Settlement Houses
Gilded Age Activity
Define:
Settlement houses were made for middle class and lower class citizens to be able to live near each other. The reason for this is that it was theorized that the middle class workers would be able to teach the lower class people about their culture and knowledge, along with helping to alleviate some of the monetary stress on the low income tenants.
Detail:
- During the gilded age, there were many poor people who either immigrated to the US or lost their money when they came. These people did not have a place that they could live, due to the difficulty of finding a job and the inability to pay for rent with the meager earnings they had. The government created settlement houses to both provide a cheap place to live, but also proximity to people with a wealth of different trades that they could teach to the other people living in the houses.
- The people who taught skills to the tenants lived alongside them in the settlement houses
- Today, settlement houses have expanded to become community driven organizations that help many families in ways such as crime intervention or early education, or even providing care for the elderly.
Display:
Toynbee Hall
A picture of Toynbee Hall, a settlement house.
Settlement Immigrants
A picture of immigrants in front of a settlement house.
Teaching in the houses
A woman teaching children in a settlement house.