SETTLE
ENT
In the mid 1880's, issues of the working poor caused
by urbanization, industrialization and immigration
were a catalyst for the Settlement Movement.
Envisioned by Arnold Toynbee, a tutor at Balliol
College, England, and his colleagues, the Movement
was a revolutionary and humanistic approach to social
work which brought the social worker face to face
with life in urban slums. Settlement workers would
live in settlement houses providing both education
and social services. Workers at Toynbee Hall, located in
London's East Side and named for Arnold Toynbee by
friend and colleague Canon Samuel Barnett, practiced
Barnett's visionary mission "to learn as much as to
teach; to receive as much as to give:'
OVE
ENT
One of the first three university settlement houses
in England, Toynbee Hall saw a number of American
visitors in its early years. Most famously, Jane Addams,
suffragette, abolitionist, pacifist and first American
woman to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize, found
inspiration when she
visited Toynbee Hall in
1887-88. Jane Addams
became attracted
to settlement work
through the faith of
her father, a devout
Quaker. Addams saw
settlement work as
a means to socially
reform the city and
bring loyalty back to
the neighborhood.
Addams began this
Jane Addams
CourtesyHull HouseMuseum
ToynbeeHall, England
CourtesyHampstead Garden Suburb Archives
EPHChildren
Courtesy WestEnd Museum
work with
her Rockford
College
classmate and
friend, Ellen
Gates Starr;
they settled on
a mansion of
the late Chicago
citizen, Mr.
Charles J. Hull,
located near the
west side
Ellen GatesStarr
CourtesyLibrary of Congress
community of Chicago. In September
18, 1889, Hull House opened its doors
to the community. In its heyday the Hull House saw
about 2,000 visitors a week.
Not limited to Chicago, by 1913 there were 413
settlement houses throughout the United States,
including Boston. Two local Boston leaders, Robert
A. Woods and Vida Dutton Scudder visited Toynbee
Hall as religious students, and later brought the
Settlement Movement to Boston. Woods became
the head resident at Boston's first Settlement,
Andover House, in 1892. Woods, however, had
a contentious relationship with the immigrants
he intended to help, often seeing them as
resistant to assimilation. Woods developed a
difficult relationship with the community, often
antagonizing immigrants in his written work.
Many settlement workers, like Woods and
Scudder were inspired by their religion, a key
motivator in the Boston Settlement Movement.
Ultimately, many would abandon the religious
aspect of their social work finding that
it
prevented
municipal
reform. Often
settlement
workers
would become
involved through
Colleges and
Universities
or engaged in
social work as an
extension of their
own profession.
Many middle
class women were
drawn to work in
settlement houses,
• •
g1v1ngwomen an
opportunity to
Robert WoodsBust
influence their local
communities and
society as a whole.
CourtesyNortheastern University Libraries