Jane Addams And The Hull House

9 Pages 2133 Words

rubbed off on the Addams girls. Because of her stepmother’s influence, Jane entered the Rockford Female Seminary in 1877. While she was in college, Jane found that she had a talent for writing and speaking. She became popular among her classmates because of her talent for speaking boldly and writing well. After Jane’s graduation in 1881she became ill and depressed. That same year, her father suddenly died and she sought refuge in a medical school that she had applied for. But after only completing one semester, she became ill again and had to be hospitalized for an extended period of time. After she was released, she had another setback when her brother, Weber, had a mental breakdown. Jane knew she had to get away from her life in America for a while.
In 1883, Jane and her stepmother went on a two-year trip to Europe. After they returned, Jane was still searching for something to do with her life. So a couple years later, Jane and two of her friends went on a second trip to Europe. While on this trip, Jane and her friend, Ellen Gates Starr, visited Toynbee Hall in London, England. Toynbee Hall was a settlement house where students from Oxford and Cambridge would teach workingmen. Addams and Starr began to read literature on social reform because of their encounter with Toynbee Hall. When they returned to America, they began to consider the possibility of starting a settlement house in the slums of Chicago. They started to look for possible houses that they could use. Miss Helen Culver, the owner at the time, donated Charles Hull’s old mansion to them to use. This became known as “Hull House.”
Hull House is located in Chicago, Illinois at the corner of Polk and Halsted streets. When it first opened, Hull House was located be...