poster for an exhibition of art at the University Settlement (1937) University Settlement was founded by
Stanton Coit,
Charles Bunstein Stover, and
Charles Barzillai Spahr, in 1886 as
The Neighborhood Guild, in a basement on
Forsyth Street. Historically, the settlement house, much like other settlement houses like
Hull House (in
Chicago,
Illinois) and the
Henry Street Settlement (also on the Lower East Side), served as a homes for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the United States in the late-19th and early-20th century. They provided courses for new immigrants on everything from politics to the English language to basketball. The University Settlement House also included a library, kindergarten and the first
public baths. These settlements were also loci of
Progressive Era reform. When founded, the resident workers at the University Settlement were all male and recent graduates of colleges. Several of these men were writers in addition to settlement house workers and used their writing as social protest and a means of reform. Residents between 1900 and 1907 included socialist writer
William English Walling, a founder of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People;
Pulitzer Prize-winner
Ernest Poole;
Howard Brubaker, who later became a columnist for
The New Yorker; writer
Arthur Bullard; journalist
Hamilton Holt; and author
Walter Weyl, a founding editor of
The New Republic. Their interest in reform led to several articles and books on the housing and employment situation of workers on the Lower East Side, particularly women and children. One issue that captured the imagination of many of the University Settlement writers was revolution in
Russia. Many of the immigrants they met on the Lower East Side were
Jews from the
Russian Empire who were typically severely repressed under
Nicholas II of Russia. Through their interaction with these immigrants several of the residents became vocal advocates of reform in Russia. During 1905 and 1906, Poole, Walling and Bullard traveled to Russia to cover the abortive
1905 Russian Revolution. They established contacts and helped establish a connection between radical writers in the U.S. and Russian revolutionaries. During his administration,
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt described University Settlement as "a landmark in the social history of the nation." == Legacy ==