
Settlement Houses In The Gilded Age most impacting organizations in social welfare was the settlement house. Most of them were large buildings in crowded immigrant neighborhoods where workers provided helpful services for people.
What are Gilded Age mansions?
Gilded Age mansions were lavish estate homes built between 1870 and the early 1900s by some of the richest people in the United States.
Where does'the Gilded Age'take place?
HBO's new television series The Gilded Age features incredible mansions with ornate interiors and verdant gardens and while the majority of the show takes place in NYC, much of it occurs in Newport, Rhode Island at places you can actually visit today.
What is a settlement house?
Located in urban areas of poverty, settlement houses aimed to address the problems of the rapidly growing American cities. Jane Addams and her Hull House led this movement in the 1890s and early twentieth century.
When was the Gilded Age in the United States?
The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865–1896 (Oxford History of the United States, 2017). De Santis, Vincent P.

What did a settlement house do?
Settlement house residents often acted as advocates on behalf of immigrants and their neighborhoods; and, in various areas, they organized English classes and immigrant protective associations, established “penny banks” and sponsored festivals and pageants designed to value and preserve the heritage of immigrants.
What are settlement houses in history?
These houses served as gathering places for fostering relationships that would serve as the foundation for stronger, healthier communities. Middle- and working-class individuals lived side by side in fellowship. Rather than asking residents, “What can we do for you?” settlement workers asked, “What can we do together?”
What was the settlement house movement and who started it?
The settlement movement began officially in the United States in 1886, with the establishment of University Settlement, New York. Settlements derived their name from the fact that the resident workers “settled” in the poor neighborhoods they sought to serve, living there as friends and neighbors.
What is an example of a settlement house?
Several of the city's settlement houses achieved national recognition; for example, KARAMU HOUSE, one of the centers of African-American theater in the U.S., and the CLEVELAND MUSIC SCHOOL SETTLEMENT, with its model music training programs. The settlement movement began in England in 1884 when a group of Oxford Univ.
What is a settlement house mean?
Definition of settlement house : an institution providing various community services especially to large city populations.
What is a settlement house quizlet?
settlement house. a house where immigrants came to live upon entering the U.S. At Settlement Houses, instruction was given in English and how to get a job, among other things. The first Settlement House was the Hull House, which was opened by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889.
Why was the settlement house movement important?
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social interconnectedness.
Were settlement houses successful?
Although settlement houses failed to eliminate the worst aspects of poverty among new immigrants, they provided some measure of relief and hope to their neighborhoods.
How did settlement houses alleviate poverty?
How did settlement houses help the poor? Settlement houses provided the environment for the poor tenants to create social clubs, community groups, and cultural events. This promoted fellowship between the residents. Education programs were also conducted under the auspices of the houses.
What was the main goal of the settlement house movement quizlet?
What was the main goal of the settlement house movement? A large number of immigrants arrived, and they sought acculturation programs at settlement houses. What was one common way that members of the temperance movement attempted to stop people from drinking alcohol? urban charity organizations.
What was one purpose of the settlement house movement in the United States quizlet?
What are settlement houses? Community centers that offered services to the poor. How did settlement houses help immigrants? They gave them a home, taught them English, and about the American government, provided them with services.
Do settlement houses still exist?
Today, it is estimated that there are more than 900 settlement houses in the United States, according to UNCA, an association of 156 of them. Formerly known as the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, UNCA was actually founded in 1911 by Jane Addams and other pioneers of the settlement movement.
What was the main goal of settlement house movement?
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social interconnectedness.
What was the first settlement house?
In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr established Hull-House in Chicago, the first settlement house in the United States.
Were settlement houses successful?
Although settlement houses failed to eliminate the worst aspects of poverty among new immigrants, they provided some measure of relief and hope to their neighborhoods.
What is settlement house in social work?
social settlement, also called settlement house, community centre, or neighbourhood house, a neighbourhood social welfare agency. The main purpose of a social settlement is the development and improvement of a neighbourhood or cluster of neighbourhoods.
What is settlement house?
Settlement Houses: Definition. In a poor, immigrant neighborhood on Chicago's West Side in 1889, a well-dressed and well-off young lady drew the attention of residents. She was misplaced among the grime, dilapidated buildings, and scenes of poverty. Over time, however, Jane Addams became a fixture of South Halsted Street after she leased two floors ...
Where did the settlement houses spread?
Led by passionate reformers like Ward and Addams, settlement houses spread to dozens of major cities across America and became fixtures in places such as Chicago, Boston, and New York. By the turn of the 20th century, the Northeast and Midwest boasted hundreds of settlement houses. Settlement Houses: Effects.
How old was Jane Addams when she moved to South Halsted Street?
Over time, however, Jane Addams became a fixture of South Halsted Street after she leased two floors of the Hull House, an old structure built by Charles Hull. Twenty-nine-year-old Jane Addams was a reformer of the Progressive Era, which was a period from the 1890s to around 1920.
Why did the Reformers build settlement houses?
Second, settlement houses served a purpose for the reformers themselves, who were mostly college-educated women like Jane Addams. These women wanted to do things with the poor, not just do things for the poor. Settlement houses allowed them to live in and experience urban poverty, learn about the people there, and then figure out ways to improve the situation. For example, Lillian Ward, a nurse and pioneer of settlement houses in the U.S., joined other nurses and moved to the Lower East Side of New York City. She said they wanted ''to live in the neighborhood as nurses, identify ourselves with it socially, and contribute to it our citizenship.''
What were the two main functions of settlement houses?
First, they provided a safe place for poor residents to receive medical care and provided nurseries for the children of working mothers. They offered meals and employment placement services. They sponsored lectures and gave music lessons.
Where did the settlement house movement begin?
The settlement house movement began in England and then emerged in the U.S. in 1886 with the founding of University Settlement House in New York City.
How did Addams influence the Hull House?
Addams used the influence of Hull House to pressure governments to pass improved construction and safety laws and other legislation that addressed the conditions of the urban poor. Addams herself became a garbage inspector in Chicago's West Side.
When was the first settlement house built?
The first settlement house was Toynbee Hall in London, founded in 1883 by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett. This was followed by Oxford House in 1884, and others such as the Mansfield House Settlement.
What did settlement houses serve?
Some settlement houses served whatever ethnic groups were in the area. Others, such as those directed towards African Americans or Jews, served groups that weren't always welcome in other community institutions.
What was the purpose of the settlement house?
The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive Movement, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly. As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies. Settlement house workers, in their work to find more effective solutions to poverty and injustice, also pioneered the profession of social work. Philanthropists funded the settlement houses. Often, organizers like Jane Addams made their funding appeals to the wives of the wealthy businessmen. Through their connections, the women and men who ran the settlement houses were also able to influence political and economic reforms.
What were the roots of the settlement house movement?
Community organizing and group work both have roots in the settlement house movement's ideas and practices. The settlement houses tended to be founded with secular goals, but many who were involved were religious progressives, often influenced by the social gospel ideals.
What were the names of the early settlement houses?
Other notable early settlement houses were the East Side House in 1891 in New York City, Boston's South End House in 1892, the University of Chicago Settlement and the Chicago Commons (both in Chicago in 1894), Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896, Hudson Guild in New York City in 1897, and Greenwich House in New York in 1902.
How many settlement houses were there in 1910?
By 1910, there were more than 400 settlement houses in more than 30 states in America. At the peak in the 1920s, there were almost 500 of these organizations. The United Neighborhood Houses of New York today encompasses 35 settlement houses in New York City.
Who made the funding appeals to the wives of the wealthy businessmen?
Often, organizers like Jane Addams made their funding appeals to the wives of the wealthy businessmen. Through their connections, the women and men who ran the settlement houses were also able to influence political and economic reforms.
When did the Gilded Age come into existence?
The "Gilded Age" term came into use in the 1920s and 1930s and was derived from writer Mark Twain 's and Charles Dudley Warner 's 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding.
What era was the Gilded Age?
The early half of the Gilded Age roughly coincided with the mid- Victorian era in Britain and the Belle Époque in France. Its beginning, in the years after the American Civil War, overlaps the Reconstruction Era (which ended in 1877).
What were the social movements during the Gilded Age?
During the Gilded Age, many new social movements took hold in the United States. Many women abolitionists who were disappointed that the Fifteenth Amendment did not extend voting rights to them, remained active in politics, this time focusing on issues important to them. Reviving the temperance movement from the Second Great Awakening, many women joined the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in an attempt to bring morality back to America. Its chief leader was Frances Willard (1839–1898), who had a national and international outreach from her base in Evanston, Illinois. Often the WCTU women took up the issue of women's suffrage which had lain dormant since the Seneca Falls Convention. With leaders like Susan B. Anthony, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed to secure the right of women to vote.
What were the roles of women in the Gilded Age?
During the early years of settlement, farm women played an integral role in assuring family survival by working outdoors. After a generation or so, women increasingly left the fields, thus redefining their roles within the family. New conveniences such as sewing and washing machines encouraged women to turn to domestic roles. The scientific housekeeping movement was promoted across the land by the media and government extension agents, as well as county fairs which featured achievements in home cookery and canning, advice columns for women in the farm papers, and home economics courses in schools.
How many people were on farms in the Gilded Age?
A dramatic expansion in farming took place during the Gilded Age, with the number of farms tripling from 2.0 million in 1860 to 6.0 million in 1905. The number of people living on farms grew from about 10 million in 1860 to 22 million in 1880 to 31 million in 1905.
How many immigrants were there in the Gilded Age?
During the Gilded Age, approximately 20 million immigrants came to the United States in what is known as the new immigration. Some of them were prosperous farmers who had the cash to buy land and tools in the Plains states especially. Many were poor peasants looking for the American Dream in unskilled manual labor in mills, mines, and factories. Few immigrants went to the poverty-stricken South, though. To accommodate the heavy influx, the federal government in 1892 opened a reception center at Ellis Island near the Statue of Liberty.
When did the Gilded Age end?
The early half of the Gilded Age roughly coincided with the middle portion of the Victorian era in Britain and the Belle Époque in France. With respect to eras of American history, historical views vary as to when the Gilded Age began, ranging from starting right after the American Civil War (ended, 1865), or 1873, or as the Reconstruction Era ended in 1877. The point noted as the end of the Gilded Age also varies. It is generally given as the beginning of the Progressive Era in the 1890s (sometimes the United States presidential election of 1896) but also falls in a range that includes the Spanish–American War in 1898, Theodore Roosevelt 's accession to the presidency in 1901, and even the end of the Progressive Era coinciding with the U.S. entry into World War I (1917).
What were the roles of the Irish in the Gilded Age?
In the Gilded Age Irish-Americans played significant roles in the formation of labor unions, especially the Knights of Labor. The Irish technique of the boycott gave the Knights and other unions a powerful new tool in their struggle to match the economic, political and legal power of employers.
Who founded the Hull House?
Jane Addams, the daughter of a wealthy Illinois businessman, reached out to the city’s recent immigrants with the founding of Hull House in 1889. Following the example of a group of English reformers who took up residence in an impoverished London neighborhood, Adams and a growing community of female volunteers from similarly privileged backgrounds provided immigrants with access to medical care, a variety of free educational programs, a summer camp for children, and clubs for children and adults. Adams and her fellow volunteers also performed detailed studies of the surrounding neighborhood pertaining to such issues as sanitation, housing, and working conditions, and successfully lobbied for new laws bearing on these and other matters at different levels of government. In spite of Hull House’s efforts, most immigrants and their children continued to face discrimination and limited opportunities, and often relied upon their own ethnic communities for social life and business activities. 3
What were the problems of the 1870s?
This often-unstable mix clashed over issues like the regulation or outright prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Many Yankee reformers such as Frances Willard (pictured at left) identified alcohol abuse as a leading cause of poverty, family disintegration, and violence against women. All too often, they believed, men squandered their paychecks on strong drink, leaving their families to starve. 2 But many of the new immigrants came to America from societies in which beer and wine played central roles. Many German-Americans, outraged at the Republican Party's tilt toward the reformers' position, switched their allegiance to the Democrats in this period.
Which state was the last to be settled by white Americans?
And white settlers had followed John C. Fremont into the Rocky Mountain West. Illinois' Native American population had either succumbed to disease or scattered to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Northern Illinois was the last region of the state to be settled by white Americans, but it grew the most rapidly.
What was Chicago's role in the antebellum era?
The emergence of Chicago as a major rail hub signaled the decline of the thriving commercial traffic that had plied the Mississippi River in the antebellum era. Increasingly towns like Quincy, Alton and Cairo fell upon hard times as the Illinois Central Railroad served Gulf of Mexico ports and the nation's further settlement pushed beyond the Great River. Many farmers also faced declining prospects in the post-war era, prompting rural youth to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Rhode Island
In The Gilded Age, the Breakers ' Great Hall and Music Room act as Bertha Russell's (played by Carrie Coon) ballroom. This work of Neo-Italian Renaissance architecture was built between 1893 and 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II.
New York
A Gothic Revival-style structure, Lyndhurst Mansion was designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis.
What is the Gilded Age based on?
In cinema, the Gilded Age society and mansions are accurately portrayed in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), which was itself based on Edith Wharton 's 1920 novel of the same name .
Where did the Gilded Age come from?
Relatively few in number and geographically dispersed, the majority were constructed in a variety of European architectural and decorative styles from different times and countries, such as France, England or Italy. In cinema, the Gilded Age society and mansions are accurately portrayed in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), ...
What did the upper classes and merchant classes do?
America's upper classes and merchant classes traveled the world visiting the great European cities and the ancient sites of the Mediterranean, as part of a Grand Tour, collecting and honoring their western cultural heritage.
Who built the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects?
Offices of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects (VSAIA) and the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design. Built by Elijah B. White a wealthy Virginia banker who at the time was the largest exporter of grain in the United States.
Who raised the manor estates?
These estates were raised by the nation's industrial, financial and commercial elite, who amassed great fortunes in era of expansion of the tobacco, railroad, steel, and oil industries coinciding with a lack of both governmental regulation and a personal income tax. The manor homes and city seats were designed by prominent architects of the day and decorated with antiquities, furniture, and works of art from the world over.
What is the largest home in the US?
Biltmore, the largest home in the US. This small group of nouveau riche, entrepreneur citizens of a relatively young country found context and meaning for their lives and good fortune by thinking of themselves as heirs of a great Western Tradition.

First Settlement Houses
Famous Settlement Houses
- The best-known settlement house is perhaps Hull House in Chicago, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. Lillian Wald and the Henry Street Settlement in New York is also well known. Both of these houses were staffed primarily by women and both resulted in many reforms with long-lasting effects and many programs that exist today.
The Movement Spreads
- Other notable early settlement houses were the East Side House in 1891 in New York City, Boston's South End House in 1892, the University of Chicago Settlement and the Chicago Commons (both in Chicago in 1894), Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896, Hudson Guild in New York City in 1897, and Greenwich House in New York in 1902. By 1910, there were more than 40…
More House Residents and Leaders
- Edith Abbott, a pioneer in social work and social service administration, was a Hull House resident with her sister Grace Abbott, New Deal chief of the federal Children's Bureau.
- Emily Greene Balch, later a Nobel Peace Prize winner, worked in and for some time headed Boston's Denison House.
- George Bellamy founded Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896.
- Edith Abbott, a pioneer in social work and social service administration, was a Hull House resident with her sister Grace Abbott, New Deal chief of the federal Children's Bureau.
- Emily Greene Balch, later a Nobel Peace Prize winner, worked in and for some time headed Boston's Denison House.
- George Bellamy founded Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896.
- Sophonisba Breckinridge from Kentucky was another Hull House resident who went on to contribute to the field of professional social work.
Overview
In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1870 to 1900. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industrialization demanded an ever-increasing unskilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants.
Religion
The Third Great Awakening which began before the Civil War returned and made a significant change in religious attitudes toward social progress. Followers of the new Awakening promoted the idea of the Social Gospel which gave rise to organizations such as the YMCA, the American branch of the Salvation Army, and settlement houses such as Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889.
The name and the era
The Gilded Age, the term for the period of economic boom which began after the American Civil War and ended at the turn of the century was applied to the era by historians in the 1920s, who took the term from one of Mark Twain's lesser-known novels, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873). The book (co-written with Charles Dudley Warner) satirized the promised "golden age" after the Civil War, portrayed as an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding o…
Industrial and technological advances
The Gilded Age was a period of economic growth as the United States jumped to the lead in industrialization ahead of Britain. The nation was rapidly expanding its economy into new areas, especially heavy industry like factories, railroads, and coal mining. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad opened up the far-west mining and ranching regions. Travel from New York to San Francisco then took six days instead of six months. Railroad track mileage tripled be…
Politics
Gilded Age politics, called the Third Party System, featured intense competition between two major parties, with minor parties coming and going, especially on issues of concern to prohibitionists, to labor unions and to farmers. The Democrats and Republicans (the latter nicknamed the "Grand Old Party", GOP) fought over control of offices, which were the rewards for party activists, as well as over major economic issues. Very high voter turnout typically exceede…
Immigration
Prior to the Gilded Age, the time commonly referred to as the old immigration saw the first real boom of new arrivals to the United States. During the Gilded Age, approximately 20 million immigrants came to the United States in what is known as the new immigration. Some of them were prosperous farmers who had the cash to buy land and tools in the Plains states especially. Many were poor peasants looking for the American Dream in unskilled manual labor in mills, min…
Rural life
A dramatic expansion in farming took place during the Gilded Age, with the number of farms tripling from 2.0 million in 1860 to 6.0 million in 1905. The number of people living on farms grew from about 10 million in 1860 to 22 million in 1880 to 31 million in 1905. The value of farms soared from $8.0 billion in 1860 to $30 billion in 1906.
The federal government issued 160-acre (65 ha) tracts virtually free to settlers under the Homest…
Urban life
American society experienced significant changes in the period following the Civil War, most notably the rapid urbanization of the North. Due to the increasing demand for unskilled workers, most European immigrants went to mill towns, mining camps, and industrial cities. New York, Philadelphia, and especially Chicago saw rapid growth. Louis Sullivan became a noted architect using steel frames to construct skyscrapers for the first time while pioneering the idea of "form f…