Twenty Years at Hull House

The social clubs at Hull-House were valuable from various perspectives: “as an instrument of companionship through which many may be led from a sense of isolation to one of civic responsibility,” as a provider of “recreational facilities for those who have had only meaningless excitements,” or as an opener of “new vistas of life to those who are ambitious” (253). The Hull-House residents were impressed by many of the young immigrant men’s desire for self-improvement through study and debate. An early debating club decided to expel three girls, who then complained to their friends in the Hull-House Men’s Club. Despite reconciliation efforts, the quarrel led this promising debate club, of 20 young men and 17 young women, to leave the Hull-House premises for meetings in a rented hall. Addams notes that the discussion she had with this group was “one of those moments of illumination which life in a Settlement so often affords” (240). They pointed out to Addams that she could afford to be generous in associating with the so-called “tough” members of the Men’s Club, but they were aspiring immigrants and had to carefully protect their reputations. One ambitious young man eventually became employed at a Chicago newspaper.