April 21 2018:
The House That Jane Built – A Story About Jane Addams
Thomas and I were incredibly moved reading about an 1889 settlement home that Jane Addams founded in a run-down Chicago neighborhood, Hull House.
It was a place were people could find food, work, and community and included a playground, kindergarten, and a public bath. By 1907, Hull House included thirteen buildings and by the early 1920s, more than nine thousand people visited each week.
Jane Addams died in 1935 at 74. The programs at Hull House ran through 2012.
There’s much more to know about Addams; yet this book was specifically about Hull House. She spoke out against war and was a peace activist. She co-founded the Woman’s Peace Party.
The FBI kept a file on her, and she was called “the most dangerous woman in America.” In 1931, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was a founding member of the NAACP and ACLU.