Jane Addams Hull House

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later in life, she became a graceful attractive woman after her spinal difficulty was remedied by surgery.
Addams was graduated from the Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, and was valedictorian of a class of seventeen; however, she was granted her bachelor’s degree only after the school became accredited the next year as Rockford College for women (Linn 1938, p. 28). In the course of the next six years Addams began the study of medicine but left it because of her fathers poor health. After her father’s death, the year after her graduation Addams was left “financially independent”, and she traveled to Europe twice. On the second sojourn there, she visited Toynbee Hall, one of the world’s first settlement house (Linn 1938, p 42). Addams was very inspired by the Toynbee Hall, and vowed to establish a similar house in Chicago upon her return.
Ideas of a Settlement House
In Twenty Years at Hull House, Jane describes her first experience in East London and the overwhelming poverty, which was inflicted upon this city (Sidel 1998, p 59). The city seemed to make more of an impact on her than any other city that she visited in Europe. Addams mentions the attraction she had to “poverty-stricken cites” (Sidel 1998, p 61) and seems to condemn herself for referring back to literature to explain the extreme poverty to which she had been exposed.
Reflecting back on her education Addams began to fill that woman, through education, had lost a sense of empathy (Sidel 1998, p 68). This means that women were so protected; they were not given the opportunity to turn down devastation. Although she does not know exactly when she formed the idea of a settlement house, Addams had previously thought about renting a house in the city where young women could learn more life skills and practice ideas they had (Sidel 1998, p 72).
Sidel Said, “The first time Jane remembers mentioning her creation was in April of 1888 in Madri...