Social Welfare History Project Settlement Houses

Seventeenth Street Mission, Richmond VA

The Seventeenth Street Mission Paula Skreslet, D.Min. and Alice W. Campbell In 1911, Murray Grey and other students from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (later, Union Presbyterian Seminary) started an urban ministry outreach program in Shockoe Bottom, the most impoverished neighborhood of Richmond, Va. The area suffered from unpaved streets, inadequate sewage facilities, and…

Neighborhood House, Richmond VA

Neighborhood House By Catherine A. Paul In the early 1900’s non-resident settlement houses were created throughout the country as the primary instrument of immigrant adjustment to America. In 1912, the Richmond Section of the National Council of Jewish Women established Neighborhood House at 19th and Broad in Richmond, Virginia to respond to the needs of…

Americanization – selected publications

Americanization; Principles of Americanism, Essentials of Americanization, Technic of Race-Assimilation. Winthrop Talbot, Julia E. Johnsen, eds. New York: H.W.Wilson, 1920. Immigration and Americanization: Selected Readings. Philip Davis, Bertha Schwartz, eds. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1920. Includes essays by Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, Henry Cabot Lodge, Prescott F. Hall, Kate Waller Barrett, Paul Kellogg, and…

Nurses Settlement, Richmond, VA – Handbook of Settlements (1911)

RICHMOND – THE NURSES SETTLEMENT 201 East Cary Street (August, 1909 -) Note: This description of the Nurses Settlement in Richmond, VA is from the Handbook of Settlements written by two settlement house pioneers: Robert Archey Woods and Albert J. Kennedy. The book included the findings of a national survey of all the known settlements in existence in 1910 and…

Theological Foundations of Charity: Catholic Social Teaching, The Social Gospel, and Tikkun Olam

A look at theological principles that have motivated Catholics, Protestants, and Jews to charitable acts.

Third Street Music School Settlement

Founded in 1894, Third Street has helped to establish community arts education in the United States. The School traces its roots to the late 19th century settlement house movement. It was the unique inspiration of Third Street founder Emilie Wagner to make high quality music instruction the centerpiece of a community settlement house that would also provide social services to the immigrant population of the Lower East Side.

Church of All Nations, New York City

“A Long History of Community Service at the Church of All Nations,” by Cristina Vignone. “…the Church of All Nations ‘was always a community-oriented building…[cutting] across ethnic boundaries.'”

Settlement Workers of Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD

This original list of settlement houses serving neighborhoods in Baltimore was probably published sometime between 1912 -1915. It briefly describes the many ways early settlement house residents and volunteers provided facilities and resources in order to assist recent immigrants and very poor families to play, socialize, learn a variety of skills, save money, organize and take steps to improve their lives and the communities in which they lived. The document was contributed by Harris Chaiklin, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Barrett, Janie Porter (1865 – 1948)

Janie Porter Barrett (1865 -1948): Founder of the Locust Street Social Settlement (1890) and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls (1915)

United Neighborhood Houses, Fiftieth Anniversary – 1951

Address by Mr. Mark A. McCloskey, 1951. “Above all, the settlements are called upon to continue to be free, to list where they will, to be different in emphasis, varied in interest and program as well as personal leadership, but called to unity and joint action in support of our common humanity. Time will not tame the settlements in the next fifty years.”