Twenty Years at Hull House

Addams and Starr began searching in January 1889 for a Chicago neighborhood in which to execute her plan. They gave talks explaining he Settlement in terms of Toynbee Hall but made no appeal for money as they planned to start with their own limited financial resources. They contended that an ample, accessible house, hospitable and tolerant, in the midst of an immigrant neighborhood would be helpful in dealing with Chicago’s social problems. They searched for a place, accompanied by newspaper reporters, city missionaries, and city officials, before deciding on a location near the corner of Halsted Street. Addams sublet the second floor and a large drawing room on the first floor in a fine, old house surrounded by a broad piazza. Built in 1856, the house had belonged to a Chicago pioneer, Charles J. Hull. Most of the lower part of the house already had been rented for factory offices and storerooms. The next spring, Helen Culver gave them a free leasehold of the whole house. Over the years, they built 13 buildings on the land that Culver placed at the Settlement’s disposal. Addams and Starr furnished the house as they would have if it were in a different part of the city, with photographs from Europe and family furniture.