Erie House: Chicago’s Oldest Settlement House
Areas of History/Tags: Chicago History; Settlement House Movement; Neighborhoods; Social Services; Activism; Immigrants in Chicago
Codes: Complex–less available secondary source material
Overview: In its earliest form, Erie Neighborhood House existed as Holland Presbyterian Church in 1870 with community programs like Sunday school and kindergarten, then expanded in the 1880s to multiple locations with youth programs, choirs, and industrial classes. The organization became a member of the Chicago Federation of Settlements, formed at Hull House, in the 1890s as the social gospel movement took off. During the Great Depression, the organization adopted the name of Erie Neighborhood House, employing a dozen staff and approximately 50 Works Progress Administration workers and catering to the shifting immigrant populations in West Town. Erie Neighborhood House then expanded to provide health and dental care, child care, a meals on wheels program, and a clean neighborhood program. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Erie Neighborhood House also supported a number of spinoff community organizations and expanded to Little Village in 2004 and Humboldt Park in 2005. Erie Neighborhood house still operates in four locations today and offers a variety of services and programs. While it did not adopt the name and identity of a settlement house until after Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House in 1889, the neighborhood programming and services for immigrants in the 1880s helped fuel the settlement movement.
Relevant Collections:
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Public Library
University of Illinois at Chicago
Links to Preliminary Sources:
Secondary
Primary
Areas of History/Tags: Chicago History; Settlement House Movement; Neighborhoods; Social Services; Activism; Immigrants in Chicago
Codes: Complex–less available secondary source material
Overview: In its earliest form, Erie Neighborhood House existed as Holland Presbyterian Church in 1870 with community programs like Sunday school and kindergarten, then expanded in the 1880s to multiple locations with youth programs, choirs, and industrial classes. The organization became a member of the Chicago Federation of Settlements, formed at Hull House, in the 1890s as the social gospel movement took off. During the Great Depression, the organization adopted the name of Erie Neighborhood House, employing a dozen staff and approximately 50 Works Progress Administration workers and catering to the shifting immigrant populations in West Town. Erie Neighborhood House then expanded to provide health and dental care, child care, a meals on wheels program, and a clean neighborhood program. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Erie Neighborhood House also supported a number of spinoff community organizations and expanded to Little Village in 2004 and Humboldt Park in 2005. Erie Neighborhood house still operates in four locations today and offers a variety of services and programs. While it did not adopt the name and identity of a settlement house until after Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House in 1889, the neighborhood programming and services for immigrants in the 1880s helped fuel the settlement movement.
Relevant Collections:
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Public Library
University of Illinois at Chicago
Links to Preliminary Sources:
Secondary
- A neighbor among neighbors : Erie Neighborhood House : 150 years as a home with no borders by Maureen Hellwig (CHM)
- American Settlement Houses and Progressive Social Reform: An Encyclopedia of the American Settlement Movement by Domenica M. Barbuto (CPL)
- Settlement Houses in Chicago (CPL)
Primary
- Erie Neighborhood House Records, (CHM)
- Erie Neighborhood House Photograph Collection (CHM)
- Erie Neighborhood House Collection of Visual Materials (CHM)
- Neighbors: Stories of Neighborhood House Work in a Great City by Florence H. Towne (CPL)
- West Town Community Collection (CPL)
- Chicago Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers Collection (UIC)