Odd pieces of wood, stones, loose boards, crates, cardboard, scraps of other materials, old bricks and parts of boxes. Covering nine acres of public land, it housed a population of up to 1,200, claimed its own community government including an unofficial mayor, and enjoyed the protection of leftwing groups and sympathetic public officials here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. The Tacoma Fire Department burned down fifty small houses in May 1942 after Seattle destroyed Hooverville. We pride ourselves on being a safe website for both teachers and students. Because of the lack of government, it took a lot of work. Over its eight years of existence, the WPA put roughly 8.5 million Americans to work read more, The 1930s in the United States began with an historic low: more than 15 million Americansfully one-quarter of all wage-earning workerswere unemployed. A Hooverville near Portland, Oregon. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. I highly recommend you use this site! No two Hoovervilles were quite alike, and the camps varied in population and size. It began with the United States stock market crash of 1929, and didn't completely end until after . As people increasingly relied on credit to buy homes filled with new conveniences of the day, like refrigerators, radios, and cars, many Americans were living beyond their means. Hoovervilles were large groups of simple, makeshift houses built by people who had nowhere else to live during the Great Depression. The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. Businesses made huge profits, but average workers wages did not rise at the same rate. The Depression was blamed on President Herbert Hoover, after whom the town was named after, as coined by Charles Michelson. By the early 1940s, Roosevelts New Deal programs had turned the economy around and many of the Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. Excerpt from "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle" by Donald Francis Roy (1935) Thousands of World War I veterans, calling themselves the Bonus Army, had arrived in the nation's capital to demand early payment of a bonus they had been promised at the end of the war. Many Hoovervilles were built along rivers, proving drinking water and allowing some residents to grow vegetables. A 'Hooverville' on waterfront of Seattle, Washington, March 1933. - Definition & History, Effects & Events of the US Civil War from Various Perspectives, William Monroe Trotter: Quotes & Biography, Andrew Carnegie: Steel, Net Worth & Philanthropy, Neil Armstrong: Biography, Facts & Moon Landing, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. This download is exclusively for KidsKonnect Premium members!To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download! After negotiating with the camps mayor, the Health Department agreed to let the residents remain as long they observed minimal safety and sanitary rules. The city of Seattle tolerated the unemployed living situation and imposed loose building and sanitation rules. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. Whenever possible, Hoovervilles were built near creeks, streams, and rivers to provide a source of water. Seattle's developed into a self-sufficient and organized town-within-a-town. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. A request from the city was that women and children would not be allowed to live in the shantytown. Erected by unemployed lumberjacks on the tidal flats of the Port of Seattle, the encampment covered nine acres and grew to house up to 1,200 people. No two By the middle of 1941, Roosevelts New Deal programs had increased employment to the point that all but a few Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. The largest Hooverville, located in St. Louis, Missouri, was home to as many as 8,000 homeless people from 1930 to 1936. In April, residents of the main Hooverville were given notice to leave by May 1. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of. In his estimation, prosperity would return if people would simply help one another. [2] Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. Definition and Summary of the Shantytowns and HoovervillesSummary and definition: The Shanty Towns, known as Hoovervilles, sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941). KidsKonnect uses a secure SSL connection to encrypt your data and we only work with trusted payment processors Stripe and PayPal. Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and was a common sight before 1929. [17] Movies such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Sullivan's Travels (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.[18]. Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. Many other names were coined by Democrats based on his opinion, including Hoover blanket, flag, leather, and wagon. Bootleggers were becoming rich on the profits of illegal alcohol sales and violence was on the rise. Lessons from Hooverville still have not been learned today. Click to download the free sample version, Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the. The majority of the homeless chose to live in small towns where they could easily access free soup kitchens. Seattle, in 2009, is currently facing a recession that may be the most serious since the Depression of the 1930s, and a community similar to Hooverville has formed. Seattle police twice burned the early Hooverville, but each time residents rebuilt. To find out more, see our cookie policy. As the Depression worsened in the 1930s many looked to the federal government for assistance. Sign Me Up. Early Hooverville was burned down twice by Seattle police, but its residents continued to rebuild small houses. Including the veterans, their families, and other supporters, the crowd of protesters eventually grew to nearly 45,000 people. months[6] = "Uncover a wealth of facts and information on a variety of subjects produced by the Siteseen network. These areas were frequently on private lands, but the trespassing settlements were simply ignored as the crisis demanded. In the aftermath of that event, sometimes read more. Mark has a Ph.D in Social Science Education. Hoover Pullmans were rusted railroad boxcars used as dwellings. As the Great Depression deepened people protested and launched hunger marches. However, Hoovervilles were typically grim and unsanitary. One of the important events during his presidency was the emergence of the Shanty Town during the Great Depression. While private and corporate philanthropy provided some assistance during the early 1930s, poverty continued to increase rapidly. It is just west of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct. During the Great Depression, Hoovervilles provided shelter to many of the homeless population of America. Where were Hoovervilles situated? [2] Jesse Jackson, "The Story of Seattle's Hooverville," in Calvin F. Schmid, Social Trends in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944), 286-93. [8], One exceptional Hooverville of Seattle, Washington held a structured government and collected extensive documentation. In "The Grapes of Wrath" the camp is described as filthy, filled with hopeless, despairing residents. Letter from Housing Authority to City Council (March 4, 1941) months[4] = "Locate all of the popular, fast and interesting websites uniquely created and produced by the Siteseen network. months[0] = "Discover the vast range of useful, leisure and educational websites published by the Siteseen network. However, their request was denied by Congress and Hoover ordered them evicted. As the Great Depression worsened, so too did people's moods. months[2] = "Learning made easy with the various learning techniques and proven teaching methods used by the Siteseen network. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. As elsewhere in the country, Washington State's Communist Party helped to organize the unemployed into active political and social formations. Many of us spend a great deal of time imagining what we'd do if we had a lot of money--if we won the lottery, for example. Excerpt from "The Story of Hooverville, In Seattle" by Jesse Jackson, Mayor of Hooverville (1935) But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Most were unemployed laborers and timber workers, few of whom had held any jobs in the previous two years. The nation turned to Herbert Hoover expecting help, but he had none to give. Men, women, and children living in Hooverville either relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had permanent housing during the era. However, that didn't last long. Who Were the Democratic Presidents of the United States? By the spring of 1932, when it could have most helped ease the Depression, Americas revenue from world trade was reduced by more than half. Some Hoovervilles were dotted with vegetable gardens, and some individual shacks contained furniture a family had managed to carry away upon eviction from their former home. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. Home Facts Privacy About Blog Contact Terms. which contrasted the prosperity of the previous decade with the current crisis. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white. Writer John Steinbeck featured a family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. Hooverville housed about 10,000 veterans and their families in ramshackle shelters built from old lumber, packing boxes, and scrapped tin from a nearby junk pile. "; By the end of the decade it covered a six block area and, like Seattle's Hooverville, included a large number of little houses that residents had built out of scrap materials and steadily improved over the years. Many felt that the government had to help those who lost work in the 1930s. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. The people who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town were men, women and children, black and white, from all walks of life, who had been evicted from their homes and made homeless due to unemployment in the Great Depression. Named for President Herbert Hoover, the ramshackle settlements ranged in size and were set up across the nation. It was a highly diverse population. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. It helped me pass my exam and the test questions are very similar to the practice quizzes on Study.com. Other Hoovervilles also developed: one on the side of Beacon Hill where today I-5 passes; one in the Interbay area next to where the city used to dump its garbage; and two others along 6th Avenue in South Seattle. Click the button below to get instant access to these worksheets for use in the classroom or at a home. A Brief Look at the U.S. Department of Labor. However, the countrys 31st president, Republican Herbert Hoover, who took office in March 1929, believed that self-reliance and self-help, not government intervention, were the best means to meet citizens needs. When the government failed to provide relief, President Herbert Hoover was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, so the shantytowns that cropped up became known as Hoovervilles. WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. Beyond the waters lie two rugged mountain ranges, the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s. However, most buildings were little more than crude shelters thrown together from wooden crates, cardboard boxes, tar paper, scrap metal, and other fire-prone discarded materials. What were the rickety shacks in Hoovervilles and Shantytowns built with? At that time, President Herbert Hoover increasingly became, in the eyes of many Americans, a grim and inept leader. Probably the most famous Hooverville was the one founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, D.C., in 1932. In 1932, a new mayor was elected based on his support for the Unemployed Citizens League. Click here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. Eight different Hoovervilles were established in Seattle, Washington, with the largest one lasting from 1932 to 1941 and built on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. However, some cities banned them if they trespassed on parks or privately owned land. The government refused to pay, citing Depression-era budgetary restrictions. During the fall and winter of 1931 and 1932, unemployed workers established Seattle's "Hooverville," a shantytown named in sarcastic honor of U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), on whose beat the Great Depression began. The current "Nickelsville" is a nod to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, just as "Hooverville" was a sarcastic nod to . Central Park Hooverville with Central Park West in the Background in 1932. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); By 1932, between one and two million American people were homeless. The Seattle City Council decided to close Hooverville in May 1941, despite the increased reliance on it for shelter. months[1] = "Find information about the instructive websites produced by international publisher Siteseen Ltd. "; During the Great Depression, other Hoovervilles were built in. Most of them did not find work. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. Throughout the country, Hoovervilles, or makeshift shanties, would spring up to provide shelter wherever possible, often near water sources or the soup kitchens operated by churches and charities. Over the next several read more, Disenchantment with Prohibition had been building almost from the moment it first took effect in 1920. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize.. Facts about Shantytowns and HoovervillesThe following fact sheet contains interesting facts and information on Shantytowns and Hoovervilles. While the goal of the tariffs was to protect U.S.-made products from foreign competition, most countries retaliated by raising their tariffs on U.S. goods. This was Port of Seattle property that had been occupied by Skinner and Eddy shipyard during World War I. By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. They cut down dramatically on their purchases, but less buying meant fewer goods needed, so companies didn't need so many employees. 19. This sample is exclusively for KidsKonnect members!To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup for free (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download! 361 lessons. One-fourth of all workers were unemployed. The Hoovervilles varied in size from just a few shacks clustered together to communities of over 1000 rickety shacks covering acres of unused or public lands. In addition to his perceived disregard for the harm done by the Great Depression, Hoover was criticized for backing the controversial Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed. Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression. It was headed by the Commissioner of Health, the Superintendent of Buildings, the Chief of Police, and the Chief of the Fire Department, tasked to draft a plan on how to proceed with the elimination of Hooverville. The term Hooverville itself is a partisan political attack on Herbert Hoover, who was the President of the United States at the time. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. Thesis, University of Washington, 1935), pp.42-45. Dwellings in the Hoovervilles were little more than shacks built of discarded bricks, wood, tin, and cardboard. Protest against Hooverville evictions (October 10, 1938) St. Louis, Missouri, was the site of the largest Hooverville in America. There was no work, people were starving and the local police repeatedly burned down the camp. In 1938, Jackson wrote a short, vivid description of the community that we reproduce here. He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in normal society did not stand within the Hooverville. In 1933, it was 25%, with 1 out of every 4 people out of work. Interesting Facts About Hoovervilles During the Great Depression The Bonus Army of veterans built a large Hooverville in Washington D.C. that housed around 15,000 people. Rich on the profits of illegal alcohol sales and violence was on the rise produced by Siteseen... And was a common sight before 1929, Italian, and rivers to provide a of. 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