seemed so logical.
  • Madison House Speaks in 1916In 1916, using personification, a very different type of progress report was prepared to describe the growth and changes experienced by Madison House over its first 18 years. Titled "The Old House Speaks" thats document is displayed belo
  • Madison House: Tops In Every RespectThis retrospective view of Madison House highlights the contributions of Felix Adler and the Ethical Culture Society. Located in the Lower East Side of NYC and home to waves of Eastern European Jews, Madison House reflects in many ways the social, economic and cultural differences within the Jewish community of the time.
  • National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood CentersIn 1886, Stanton Coit founded America's first settlement house, the Neighborhood Guild (later renamed University Settlement) on New York City's Lower East Side. Over the next 15 years, settlement houses were established in cities as places where socially motivated middle-class men and women could live, or “settle,” among the poor. Settlement house staff resided in the same buildings in which neighborhood residents participated in programs and activities.
  • Origins of the Settlement House Movement:The idea of a settlement—as a colony of learning and fellowship in the industrial slums—was first conceived in the 1860s by a group of prominent British reformers that included John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Kingsley, and the so-called Christian Socialists, They were idealistic, middle-class intellectuals, appalled at the conditions of the working classes, and infused with the optimism, moral fervor; and anti-materialist impulses of the Romantic Age: people who read the soaring poetry of Wordsworth and Tennyson, the conscientious novels of Dickens, the liberal political thought of the Utilitarian philosophers Bentham and Mill.
  • Settlement Houses: An IntroductionResidents and volunteers of early settlement houses helped create and foster new organizations and social welfare programs, some of which continue to the present time. Settlements were action oriented and new programs and services were added as neighborhood needs were discovered; settlement workers tried to find, not be, the solution for social and environmental deficits affecting their neighbors. In the process, some settlements became engaged in issues such as housing reform, factory safety, labor organizing, protecting children, opening health clinics, legal aid programs, consumer protection, milk pasteurization initiatives and well-baby clinics. Others created parks and playgrounds or emphasized the arts by establishing theaters and classes for the fine arts and music education. A number of settlement leaders and residents conducted research, prepared statistical studies, wrote reports or described their personal experiences in memoirs.
  • Settlement Houses: The View Of The Catholic ChurchBut there is no need to go back to the past to find sufficient argument why I, or any churchman, should support the idea of the community center and its humane activities. If a churchman will not be faithful to his solemn profession, where shall fidelity be found? And we profess to be Americans, to accept as holy the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. If we clergymen cannot condemn and hold up to scorn the mouthing hypocrite who praises our republic and glorifies our democracy while ignoring the fact that multitudes of our citizens are left in ignorance of our Constitution, live in unsanitary conditions, and are given no opportunity toward a life worth living, or a liberty worth possessing, or a happiness worth enjoying-if we do not speak, who will?
  • South End House, Boston, MAThis is a long entry that uses original source materials to describe the first twenty years of programming, neighborhood betterment and other accomplishments by the staff and volunteers of South End House (1891 -- 1911). The materials used include: The Development of USES – A Chronology of the United South End Settlement Houses: 1891 –1966, by Albert Boer and the HANDBOOK OF SETTLEMENTS, published by The Russell Sage Foundation of New York in 1911.
  • Union Settlement, New York CityUnion Settlement Association was founded in 1895 by alumni, faculty and students of Union Theological Seminary in response to the desperate conditions of immigrants living in East Harlem and struggling to make a new life in America. Within one year of opening, Union Settlement programs were serving 2,000 community residents each month.
  • University House of PhiladelphiaMembers of the University of Pennsylvania’s Christian Association (CA) founded University Settlement House in 1898. The mission of the CA, as its charter stated, was to promote "spiritual welfare of the students of the University of Pennsylvania by encouraging Christian fellowship and cooperation." The organization linked its mission for Christian advancement with such social services as operating settlement houses for the poor and providing summer camps for kids from less fortunate families in the vicinity of the University campus.
  • University Settlement - 1911University Settlement was committed to good government as well as services to the neighborhood. It was reported: The early clubs were stimulated to protest against corrupt candidates, and residents have endeavored to awaken an enlightened public opinion in the various good government campaigns. The settlement allied itself with various organized efforts,—the City Vigilance League, Good Government clubs, etc. Mr. Reynolds was a member of the Committee of Seventy, in 1894, chairman of the executive committee of the Citizens' Union in 1897, and later chairman of important sub-committees. Residents have appeared frequently before the legislative committees in support of measures looking toward the betterment of political conditions. Perhaps the best service of the house has been the training in citizenship given its boys and girls, as a result of which the settlement now looks with pride on the excellent records of a number of its young men in various branches of public service.
  • University Settlement of New York CityDuring the year 1886, in the heart of the Lower East Side, upwards of 3,000 people lived in a single square block. The tenement buildings of the area normally had four apartments on each floor; a typical apartment would consist of one small room that was well-lighted and ventilated, and several others that were wholly dark, and might house a family of five or more, and perhaps a boarder.
  • Women, Settlements and PovertyThis article uses primary source documents from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s to discuss women’s roles in the reconceptualization of poverty in America. It studies the belief drawn from colonial religion that poverty was a result of personal immorality and traces the changing public perception through the turn of the 20th century. The view of poverty that evolved, a conceptualization based in the social research of women settlement house leaders, was one that also considered environmental contributors to individual poverty, thus redefining poverty as a multi-dimensional social problem.