The life of Jane Addams and evolutions of Hull House and Metropolitan Family Services are tightly linked to the social and political histories of Chicago and the United States.
That year, one of the most severe economic crises in US history occurred. In Chicago, one out of every four people lost their jobs and poverty was widespread.
The Chicago Relief and Aid Society organized and distributed aid to families in need of food, heat and housing.
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”Sept. 6, 1860″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Jane Addams is born in Cedarville, Ill.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1861-1865″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Though little is known of the particulars of the Relief and Aid Society during the Civil War, a Soldiers’ Relief Committee was formed and aid was extended to needy soldiers’ families.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1865″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Union Stock Yards are completed.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1871″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Mayor Roswell B. Mason appoints the Chicago Relief and Aid Society to administer all relief, nearly $10 million in money and goods, to victims of the Great Chicago Fire. Between October 1871 and May 1873, the Society aided 39,242 different families and 156,968 different people — virtually half the population of Chicago when the fire broke out.
In addition to providing food, clothing, monetary relief, and smallpox vaccinations, the Society distributed thousands of sewing machines, tools, and equipment – to “sewing women,” carpenters, masons, tinners, bookbinders, locksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, and workers in almost every branch of mechanical industry – to help families and small businesses regain their productivity.
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1886″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Haymarket Riot[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1888″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Relief and Aid Society and Chicago Charity Organization merge, bringing a greater focus on poverty prevention to the organization.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”June 1888″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams visits the world’s first settlement house, Toynbee Hall in the East End of London.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1889″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams moves to Chicago with Ellen Gates Starr in order to plan for a settlement house.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”Sept. 18, 1889″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams and Starr move into the Hull Mansion on Halsted and Polk St. in the 19th Ward where they open the home as a settlement house.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1891″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Hull House begins a 13-building expansion by opening the Butler Art Gallery.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1893″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Chicago hosts the World’s Columbian Exposition.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1894″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams helps start The Chicago Federation of Settlements.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”Mar. 1895″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Hull House Association is incorporated and Addams is elected president of the Board of Directors, a position she holds until her death in 1935.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1899″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Illinois Juvenile Court Law creates the first juvenile court located across from Hull House.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1903″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams is named vice president of the National Women’s Trade Union League.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1905″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Legal Aid Society is formed by the merger of the Bureau of Justice and the Protective Agency for Women and Children.
“The history of Legal Aid (civil) stretches back for more than a hundred years. The first organized effort to provide free legal help for those unable to hire an attorney was the Protective Agency for Women and Children, established in 1886 by the Women’s Club of Chicago, ‘to protect young girls from seductions and debaucheries’ by men posing as employers. The Der Deutsche-Rechtaschartz-Verein (later named the Legal Aid Society) in New York in 1876 is sometimes referred to as the first, but it helped only German immigrants. The Bureau of Justice, in 1888, was the first true legal aid service not limited by race or gender. The two pioneer services in Chicago combined in 1905 to form the Legal Aid Society.”
From “Balancing the Scales of Justice,” by Junius Allison.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1907″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Tribune turns over Camp Algonquin, a 20-acre fresh air camp on the Fox River, to the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. The focus of the camp was nutrition and physical help, providing sunshine, fresh air and food to mothers and children from the crowded city. Children from the Stock Yard district were often too ill to attend Camp Algonquin, and instead went to Camp Harlowarden to receive proper nutrition and medical treatment for tuberculosis.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”Dec. 30, 1908″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Jane Addams starts Mary Crane Nursery in the Hull House in memory of Richard Teller Crane’s wife.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1909″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Relief and Aid Society and the Chicago Bureau of Charities merge to form United Charities of Chicago. The organization began to more actively promote progressive public policies and address health issues such as tuberculosis.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1912″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams writes 20 Years at Hull House.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1915″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams helps organize Woman’s Peace Party, elected 1st Chairman.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_sep time_sep_title=”United Charities of Chicago”][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1919″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Chicago Legal Aid Society becomes part of United Charities. Renamed the Legal Aid Bureau, it provided free legal services for 655 civil law cases in its first year. Cases frequently focused on family problems such as “domestic discord” and “desertion.”
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1919″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams founds the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and serves as president until 1929.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1921″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1930s” desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_sep time_sep_title=”The Great Depression”][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1931″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities serves more than 20,000 people each month during the Great Depression, nearly 10 times the pre-Depression figure. Reaching its peak in December 1931, the agency served 33,184 people.
By 1932, roughly 40% of Chicago’s labor force had no work. These men are employed making toys for relief clients in the coach house at South Central District, 2959 South Michigan Avenue, 1934.
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1931″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams becomes the 1st American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1934″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities helps establish the Community Fund of Chicago, now the United Way.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1935″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities leader Joel D. Hunter serves on an official advisory council established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help shape what would become the Social Security Act.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1935″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Psychiatrists were hired in 1934 to train staff and provide counseling for family problems. In 1935 the counseling services were officially named the Family Service Bureau and for the first time, a considerable number of financially independent families received “family consultation.”
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”May 21, 1935″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Addams dies after doctors found colon cancer while performing corrective surgery.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_sep time_sep_title=”The Second World War”][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1941-1945″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities helps the growing number of war refugees find work, and provided relief and relocation services. The agency also helped women working the jobs of men sent to war who had difficulty securing child care, as well as returning veterans. Legal Aid and casework staff were added, along with an increase in psychiatric services.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1950s” desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]By the 1950s more attention was being paid to “multi-problem” families who struggled with complex social issues, difficult family relationships, economic and housing pressures, and mental illness. The Family Service Bureau had a Women’s Service Division to help unmarried mothers and their children, and a Service for the Aged.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1950s” desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]In the late 1950s, a small group of women from Glen Ellyn and Wheaton who had a strong desire to help less fortunate families in the area began the Treasure House resale shop in a fixed-up two-bedroom apartment with two bags of items left over from a rummage sale.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1955″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities establishes the Calumet Center to serve the communities of Roseland, West Pullman, Riverdale, Washington Heights, Morgan Park, and Chatham.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”1957″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities celebrates its first hundred years.
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1964″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Civil Rights Act outlaws segregation and the Voting Rights Act is passed. President Lyndon Johnson introduces the War on Poverty.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1966″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities expands its services and opens its first suburban office, Southwest Center in Palos Hills, to serve southwest Cook County.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1970″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The agency began a Consumer Credit Counseling service and helped the Chinese community establish a Chinese-speaking social agency for immigrants.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1971″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]The Union Stock Yards close.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1985″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities begins serving Southeast Chicago out of a one-person office in a church basement, to serve the community that was severely affected by the closing of local steel mills.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1987″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities furthers its expansion in the suburbs, acquiring the DuPage Center. Black Monday, the second-largest stock market crash in the US, hits the nation’s economy.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_sep time_sep_title=”Metropolitan Family Services”][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1995″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]United Charities changes its name to Metropolitan Family Services to better reflect the work and scope of the broad community it serves, and opens the Midway Head Start Center.
[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”1996″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan Family Services acquires the Family Counseling Service, establishing the Evanston/Skokie Valley Center.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2002″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan Family Services opens North Center, serving the Belmont-Cragin, Hermosa, Irving Park and Portage Park communities.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2003″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan Family Services opens North Center, serving the Belmont-Cragin, Hermosa, Irving Park and Portage Park communities.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2004″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan Family Services opens the new Children’s Center; sells Camp Algonquin to the McHenry County Conservation District to keep the pristine riverfront property available for public use.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_feat time_title=”2007″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan celebrates its 150th anniversary and convenes the Inaugural Summit on the Metropolitan Family, bringing together 300 prominent leaders to inspire new solutions to challenges facing families.
[/icon_timeline_feat][icon_timeline_item time_title=”Jan. 27, 2012″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Jane Addams Hull House Association closes.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2012″ desc_font_size=”desktop:13px;”]Metropolitan is awarded the contract for Head Start in DuPage County, acquires the Court Advocacy program, and is named United Way Agency Partner of the Year.[/icon_timeline_item][icon_timeline_item time_title=”2016″]Metropolitan convenes Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P), working with eight partner organizations to address violence issues in Chicago.
[/icon_timeline_item][/icon_timeline]