settlement houses

Cultural  

1. Social and cultural centers established by reformers in slum areas of American cities during the 1890s and the early 1900s. Jane Addams founded the most famous settlement house, in Chicago. (See Progressive movement.)

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Settlement houses attracted idealistic college graduates eager to learn how the poor lived and to improve the condition of the poor.

Example Sentences

Securities settlement houses in the EU will not be allowed to serve Russian counterparties.

From Reuters

Syracuse professor Lasch-Quinn, author of “Black Neighbors: Race and the Limits of Reform in the American Settlement House Movement, 1890-1945,” said that some White settlement houses closed rather than integrate.

From Washington Post

While some settlement houses were connected with religions, Friendship House was nondenominational.

From Washington Post

The Junior League was founded in 1901 by a debutante who recruited fellow young women to travel to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to volunteer at settlement houses.

From Washington Post

Henry Street, created in response to a growing immigrant population living in squalid conditions, was one of New York’s first settlement houses.

From New York Times