Hull House workers were able to put their skills to use, something Jane had struggled to do in the years after her own college graduation. By the early 1900s, nearly seventy young women lived and worked at Hull House. In addition to helping the local community, Hull House also provided young educated women with an alternative to marriage. By the end of the 1890s, Hull House welcomed over 1,000 people each week to its many programs and services. Hull House offered recreational activities, English language classes, hygiene classes, vocational training, clubs for young men and women, social activities, an art gallery, space for political and labor organizing, job placement services, nursing services, and much more. They named it Hull House, after Charles Hull, the building’s original owner. They persuaded wealthy families across the city to donate the money needed to transform the space into a settlement house. In 1889, the two women moved into the second floor of an old mansion in a poor immigrant Chicago neighborhood. Immigrants and their children made up nearly 80 percent of the city’s population, and many of them faced the struggles of urban crowding and industrialization. Between 1860 and the 1890s, Chicago had grown from a large Western town of 100,000 to a massive modern city of one million.
Jane and Ellen returned with a new goal-to establish a settlement house in Chicago, one of the fastest growing cities in the country. The work appeared to make a difference and it reminded Jane of the missionary and social work her teachers at Rockford often promoted. Set in London’s poor East End neighborhood, Toynbee Hall offered medical services, classes, and other charitable services to the local community. While visiting London, the women discovered a settlement house called Toynbee Hall. She frequently wrote to Ellen, sharing how anxious she was about the future.Īs Jane’s health improved, Ellen proposed they travel to Europe together in 1887. Although her stepmother and siblings were grateful to have her at home, she resented her role as the spinster aunt of the family. She worried that her education was wasted, but her health was too fragile to return to school or take on work. Jane believed she was a “failure in every sense” and struggled to find a purpose. The combination of her father’s death and her failing health led to a deep depression that lasted almost six years. She left school, underwent surgery, and agreed to a regimen of bed rest. Doctors told her that a childhood spinal problem had returned. Less than a month into the school year, she became severely ill. Knowing her father supported her education, she continued with her plan to attend the Philadelphia Women’s Medical College that fall. Tragically, a few weeks after graduation, her beloved father died of a ruptured appendix while on a family vacation. Eventually, she settled on pursuing a career as a doctor. She considered traveling, continuing her education, and building a career as options after graduation. Jane believed there was a world of possibility beyond marriage. A domestic life seemed to be a waste of the knowledge and skills she gained at Rockford. For most Rockford women, post-graduate life meant marriage and family.
Their friendship would prove to be one of the most important of Jane’s life. In her first year at Rockford, she formed a friendship with fellow student Ellen Gates Starr. She fully embraced the autonomy and freedom college life afforded her. She earned excellent grades and participated in extracurricular activities such as debate team and literary society. Although Jane was not particularly interested in religion, she was drawn to the idea of doing work that served those in need. The school’s curriculum was deeply shaped by Christianity and encouraged women to pursue religious and missionary work. With her father’s encouragement, Jane enrolled at the prestigious Rockford Female Seminary at the age of 17. His commitment to social reform and women’s education significantly shaped Jane’s view of the world. Her father was a prominent businessman, banker, Civil War veteran, and Republican politician who claimed Abraham Lincoln as one of his many friends. Her mother died when she just two years old. Jane Addams was born on Septemin Cedarville, Illinois.
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