Jane Addams' Hull House, Chicago, IL - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Jane Addams first appeared on a US postage stamp in 1940 just five years after her death. She was the first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize (for her role as President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom). But she is mostly remembered today for establishing the settlement house called “Hull House” in Chicago.

The settlement movement began in England in response to increased poverty, especially that associated with the industrial revolution. Settlement houses were established in poverty-stricken areas where university students would “settle” and work alongside the local people assisting with savings, sports, education and other areas of culture believed to be lacking. After visiting one of these settlement houses (Toynbee Hall in London) Jane Addams returned to her native Illinois and established Hull House in a neighborhood of Chicago consisting predominately of recent Italian immigrants. Starting with a single building in 1889, Addams expanded the facility by acquiring surrounding structures so that by 1907 the complex consisted of over a dozen buildings.

The name “Hull House” derives from the owner of the original residence which became the first building of the settlement complex: wealthy real estate magnate Charles Jerald Hull. The neighborhood where Hull’s mansion was located was quite fashionable in the mid-1800s but had descended into squalor in the years following the Great Chicago Fire which destroyed everything from just across the street to Lake Michigan. In 1889 the mansion was granted to Jane Addams on a 25-year rent-free lease by Charles Hull’s niece and confidential secretary, Helen Culver, on behalf of his heirs.

Jane Addams ran Hull House and lived there until her death in 1935. The settlement complex continued in operation at this site until it was purchased by the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1963 as part of its planned circle campus location. Most of the complex was demolished to make room for the new campus but the original mansion, restored to its 1889 appearance remains in its original spot. The postal card shows the mansion as it appears today, less the surrounding buildings of the University of Illinois. It contains a museum open to the public which interprets its role during the settlement house era.

And it is, of course, haunted. Jane Addams herself reported hearing footsteps in the room where Mrs. Charles Hull had died several years earlier. Many visitors to Hull House over the years have reported seeing apparitions and hearing peculiar sounds from the upstairs rooms. It currently ranks at #3 on the list of Chicago’s most haunted places.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 1989 Denomination: 15 cents Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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