Hull House

Hull House is a settlement house complex in Chicago’s Near West Side, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr and long associated with social reform in the United States.

The site contains museum spaces with restored rooms, period furnishings and exhibits on settlement work and progressive-era social policy. Visitors can view domestic interiors, displays about outreach programs and interpretive material on the reformers who worked there.

Established in 1889 to serve recent immigrants, the settlement expanded from a single rowhouse into a cluster of buildings offering daycare, art classes, legal aid and other services. Over the 20th century the complex changed ownership and use and portions are now preserved and interpreted by the University of Illinois Chicago.

Located on Chicago’s Near West Side, just west of the Loop and adjacent to the University of Illinois Chicago campus, the complex sits in a historically working-class, immigrant neighborhood.

• Founding: Created in 1889 by reformers Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to provide social, educational and artistic programs for immigrant communities.
• Historic status: Designated a National Historic Landmark and today interpreted by the University of Illinois Chicago.

What to See #

• Hull-House complex: Occupies several adjacent late-19th and early-20th century buildings on Chicago's Near West Side that grew into a settlement campus; includes restored domestic interiors and spaces used for community programs.
• Jane Addams Hull-House Museum: A museum within the complex presenting restored rooms, period furnishings and exhibits on the settlement movement and progressive-era social reform.