Ohio History Journal

Twenty Years at Hiram House by JUDITH A. TROLANDER Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the settlement movement reached the United States. Hull House, the most outstanding and second oldest settlement, was established in Chicago in 1889. The first social set- tlement in Cleveland to actually do settlement work as such was Hiram House, founded in 1896.1 Today, however, Hiram House has been largely forgotten, partly because George Bellamy, the founder and director through- out its existence, published very little. Fortunately, Bellamy was a com- pulsive saver of papers relating to his work. Recently, his widow presented these letters, reports, notes for speeches, and other papers dating back to 1901 to the Western Reserve Historical Society. As a result, it is now pos- sible to present a fuller and more detailed picture of the significance of Hiram House in the early years of the settlement movement. George Bellamy was born on September 29, 1872, in a small town in Michigan. He was a "descendant of the Wolcott [Oliver] who signed the Declaration of Independence and who was Secretary of the Treasury and in the Cabinet of George Washington."2 Unusual for one who worked as extensively with immigrants as he did, Bellamy was proud enough of his "old family" background to become a member of the New England Society of Cleveland and the Western Reserve and also the Society of the Descen- NOTES ON PAGE 69

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26                                OHIO HISTORY

dants of Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut.3 Bellamy's immediate family had little money, and from the day George left home, he found it necessary to earn his own living. He worked his way through Hiram College in northeastern Ohio with various selling jobs and graduated in 1896. The idea of founding a settlement, or neighborhood house in a congested area that would provide various social services to the community, was con- ceived by Bellamy while still in college. Two years before graduation, he met Graham Taylor who had just founded the Chicago Commons settlement and had written the Y.M.C.A. Handbook used by members of a club study- ing sociological questions at Hiram College. Later Bellamy was to credit Taylor with "the motivation of my life work."4 In the spring of 1896 this club voted to study the need for a social settlement in Cleveland. A quick trip to Cleveland convinced them that the need did in fact exist. In the summer Bellamy and two other members of the club moved to Cleveland to begin a settlement which they named Hiram House because the first residents were graduates of Hiram College. Four others joined them to make an initial group of seven residents, or social workers who lived in the neighborhood they were trying to help. Bellamy's financial resources during the first few years were slender. To finance the fledgling project, he solicited contributions, but the largest amount given by anyone during the first year was $75.00.5 He rented a

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HIRAM    HOUSE                                                  27 small house which provided only enough space for a nursery and the clubs, forcing him to find living space across the street. In the spring, the settle- ment was evicted from its first home because too many people were using the house and causing too much wear on it, in the opinion of the landlord. The rent had been paid, but Bellamy had fallen behind in paying salaries, including his own. In order to buy a badly needed suit, he had to take a temporary job collecting pledges for the Anti-Saloon League. By 1898, the settlement in its second location had expanded to include nine clubs, a nursery, and a kindergarten with sixty-five children enrolled.6 Also, with incorporation in 1898, the house began to receive gifts from prominent Cleveland philanthropists, led by Samuel Mather, and in 1899 ground was broken for its own building near Twenty-seventh and Orange. Bellamy was then at last able to relax secure in the knowledge that Hiram House was going to have a place where the settlement work could proceed. To Bellamy and many of his contemporaries, the key to social problems was the environment--improve the environment and social problems will be alleviated, or so they thought. Specifically, Bellamy blamed congestion in the slums for health problems, law-breaking, low morals, and truancy. In response to these and other social problems, settlements offered facilities and programs which were intended to be of a remedial nature. They also supported the rehabilitative efforts of other charities and organizations, and they became closely connected with the social gospel and progressive

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28                                               OHIO HISTORY

 

movements. However, from the beginning of the first settlement in the

world, Toynbee Hall founded by Samuel Barnett in London, the settle-

ment approach differed from that of other organizations. Early leaders of

the settlement movement, such as Stanton Coit (founder of the first settle-

ment in the United States), Jane Addams, Graham Taylor, and Robert

Woods of South End House in Boston, stressed the importance of residence

in the neighborhood to be helped. For example, Taylor talked about resi-

dents identifying themselves with the poor by actually living among them.

In return for the help which they gave, the residents would receive insights

into the lives of the poor. In fact, when Taylor began in 1894, he thought

of Chicago Commons "primarily as a 'social observatory' and 'statistical

laboratory' for his students."⁷ He added other programs as the need for

them became apparent. Bellamy attempted to put into practice as much of

this philosophy as possible.

The usual procedure in determining the needs of an area was to make a

study of some aspect of the neighborhood, such as housing, and then, armed

with the facts, seek community support through publicity in order to get

local government legislation to correct the situation. Hiram House made

such a study in 1901 on housing. At the time of the report the neighbor-

hood, bounded roughly by East Fourteenth and East Fifty-fifth Streets,

Carnegie and Broadway, was predominantly Jewish, Russian immigrants

in the majority. The survey showed that there were two types of slum

dwellings-the tenement, a large building originally divided into apart-

ments, and the small house, crowded two or more onto one lot. The latter

type was more common in Cleveland. Garbage boxes, sheds, and manure

heaps occupied the space on each lot not taken up by the small frame

houses, which were often partitioned to accommodate two or more families.

The following houses were not the worst, but only representative:

An investigation of a piece of property 37' by 140', with two three-

story buildings [revealed]: Three closets in the yard with water connec-

tions but the water don't run. Sixteen people live in the front house

and seventeen in the rear. No bath rooms. Yard is built up with sheds.

These sheds are on the fifteen per cent of the ground space not occu-

pied by the buildings. House in the rear has wooden balcony for fire

escapes. A fire trap. Heated by stoves.⁸

This report summarized the results of the first study of slum housing

made in Cleveland. It urged that new laws be passed to prevent the worst

types of slum housing and the enforcement of laws regulating housing

where they existed. The report was prepared for the Cleveland Council of

Sociology and then was presented to the mayor.

Who were the people who lived in these substandard houses? They were

mostly immigrants, first Jews, then Italians, but also Slavs, Poles, and oth-

ers from southern and eastern Europe. Their families were often large,

which meant that neighborhood schools were crowded. Poverty was the

rule. In many cases, family ties were loose, reflecting an estrangement be-

tween the foreign-born parents and their American-born children.⁹ Street

gangs flourished. Deserted wives or widows struggling to support them-

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HIRAM HOUSE                                                     29

 

selves and their children on sweat shop wages were common. Income for

some families was as low as $2.00 to $3.00 per week.

One such woman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who lived in a one-

room apartment on highly congested Cherry Alley. She regularly left her

three children at the Hiram House day nursery for five cents per day per

child. She then went to a factory and carried home "heavy loads of boys'

suits . . . and then returned them to the factory when the labor on them

had been finished. She toiled all day sewing buttons on the suits, being

paid one cent for each suit she completed."¹⁰ Such people were typical of

Hiram House's neighbors.

Another of the settlement's efforts to improve the neighborhood environ-

ment focused on the dance halls. Bellamy revealed his methods in the fol-

lowing candid letter to another reformer in West Virginia:

We made an investigation of the dance halls .... We kept it quiet

from the papers or any one else, employed a woman, paying $100.00

per month, furnished escorts to her, and she made a thorough study of

the dance hall situation. We called in the mayor, two or three good

councilmen, and a few men whom we could trust, and read the report

and said it had been kept absolutely quiet, and if they would go ahead

and put the ordinance, which we had already drafted, through the

council, we would let them get the credit of the good work done. Then

we secured the appointment of an excellent man to put into execution

the requirements of the ordinance. That is the best way to go after

these things.11

The resulting ordinance was passed in 1911 and established an inspection

system which was designed to improve the moral tone of the halls. Dance

hall inspectors had the authority to censor "all freak or immodest danc-

ing," eliminate "objectionable advertising," maintain order, and prohibit

children under eighteen from the premises unless "properly chaperoned."

Although this ordinance dealt only indirectly with the selling of liquor, a

1913 state law prohibited "temporary bars in the same building as dance

halls."¹² By 1915, Hiram House had evidently developed some dissatisfac-

tion with the municipal inspector for he was invited to one of the neighbor-

hood's dances in order to "show him how a dance should be run."¹³ The

settlement recognized that the mere passage of an ordinance did not al-

ways produce sufficient and lasting change, and so Hiram House kept a

vigilant eye on the enforcement of this regulation in the years that followed.

In 1912, with reformer Newton D. Baker as mayor, Bellamy was active

in politics as chairman of the campaign committee for the Municipal Play-

ground Bond Issue. The committee sought $1,000,000. The issue failed to

pass that year, but in 1913 Bellamy again sought to place the bond issue

on the ballot. This time Mayor Baker opposed the move, saying that he

doubted the issue would pass although he favored more money for play-

grounds.14 At the same time, Baker was trying to get Bellamy to accept

the post of commissioner of recreation. Bellamy hesitated, but nine months

later took the job on a temporary basis for the following public-spirited

reasons:

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30                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

The Department of Public Recreation seems to be in a bad way and

the Council refused to appropriate any money to carry it on, for they

want McGinty, an ex-pugilist and saloonkeeper to be appointed Direc-

tor of Recreation. In order to save the day until the Mayor comes back,

I accepted the temporary appointment and have already appointed

playground directors so that our playgrounds will start on June 29th.

In the meantime . . . there will be quite a fight on and I rather antici-

pate considerable enjoyment from it, although it is going to mean a

great deal of extra effort.15

Although obviously interested in the recreation position, Bellamy was

forced to be practical about money matters and did not stay in the public

recreation department. Francis F. Prentiss, chairman of the Hiram House

board, had recognized his financial need. When Bellamy had been offered

the job of secretary of the Playground Association in 1910, Prentiss held

out the possibility of a salary increase and mentioned picking up the deficit

on Bellamy's farm if he would not leave the settlement.¹⁶ By the depres-

sion years Bellamy's salary reached $7500 plus "other benefits"--Samuel

Mather and others also paid for the college education of his daughters.

Even so, Bellamy probably made less money than if he had gone into busi-

ness with his ability as a salesman and fund raiser.17

The settlement's efforts on behalf of playgrounds, housing, and recrea-

tion helped to produce some constructive results. A survey of the neighbor-

hood in 1899 showed that it lacked playgrounds, public gyms, parks, and

was deficient in school facilities. But by 1912, through its cooperation on

civic committees and by means of other activities, Hiram House had the

right to claim partial credit for the following results:

Better housing laws, the establishment of public baths, the improve-

ment of school conditions, the establishment of Juvenile Court, the se-

curing of a dance hall ordinance, the reduction of hours of labor for

women and children in factories, the extension of the school age of

children, and the establishment of better public recreation.¹⁸

Also, Hiram House preceded the Board of Education in the introduction

to Cleveland of new types of education.¹⁹ While the public schools hesi-

tated, the settlement made available a kindergarten, domestic education,

and manual training classes. The kindergarten and nursery were among

its first activities. In 1900 there were estimated to be 2500 children in the

neighborhood under six. The House secured a teacher trained at Graham

Taylor's Institute in Chicago, a school which emphasized the theories of

Pestalozzi and Froebel. By 1912, the public schools had established their

own kindergartens, but since they could not accommodate all the children,

Hiram House still temporarily donated space for this purpose while the

school board paid the teachers' salaries and furnished supplies.

Sewing and cooking classes began at Hiram House in 1898. In the early

1900's, one of the houses adjacent to the settlement was bought and con-

verted into a "model cottage," where classes were conducted in a realistic

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HIRAM    HOUSE                                                  31

 

home setting. Throughout the first twenty years, Hiram House continued

to offer domestic education courses of this type.

In 1901, the manual training department was organized. Using the do-

nated presses, the students printed all Hiram House publications, plus

tickets, stationery, and other items. Printing proved to be the most popular

subject offered. Other classes during this period were given in bookkeep-

ing, stenography, mechanical drawing, carpentry, metal work, telegraphy,

and machine shop. Thus Hiram House partially filled the gap until voca-

tional education was adopted by the public schools.

Less successful than manual training and domestic education were the

adult education classes in academic subjects. In 1898, Hiram House offered

twenty different classes in such subjects as general history, Latin, Greek,

French, English literature, and arithmetic. Enrollment was small. For ex-

ample, only two boys chose to study Greek. There were, however, three

students qualified to enter college by 1900. The main problem was the

fact that its volunteer teachers did not always appear to teach their classes.

The program may have been too ambitious for the young settlement. What-

ever the reason for failure, Hiram House switched from academic to manual

training classes in 1901.

Some of the early adult education classes were in English for immigrants,

and these were not discontinued. It was in connection with this activity

that Hiram House had a hand in the success story of Manuel Levine. Levine

was a sixteen year old Russian-Jewish immigrant who arrived at Hiram

House early in 1897. He wanted to learn English so George Bellamy found

a tutor who worked with him three mornings a week without charge. In

the fall of 1897, the director helped the young man get into the Western

Reserve University Law School. He almost "flunked out" during his first

year because of his language problem, but in three years he graduated

among the top students in his class. In 1899, Levine joined the Hiram

Social Reform Club to which he belonged until his death in 1939. Bellamy

claimed, "Levine often attributed much of his educational and debating

ability to his experiences in this club."²⁰ Levine also organized citizenship

classes at Hiram House and spent his Saturday nights teaching immigrants.

He was appointed judge on the Police Court in 1908 and worked to stop

the unethical practices in which lawyers often took advantage of immi-

grants. He went on to help establish the Municiple Court of Cleveland, the

first conciliation court in America, and introduced the probation system

in Common Pleas Court. He was appointed a judge of the District Court

of Appeals in 1922 and became its chief justice in 1932. In addition to this

distinguished legal career, Newton D. Baker referred to Levine as "The

Father of the Cleveland Immigration Bureau."²¹ Although Levine's was

the outstanding success story of Hiram House, there were others who made

considerable progress after they left the settlement. Some early members

of the Webster Debating Club attended the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, Case School of Applied Science, Western Reserve University

Medical School, Cleveland Pharmaceutical School, and two law schools.²²

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32                                                 OHIO HISTORY The Cleveland Immigration Bureau, mentioned in connection with Le- vine, was supported also by George Bellamy. The Bureau was established in 1913 with three aims: to meet immigrants on arrival, to get immigrants out of difficulty with the law, if necessary, and to further their Americani- zation. To accomplish the third objective, the Bureau organized a course to train teachers as instructors in English for immigrants. Through its ef- forts, over 30,000 immigrants attended English classes and over 4,000 en- rolled in citizenship classes at Hiram House as well as other cooperating settlement houses in Cleveland.

A unique feature of the settlement approach was the principle of social interaction. It was the hope that some of the problems of the people would be alleviated by this means, with the settlement house providing the com- mon meeting place. The first club providing such interaction at Hiram House was the Buckeye Literary and Debating Club, dating back to the summer of 1896. It was composed of Russian-Jewish boys. The Social Re- form Club, which Manuel Levine praised, grew out of this club. The group discussed current topics and invited such prominent Clevelanders to speak as President Thwing of Western Reserve University and Mayor Tom L.

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HIRAM    HOUSE                                                  33

 

Johnson. The original members were students who, as the years passed,

continued to meet as adults. Many early settlements had clubs such as this

one.

Not all the groups were intellectually oriented. Girls' clubs were organ-

ized around such activities as music, dramatics, basket-weaving, doll-dress-

ing, and dancing. Boys' clubs often emphasized athletics. Both the Camp

Fire Girls and the Boy Scouts met at Hiram House. There were also sev-

eral bands and choruses and arts and crafts clubs, as well as purely social

clubs. Some of the social activities were not organized functions. In the

early days, neighborhood receptions were held often and were continued

later on special occasions. Thursday nights in the summer a band concert

was scheduled on the playground. Programs featuring stereopticon lectures

and later moving pictures were also given. The game room and gymnasium

provided further facilities in a neighborhood starved for wholesome public

recreation. To acquaint people with all its activities, Hiram House Life

was published bi-monthly beginning about 1900. The Hiram House Echo,

which was started to help club members keep in touch with each other,

appeared in 1910.

Of its many activities, the workers at Hiram House were proudest of the

playground program. The play area was the gift of Mrs. Samuel Mather

and was installed after the permanent building was constructed in 1900.

This was the first playground to be lighted at night and was cited years

later "as the best programed play space in the land.^"23 Very early Bellamy

discovered that the children needed adult supervision, and he was among

the first to develop the job of playground director.

About 1906, he began the Progress City program which eventually re-

ceived national recognition.²⁴ The children were organized into a govern-

ment similar to Cleveland's, with a mayor, city judge, and other officials.

Each child had a job, such as clean-up worker (Sanitation Department),

for which he received play money which was then put into the Progress

City Bank. At the end of the summer, a store such as Halle's would donate

goods that the children could purchase with their play money. The children

went so far as to imitate government corruption. Occasionally mayors stole,

judges were bribed, and bankers embezzled. The children, however, "im-

peached and punished the offenders . . . with such a vengeance" that Pro-

gress City was considered an excellent learning experience.²⁵ Bellamy's

commitment to the value of recreation is further revealed in his only

published writings--one article urging that playgrounds be open in the

evening and the other promoting wholesome recreation as is a builder of

character and preserver of morals.²⁶

The "neighborhood visitor" is a key figure in the early settlement move-

ment, and this person performed many of the functions of the present day

caseworker. Before 1907, neighborhood visiting was the responsibility of

all the workers at Hiram House. With the addition of Margaret Mitchell

to the staff in 1908 neighborhood visiting received special emphasis.²⁷ Miss

Mitchell found herself doing a variety of things, from finding work for

the unemployed to settling marital squabbles. When social agencies called

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34                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

to ask the settlement to look after a neighbor, the job was usually delegated

to her. She also got referrals from Juvenile Court. Consequently, she be-

came closely acquainted with many people in the neighborhood. Her re-

ports present a vivid picture of their personal problems. This family was

one such case:

The family is Hungarian, there are three little children, the father

is a sober, hardworking machinist and the mother is a drunkard. As

soon as the husband leaves for work, she sends ten-year-old Arthur or

seven-year-old Annie for beer or whiskey. When they return, she loses

no time in getting drunk. Then the baby may lie neglected for hours,

the children go dirty and hungry . . . If she could not get her drink

at home, she had friends who would gladly treat and she would

often go away in the morning and be gone all day. [The children were

left in charge of the house, and unsupervised, they were also starting

to drink.] The mother was sent to the State Hospital, but at the end of

three weeks, in despair because there was no housekeeper at home and

in hopes that his wife would keep the promises she made, the husband

brought her home and in a few days the situation was as bad as ever.

Threats were made, but these did no good, except to make the mother

more cunning .... We decided that patient work was the only thing

that might do any good. For some time, I called at the home almost

every day and tried to encourage the mother to a better performance

of home duties--letting her know, too, that we were keeping a watchful

eye on her. Tile home conditions seemed to be improving and the hus-

band said his wife was doing better, but I have not seen the family

since New Years, so I can not tell how long she held out.²⁸

This case shows the frustration and inconclusive results that Margaret Mit-

chell faced in much of her work.

Another knotty problem that Miss Mitchell encountered was that of the

neighborhood gang. There were a number of such groups made up of boys

whose parents had little interest in or control over them. One rowdy gang

lived independently of their families in a shanty they had constructed be-

tween the blast furnaces and tile railway. They supported themselves by

stealing. The youngest member was six. A great deal of work was spent

drawing it into Hiram House; but mainly due to the efforts of Margaret

Mitchell, the settlement succeeded.²⁹

More representative than this group was "Joe the Robber's Gang" which

had long caused a great deal of trouble in the neighborhood, including the

Hiram House playground. They would enter the playground at one end,

start a series of fights and break up games in progress, and be out the other

end before they could be caught. After much work on the part of Miss

Mitchell, the gang was persuaded to come to Hiram House and form a

club. The boys, of course, elected Joe president, but Margaret was elected

treasurer, not out of gratitude, but "because the boys said she would not

shoot craps with the money." The club also elected two sergeants-at-arms

"to literally 'bat' the members into some semblance of order." In one in-

stance trouble followed in the gym as a result of a game between some

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HIRAM    HOUSE                                                  35 Jewish boys and this Italian gang. The gang threatened a fight outside the building, a knife was flashed, and the police were called; but no fight ensued before the police arrived. After four months of working with the group, including two months as a club, the boys' behavior improved. They fol- lowed the rules in the gym, did not threaten other boys, and occasionally mixed with them. The boys reduced their gambling; and Joe said he had cut his smoking down to one cigarette a day and was playing "hooky" less. Here, the success of Hiram House was more definite. Before coming into contact with the House, the gang had been largely independent of adult supervision. The settlement, however, changed that and the boys' energy was then channeled more constructively. In cases such as this, it was Mar- garet Mitchell's main job to go out into the neighborhood and make the initial contacts. Thus, on the neighborhood visitor fell some of the toughest and most challenging assignments.30 During its first twenty years Hiram House was supported in a variety of ways, reflecting a general transition relative  to the collection and spending of private donations to public charities. In the beginning, the settlement relied on private contributions to pay expenses; all funds were personally solicited by George Bellamy or his associates and the contributors were personally acquainted with the House. At the end of this period, organized philanthropy became prevalent, and at a later date an all-powerful Welfare Federation with its United Appeal was formed. As has been mentioned, George Bellamy was a master at the art of fund- raising. He once remarked to Francis F. Prentiss, "As a boy, our church

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36                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

always used to get me to sell tickets."³1 By 1899, Bellamy had gone from

selling church tickets to soliciting large sums of money from Samuel Mather

and John D. Rockefeller. The list of contributors to Hiram House soon

read like a "Who's Who in Cleveland." The major figure who supported

the settlement with his philanthropy was Francis F. Prentiss. He was also

chairman of the board during the last ten years of this period under study.

A busy man, Prentiss was president and general manager of the Cleveland

Twist Drill Company, president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce

in 1906, and a director of the Cleveland Life Insurance Company. During

his lifetime, he headed numerous civic and philanthropic enterprises. In

addition, he was a trustee of both Western Reserve University and Case

School of Applied Science, president of the Cleveland School of Art, and

vice-president of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Prentiss seemed

to derive satisfaction from both donating and soliciting funds for Hiram

House. He made a substantial contribution each year while helping Bellamy

get more money from others. In addition to money, Prentiss made a Christ-

mas gift of 400 to 700 or more pounds of candy to the neighbors of the

settlement. This gift became an annual custom extending from 1906 to

1931, when Mrs. Prentiss, the former Elizabeth S. Severance, had to un-

happily inform Bellamy that she could no longer afford to keep it up.

As a recipient of many requests for donations and an associate of other

contributors of large amounts, Prentiss knew from first hand experience

what it was like to be asked for money. Through him Bellamy became

even more aware of the fine techniques of fund-raising. For example, in

1912, he very much wanted W. S. Tyler, head of the Cleveland Wire Works,

to name Hiram House as a beneficiary in his will. Before typing a letter

to Tyler with this request, Bellamy consulted Prentiss, who replied:

With reference to bequests, I think a printed circular letter to con-

tributors would be better than a typewritten one. My reason for this

is than none will feel they were singled out for special consideration:

for instance, if you should send a typewritten letter to Mr. Tyler he

might feel you were anticipating too rapidly, and be offended, and the

same true of others.³²

In 1913, fifty-three charities in Cleveland organized the Federation for

Charity and Philanthropy, "the first of the larger existing Federations" in

the United States.³³ Its purpose was to pool all fund raising efforts for cur-

rent expenses into one big drive, the Community Chest. When a charity

joined the Federation, it agreed not to solicit funds on its own from Feder-

ation subscribers to meet current expenses. Furthermore, before soliciting

money for other needs, Federation charities were expected to get permission

from the Federation board. Thus belonging to the Federation meant a con-

siderable loss of independence on the part of the individual charity. Before

formation of the Federation, the boards of directors for each charity ap-

proved the programs of that charity. Since the directors were usually the

major contributors, they had a great deal of control over how their money

was spent under the old system but little under the Federation. To a char-

ity like Hiram House which had much success in raising funds the advant-

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HIRAM HOUSE                                                   37

 

ages of the organization were questionable. Samuel Mather stated the case

against the Federation when he wrote to George Bellamy in 1910:

I told them [the Federation officials] frankly that I had been unable

so far to come to a conviction that things would be better to have all

charitable gifts made in a lump sum to the committee and distributed

by them to the various charities of the city. I felt that it would destroy

far too much the interest felt by the giver in the various charities of the

city, which depended much on the information and interest he receives

through personal contact with those in control of the institutions. I

presume it [the Federation] would result in an economy of time and

money but at the expense it seems to me, of a vital interest and con-

nection, both to the giver and the worker.³⁴

An institution, nevertheless, would appear selfish if it stayed out so Hiram

House relunctantly joined the Federation. With the exception of John D.

Rockefeller, the early contributors were actively interested in the settle-

ment and played a more important role in its work before the Federation

assumed control of the budget. Many had supported it out of a sense of

generosity and civic duty, and Hiram House owed its continued existence

to these men.

Only the first twenty years of Hiram House are discussed here, a time span

chosen because these years appeared to be the ones in which its work was

most significant as well as representative of the settlement movement. At the

end of this period, the buildings on the blocks across the street from the

settlement were demolished to make way for a railroad. As a result, the

House lost almost one-half of its neighborhood but remained active in this

location until the 1930's. From then until 1947, its programs were carried

on in various school buildings. In 1947, when Bellamy retired, the Federa-

tion voted to discontinue financing the settlement but to continue its sup-

port of Hiram House Camp, acquired as part of the settlement in 1903. The

Camp, located near Chagrin Falls, is all that is left at the present time. The

land on which Hiram House was located is now covered by a freeway; and

what remained of the old neighborhood has been leveled, with one or two

exceptions, under the St. Vincent Urban Renewal Project.

With so few physical reminders of the past left, the question remains

what, if anything, was significant about Hiram House. The only unique

contributions made by the House were in connection with its playground,

but its human contacts were many and varied. The settlement compensated

for the school board's hesitancy to provide kindergarten, cooking, and man-

ual training classes. It helped the immigrant to adjust to a new environ-

ment; it tried to improve that environment by serving as a force for reform

during the progressive era. The "neighborhood visitor" was one of the fore-

runners of today's caseworker. In summary, even though Hiram House was

not a major innovator or leader among settlements on the national scene,

its significance lies, instead, in the fact that it participated fully and actively

in most aspects of the early settlement movement and thereby attempted to

meet the needs of its neighborhood.

THE AUTHOR: Judith A. Trolander is

a doctoral candidate at Case Western Re-

serve University.

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