1890s
In January of 1891, the President of Northwestern University, Henry Rogers, his wife Emma, and two faculty members founded the Settlement Association.  They planned to use the University Settlement model, developed by Toynbee Hall in London (1884), "to elevate the neglected area of West Town/Humboldt Park".  The first location was above a feed store on Division Street and they quickly added an adjacent storefront building, which they named Evanston Hall.  In 1894 a free medical dispensary and legal aid clinic was established under the leadership of Northwestern University professors.  In 1895, the Settlement relocated to 252 Chicago Avenue, pictured to the left, and in 1897 the Settlement staff lead the effort to open an outdoor playground on property loaned to them by Northwestern Railroad and later was named Eckart Park.  That same year, a day nursery was established to care for children of working mothers, a vacation camp for working girls was started in Wisconsin, and the Settlement began to distribute pasteurized milk for babies.

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1900s
The Settlement House formally opened its doors of its new building at 1400 W. Augusta Boulevard, in 1901.  The building was made possible through the generous gifts of Hugh and Milton Wilson.  Milton Wilson was a Trustee of Northwestern University and arranged to have the University become trustee of the building fund and property.  The Settlement was organized around a Guild System in which representatives of each adult club and department would meet monthly to give direction to programs.  During the decade, the Settlement set about working for improved housing and sanitation, adult education and recreation opportunities for all ages in the community.  One of the first Boy Scout Troops in the nation was formed at the Settlement House.  In 1907, Miss Harriet Elizabeth Vittum became the Head Resident after a series of university related people lead the initial development.  The "Fresh Air Station" was created in 1908, which was a day hospital for infants and children.  Tents were erected on the roof and front yard of the House in which volunteer physicians provided treatment to the children.  This effort helped alleviate parent's fear of doctors and hospitals, and lead to the development of children's hospitals in Chicago.

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1910s
In 1910, the first supporting board of the Northwestern University Settlement, The Evanston Board, was formed.  In the same year, House In The Wood camp found its first permanent home on forest preserve property - one building to accommodate ten boys.  Camp was seen as a valuable place to work with children away from the city and its related influences.  A gym was added to the House along the alley.  In 1912 a school of music was established under the direction of Peter C. Lutkin, the Dean of the Northwestern University School of Music.  Between 1917-1918, the Settlement House was the headquarters for the Selective Service Board, Liberty Bond Drives and Red Cross work.  During these years a full crisis intervention program was available to the community, providing food and all manner of assistance for emergencies.  The years before and during WWI saw the Settlement and especially Harriet Vittum take an active role in politics.  Miss Vittum worked for the women's suffrage movement and joined the Progressive Party, later working for many Republican candidates.  Six years before women had the right to vote, Vittum ran for alderman and Cook County Commissioner.  Miss Vittum also was appointed by the governor to a race relation's board to calm tension and prevent further bloodshed after the race riot of 1919.

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1920s
The Settlement House assisted returning veterans as well as families needing emergency aid due to unemployment and evictions resulting from the recession.  In 1923, the Winnetka Board was formed.  During this period the Settlement became very involved with performing arts.  Drama clubs were created to teach English and elocution.  The clubs also were a way to share cultures, sharing folklore and folk festivals of all countries.  Dance programs were seen as a way to teach poise, gracefulness and coordination, as well as to provide social gatherings in the community.  Vittum wrote that she wished the Settlement could acquire Walsh's Hall next door so that she could expand the performing arts programs and finally get more space for the crowded House.  The Settlement led efforts to combat the problems of alcoholism and prostitution, which were serious problems throughout the community.  Preschool and Kindergarten programs were set up to promote education.   In 1927, the Camp was relocated after the road near the original site was widened and cut into the program area.  The Forest Preserve District of Cook County offered the Settlement approximately five hundred acres on the Des Plaines River at Milwaukee Avenue and River Road (Presently the River Trails Nature Center and Forest Preserve).  Settlement community members refurbished the abandoned buildings on the property and the new camp opened that spring.  Children collected wild flowers at camp and sold them on the streets of Chicago as a method to raise money for camp.  In 1929, the Highland Park Board was formed.

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1930s
In 1930, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Smith purchased a building on the present site of the Peabody School playground and gave it to the Settlement as a new performance center called the Guild Playhouse.  Thousands of performances took place in what was once a synagogue and then a Baptist Church.  The stage was built over the baptismal font and the original pews provided seating for 200.  This decade saw the formation of the Oak Park-River Forest Board, the Junior Service League and the Business and Professional Women's Board.  During the Depression, the Settlement increased its services to the unemployed and homeless.  Many hundreds of people were provided with emergency overnight lodging, clothing and food at the Settlement House.  Large scale drives were conducted to collect and distribute candles for neighbors and the Settlement would also share its allocation of heating coal with families who had ill children.  The "sandwich program" was established with suburban school children bringing an extra sandwich to school, which was sent to the Settlement for distribution to neighbors and to area schools for free lunches.  The House was open during this period seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to assist with the needed emergency relief.  Hundreds of unemployed men in the community volunteered to rebuild the entire House In the Wood Camp.  In 1937, the North Shore Junior Board was formed to assist the Settlement in its work and to support the resident camp program.

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1940s
In 1941, The Settlement had grown from three resident staff to 20, and its annual budget had risen from $1,500 to $41,000.  The Settlement House resumed its wartime services for the communitythroughout World War II.  The Settlement encouraged the

purchase of stamps and war bonds.  Staff taught first aid classes and ran programs teaching area young girls to sew service flags.  The Settlement sent copies of "The Neighbor" to area young soldiers stationed around the world and organized extensive letter writing campaigns to military personnel.  When more than one thousand men returned to the community after the war, the Settlement House assisted them in obtaining employment and readjusting to civilian life.  In 1947, Harriet Vittum retired after 43 years of service, and Mr. Michael Rachwalski became the next Head Resident of the Settlement.  Chicago Mayor, Martin Kennelly, referred to Miss Vittum as "Chicago's grand old lady" at her retirement dinner.  This was also the year that the Guild Playhouse burned to the ground.  Between 1949 and 1950, a Business Men's Century Club and a North Shore Women's Associate Board were formed to support the Settlement House.

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1950s
The Settlement staff directed their attention to assisting displaced persons in the community, developing expanded adult education programs and initiating citizenship classes.  The Settlement's annual budget had risen to $68,000 and the board began an aggressive endowment campaign, which they saw as the key to financial security after witnessing the continuous struggle throughout the Vittum years.  In 1951, the North Shore Junior Board acquired a permanent site for the House In The Wood camp from the Baptist Children's Home in Lake Delavan, Wisconsin.  The site included two dormitories, a dining hall, a small infirmary, a guest cottage and twelve hundred feet of beach area.  The board began the long process of rebuilding the camp.  A new gym was also added to the Settlement House through a generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Allison.  A new wave of immigrants came to the community and the House again responded with English and Citizenship classes.

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1960s
At Camp, one and a half acres of additional beachfront property was purchased; a new shower house and infirmary were built.  The Harlem Globetrotters volunteered at the Settlement on a regular basis, coaching children's basketball.  The Kennedy Expressway was constructed causing enormous problems for neighborhood residents and our staff assisted with displaced families.  Infant Welfare Program provided a children's clinic and visiting nurses were based in the Settlement.  In 1965 the CHA built a senior citizen housing project for 247 residents across the street from Eckart Park and House staff assisted with welcoming the new neighbors and creating additional social programs for that age group.  A new shower house was added at camp in 1965 and a new infirmary in 1968.

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1970s
The Settlement services continued to expand to deal with problems resulting from population shifts, urban renewal, school dropouts and increasing senior citizens population in the community.  At House In The Wood, five cabins, a dining hall/kitchen building and an outdoor pavilion were added.  Mike and Helen Rachwalski in many ways symbolized the end of an era for the Settlement.  Helen died in 1977 and her wake was in Guild Hall.  Mike was the last "resident" in the House and the final Head Resident for Northwestern University Settlement Association.

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1980s
In 1981, Mr. Ron Manderschied became the Executive Director of the Settlement House.  The Settlement House continued its efforts to deal with the varied problems of poverty and education in the neighborhood.  An expanded after-school program, truancy prevention program and nursery school (later to become Head Start) program were developed.  The Matador Boxing Club with its nationally ranked boxers was sponsored by the Settlement.  In 1989, the Park Ridge Board was formed.  Northwestern University students volunteered in the Big Brother/Big Sister program with the Settlement children.  There was an emphasis on combining old Settlement traditions with more contemporary areas of programming, with new efforts going to address youth gangs and community organization.  To combat drive by shootings by gang members, Mayor Daley began a program closing streets with cul de sacs, and the first one was installed on Cortez Street adjacent to the Settlement.  House In The Wood was improved with two new cabins, a nature center, a staff retreat, complete renovation of the camp office building, and the winterizing of the majority of the facility so that it could be used year round.  In 1989, the camp was updated to allow for seminar/retreat groups to use camp as a conference center.  The entire Settlement began a process to computerize all of its family and financial records.  Substantial rehabilitation was also completed on the infrastructure of the House.

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1990s
In May of 1990, the building next door to the Settlement House at 1012 Noble Street was purchased.  For its Centennial Celebration, the Settlement Boards enthusiastically pursued a Capital Campaign to renovate the building, which was named Evanston Hall, and allowed the Settlement to expand its programs and services as well as establish a professional theater space for the performing arts.  The Evanston Hall facility also provided a new practice area for the Matador Boxing Club, a large dining room, commercial kitchen and office space.  A shared office facility was also housed in the first floor of the Office Center.  The office center offered the opportunity to house once again a legal aid clinic staffed by Northwestern University law school and volunteers.  Cook County Probation also established an office to work with clients who were neighbors in the community.  The hallways of the office center were turned into an art gallery to showcase work of Chicago area artists who could then share their work with community residents.  In 1996 the Settlement was awarded a contract to operate an AmeriCorps program, with a focus on improvement of area public schools through the integration of visual and performance arts into classrooms.  By the late 1990's, 35 people were members of AmeriCorps and devoting all their energies to improving neighborhood schools.  The Vittum Theater, with seating for 299, opened in the fall of 1998 and offered a full schedule of both professional and community theater, and served as a town hall meeting center for the neighborhood.  At long last the Guild Playhouse was replaced and the power of performance was brought back to Settlement work.  Noble Street Charter School opened its doors to its first freshman class of 127 students in August 1999.  Five classrooms and an office were built on top of the Allison Gym to accommodate the first class.  The school resulted in major renovations to both the main house and Evanston Hall, which would continue well into the year 2000.  The Settlement's annual operating budget at the end of the decade was $3,400,000 and there were 70 staff members.

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In 2000, the second phase of the Noble Street Charter School facility was completed.  The original gym (1910) was torn down and in its place a new 3-story school was constructed which would ultimately accommodate 450 high school students.  The addition also for the first time physically tied together the original House and Evanston Hall.  The project enabled the installation of a fully networked computer system throughout the entire facility enabling staff to communicate internally and externally via e-mail and the web.  In 2002, renovation of the main Settlement House third floor into classroom space was completed to meet the growing needs of the high school program.  The Vittum Theater expanded to begin providing programs to two-dozen Chicago area public schools and had an extensive network of arts partners (performance companies).  Annual attendance of theater performances and events exceeded35,000.  Refurbishment of the lower level Head Start classrooms was completed to better serve the 70+ preschoolers in the program.  This renovation also installed a fire protection sprinkler system throughout the original House.  In June of 2003 Noble Street High School had its first graduating class ofseniors.  One hundred percent of the senior class graduated and 80% were enrolled at colleges and universities.

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