Origins and Aims.

In order to address the problems faced by the urban poor, many of whom were new Americans, progressive reformers organized schools and settlement houses. The idea behind settlement houses was that social reform had to begin with individuals, who needed help to overcome conditions created by circumstances that were beyond their control. To that end, reformers had to live in the neighborhoods of their clients so that they could truly understand their needs. Stanton Coit brought the settlement house idea to New York City in 1886, when he opened the Neighborhood Guild. Although the guild failed soon afterward, it inspired the College Settlement (1889), founded by graduates of the "Seven Sisters" women's colleges. Among the best known of the dozens of settlement houses founded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the Hull House in Chicago, the Henry Street...