Today we will be learning more about Jane’s life at Hull-House. If you missed last week’s post about Jane, I would recommend reading that first. (Please note that this post contains affiliate links.)
Two of the first things Jane learned at Hull House was flexibility and compromise. She quickly realized that people don’t like too much change and everyone has there limits. She was to be reminded of this many times over the years. One of the first times she learned this lesson was after the Hull House residents tried to open up a coffee-house/diner. They were trying to introduce into the neighborhood a healthier and more balanced diet. What they didn’t count own however was the varying tastes in the neighborhood. One day a woman told them their food was certainly nutritious, but she didn’t like to eat nutritious and she liked to eat “what she’d ruther.” Jane realized people often liked unhealthy but tasty foods over healthy foods. Eventually the neighborhood did come around to some of these new ideas, and the residents learned an important lesson on adaptability. Jane said: “The experience of the coffee-house taught us not to hold to preconceived ideas of what the neighborhood ought to have, but to keep ourselves in readiness to modify and adapt our undertakings as we discovered those things which the neighborhood was ready to accept.”
Another early project at Hull House was the Jane Club. One day a meeting of working girls who were taking part in a strike was held at Hull House. Throughout the meeting it became clear that the girls who had to pay board were the most frightened and therefore would cave in. They obviously didn’t want to be thrown out of their apartments if they fell to far behind on payments. They couldn’t afford to strike. Eventually one of the ladies exclaimed “Wouldn’t it be fine if we had a boarding club of our own, and then we could stand by each other in a time like this?” And thus the Jane Club was born! After lots of discussion, two apartments near Hull House were rented and furnished. The settlement contributed the furniture and the first month’s rent, but after that the members of the club were responsible for managing the club themselves. By the time three years had passed the Jane Club occupied all six apartments in the building, and had fifty members.
A kindergarten was also started early on. Within three weeks there were twenty-four kids enrolled and seventy more on a waiting list. A daycare was added soon after. Clubs and other activities also popped up quickly, including a club for boys, cooking, and sewing lessons. One of the things they did in the Boys’ Club was read a book about heroes. One day a member of the Boys’ Club ran out during a meeting. Upon questioning he explained: “There is no use coming here anymore, Prince Roland is dead.” His favorite character in the book they had been reading had died.
Jane felt strongly that books and the arts were part of the key to success. The first building built for Hull-House activities contained an art gallery. In 1893 a music school was opened. A theater was opened so people from the neighborhood could watch concerts and professional theatre, and put on shows of their own. Classes were taught on all kinds of art and there were numerous book clubs. Jane’s theory proved to be true. One day she was catching up with a successful young man, who in his youth could often be found in the Hull-House library. She asked the young man “what special thing Hull-House had meant to him?” He responded: “It was the first house I had ever been in where books and magazines just lay around as if there were plenty of them in the world. Don’t you remember how much I used to read at that little round table at the back of the library? To have people regard reading as a reasonable occupation changed the whole aspect of life to me and I began to have confidence in what I could do.
The end…for now. Next week will be part three of Jane’s story and we will be looking into her personal life a bit more. I highly recommend you read Jane’s book: Twenty Years at Hull-House. I got all of my quotes of Jane’s from this book and there is so many more I would have loved to share, they just wouldn’t fit in the post anywhere. See you next week!
