The Work of Jane Addams

In the 1880s Jane Addams traveled to Europe. While she was in London, she visited a settlement house called Toynbee Hall. Settlement houses were created to provide community services to ease urban problems such as poverty. Inspired by Toynbee Hall, Addams and her friend, Ellen Gates Starr, opened Hull House in a neighborhood of slums in Chicago in 1889.

Many who lived there were immigrants. For these working poor, Hull House provided a day care center for children of working mothers, a community kitchen, and visiting nurses. Addams and her staff gave classes in English literacy, art, and other subjects. Hull House also became a meeting place for clubs and labor unions. Most of the people who worked with Addams in Hull House were well educated, middle-class women. Hull House gave them an opportunity to use their education and it provided a training ground for careers in social work.

Addams, who had become a popular national figure, sought to help others outside Hull House as well. She and other Hull House residents often "lobbied" city and state governments. When they lobbied, they contacted public officials and legislators and urged them to pass certain laws and take other actions to benefit a community. For example, Addams and her friends lobbied for the construction of playgrounds, the setup of kindergartens throughout Chicago, legislation to make factory work safer, child labor laws, and enforcement of anti-drug laws.