The Worn Doorstep

In February 1990,to celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of Northwestern University Settlement Association, a history committee was established by the Board of Directors.  The committee was assigned the task of locating and securing the archives of the Settlement.  The task was completed under the dedicated leadership of Mrs. Ellerth Overboe.  The committee then engaged a writer, Mark Wukas, to produce a compilation of those archival materials as an informal history of the Settlement.  The project was completed and the result, a book titled "the Worn Doorstep", first published in October 1991, can be viewed on this web site.  For further information please contact the Settlement.

The Beginnings of a Settlement Movement

Toward the end of the 19th century, a new movement for social justice emerged.  Its approach was straightforward: men and women who wanted to do something about poor social conditions went to "settle" in the worst affected areas and worked with their neighbors to improve the situation.  The "Settlement movement" was born in London, England, which at that time was the world's largest city with about 4 million inhabitants.  Large parts of the urban population experienced very poor working conditions, unemployment, bad housing, and serious health problems.  It is here, in 1873, that the 30-year old curate, Samuel Barnett, and his wife, Henrietta Rowland, came to live in St. Jude's parish, one of the poorest of the East End of London.

The Barnetts (pictured to the left) organized practical parish activities and worked to alert others to the dismal conditions in their area as Barnett became increasingly concerned with the causes of the poverty all around him.  He turned to the universities for help in meeting the larger issues of poverty.  His aim was not to attract philanthropic gifts but to attack the root causes of poverty, which Barnett saw as based in the division of society into classes. He proposed the establishment of a University Settlement in his parish so that privileged students and disadvantaged local residents could live as neighbors and improve local conditions together. 

The Universities Settlement in London was established in 1884 and named Toynbee Hall (pictured to the right) for historian Arnold Toynbee, a key supporter at Oxford University.  Early work included adult education courses and university extension lectures, children's country holidays, art exhibitions, literary and dramatic societies, assistance to Jewish immigrants, and the training of teachers and social workers.

The Settlement idea quickly spread to the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe, and in the next three decades hundreds of Settlements were established.  The basic approach of building bridges between different social classes and groups through common effort in poor neighborhoods was the same in all these centers, but the methods and contents of the work was adapted to suit the specific neighborhood.

Advocates of the Settlement movement, like Samuel Barnett and Arnold Toynbee in the UK, and Lilian Wald, Harriet Vittum, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jane Addams in the U.S., influenced the social policy arena.  Among the many achievements in changing public institutions, they promoted fair salaries for workers and improvement of poor neighborhoods, turned feminism into a social force, advocated the concept of juvenile court, brought about recognition of the child as a person with rights, and developed vast programs to integrate immigrants and promote multiculturalism.

From: C. Johnson, Strength in Community: an introduction to the history and impact of the International Settlement Movement.  International Federation of Settlements: 1995)

Resource Links:

*Dates henceforth reflect information provided by Northwestern University Settlement in annual reports filed with the Illinois Secretary of State.