(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); By 1932, between one and two million American people were homeless. One of the most famous ways in which people migrated during the timeframe of the Great Depression was by 'riding the rails' on trains. To find out more, see our, Download the Hooverville Facts & Worksheets, Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com, Resources created by teaching professionals. Lessons from Hooverville still have not been learned today. Though Hoover later agreed that MacArthur had used excessive force, irreparable damage to his presidency and legacy had been done. "Hooverville" was a deliberately politicized label, emphasizing that President Herbert Hoover and the Republican Party were to be held responsible for the economic crisis and its miseries. Businesses made huge profits, but average workers wages did not rise at the same rate. [2] Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed. President Herbert Hoover & the Great Depression, America During the Great Depression: The Dust Bowl, Unemployment & Cultural Issues, End of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles & the League of Nations, Ku Klux Klan Nativism & Eugenics | Movement & History. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. Probably the most famous Hooverville was the one founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, D.C., in 1932. This worksheet can be edited by Premium members using the free Google Slides online software. Back to History for Kids. "; The city of Seattle tolerated the unemployed living situation and imposed loose building and sanitation rules. Brief History of Seattle. 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! One of the important events during his presidency was the emergence of the Shanty Town during the Great Depression. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. The term was coined by the publicity director of the Democratic National Committee in 1930. This website helped me pass! "; This began with a heated debate over the status and rights of Hooverville residents, which became more visible in petitions submitted throughout the late 1930s. "; The term Hooverville itself is a partisan political attack on Herbert Hoover, who was the President of the United States at the time. It became the most widespread crisis of the twentieth century, affecting several countries worldwide. Around 15,000 men joined the movement, many of whom came from far away and arrived in the area by illegally riding on railroad freight trains. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. Between 1929 and 1932, the value of world trade declined by more than half. The shanty town was so big that people established their own community government and elected a 'mayor' as their leader to settle any disputes. Hoover also received criticism for signing, in June 1930, the controversial Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which imposed a high tariff on foreign goods in an effort to prevent them from competing with U.S.-made products on the domestic market. - 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. Many were established near rivers, as the above picture shows, or ponds - it helped to have access to some water. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. Hundreds of Hoovervilles were established across the country during the 1930s. 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. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). During the Great Depression, in the 1930s, as millions of people lost their jobs and homes, shanty towns, also known as "Hoovervilles" began to sprout up across the US. succeed. Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. The state described as 'absolute poverty' has been described as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information". A structured government ran Hooverville in Seattle, Washington, and extensive documentation was collected. These communities of shacks or shanties were called Hoovervilles, after President Hoover, who refused to help the growing number of homeless. When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover ordered his Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur to drive them out. Click the button below to get instant access to these worksheets for use in the classroom or at a home. Roosevelt promised to improve the country with a "new deal for the American people." Click the image to see a larger version of the map and here to read excerpts from Roy's sociological survey.By 1934 nearly 500 self-built one-room domiciles were "scattered over the terrain in insane disorder," according to Donald Roy, a sociology graduate student who studied the community. A "Hooverville" was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. On two occasions, the Seattle Health Department ordered the residents to leave and burned their shanties when they refused. Dwellings in the Hoovervilles were little more than shacks built of discarded bricks, wood, tin, and cardboard. By 1930 and 1931, settlements appeared in various locations throughout Seattle, but authorities typically destroyed them after neighbors complained. Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills, and were able to build their houses out of stone. "; Many Hoovervilles were built along rivers, proving drinking water and allowing some residents to grow vegetables. Each Hooverville was unique. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. Hoover leather referred to cardboard or newspaper used to replace worn-out shoe soles. @media (min-width: 340px) { .adslot_1 { width: 336px; height: 280px; } } Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. It is a city built on hills and around water, in a mild marine climate that encourages prolific . There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation, he wrote of the squalled camp. During the Great Depression, other Hoovervilles were built in. All Rights Reserved. Who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town? Hooverville residents had nowhere else to go, and public sympathy, for the most part, was with them. Hoovervilles lacked the services found in typical towns. He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in normal society did not stand within the Hooverville. Homeless people were forced to live in absolute poverty in the Hoovervilles or shantytowns in the 1930s. Both his parents were dead by the time he was nine. This began with a heated debate over the status and rights of Hooverville residents, who became more visible in petitions submitted throughout the late 1930s. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The majority of the homeless chose to live in small towns where they could easily access free soup kitchens. [3] Report of the Sanitation Divison December 31, 1935 as quoted in Excerpt from the Health Department Annual Report 1935, Seattle Municipal Archives: http://www.seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/Hoover/1935ar.htm (accessed December 29, 2009), [4] Report of Shack Elimination Committee (April 14, 1941), Seattle Municipal Archives (accessed December 29, 2009), Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium. Among the hundreds of Hoovervilles across the U.S. during the 1930s were those in: Hoovervilles have often featured in popular culture, and still appear in editorial cartoons. The term was coined by Charles Michelson. The rectangular reservoir north of Belvedere Castle was taken out of service when the stock market crashed in 1929. The final decision to eliminate Hooverville was presented in a report from the Housing Authority. Some were as small as a few hundred people while others, in bigger metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C. and New York City, boasted thousands of inhabitants. 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. I feel like its a lifeline. Seattle's decision to raze Hooverville in 1941 and expel its residents relied on a discourse of "otherness" that set Hooverville economically, socially, and geographically apart. WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. KidsKonnect uses a secure SSL connection to encrypt your data and we only work with trusted payment processors Stripe and PayPal. until the land was needed for shipping facilities on the eve of World War II. The Seattle City Council decided to close Hooverville in May 1941, despite the increased reliance on it for shelter. A Hooverville near Portland, Oregon. By 1932, Hoover was so unpopular that he had no realistic hope of being re-elected, and Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York won that years presidential election in November by a landslide. 361 lessons. Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. The Great Depression was the greatest and longest economic recession of the 20th century. When Congress refused payment and the veterans refused to leave, President Hoover sent in the army under the direction of Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur; the riot scene that followed included tear gas, bayonets, and tanks, and resulted in the burning of large parts of the Bonus Army's Hooverville as well as several deaths. He wasn't a particularly warm, charismatic individual; he had won the presidency on the strength of his record and his character, but very few people would have described him as sympathetic (though by all accounts, he agonized over the suffering of the Great Depression). Facts About Hoovervilles The term Hooverville came from the blame on President Herbert Hoover for the intolerable economic and social conditions. A "Hooverville" dweller, Circleville, Ohio, c. 1938. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. Hoovervilles were hundreds of makeshift homeless encampments built near large cities across the United States during the Great Depression (1929-1933). Along with Hoovervilles, other derogatory terms aimed at President Hoovers continued refusal to initiate welfare programs became common in both the homeless camps and newspapers. His records show populations of Japanese, Mexican, Filipino, Native American, Costa Rican, Chilean, and Black men. Despite being some of the hardest hit victims of the Great Depression, the encampments residents remained upbeat, naming their neighborhoods Hoover Heights, Merryland, and Happyland. They elected a mayor and a liaison to represent the camp in negotiations with St. Louis authorities. President Herbert Hoover, however, refused to propose any assistance programs, saying instead that Americans should help each other. All rights reserved. Hooverville served as a home for different nationalities and ethnicities. Hoovervilles varied in size from a few hundred residents to thousands of people in larger cities like New York City, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, Washington. These areas were frequently on private lands, but the trespassing settlements were simply ignored as the crisis demanded. At its peak, roughly 25%, maybe more, of the American work force was unemployed. He had first achieved fame during World War I when he ran the U.S. Food Administration, and his. Check out the Siteseen network of educational websites. Homelessness was rampant during the Great Depression. By the time the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, enough Americans were working again that virtually all the encampments had vanished. 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! Not ready to purchase a subscription? The largest Hooverville, located in St. Louis, Missouri, was home to as many as 8,000 homeless people from 1930 to 1936. Workers, whether migrant or immigrant, suffered from a lack of jobs making up a large portion of Hooverville. 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. A look at how people lived, especially in the makeshift dwellings they constructed, gives a better sense of this, as does an understanding of the bitter humor behind the naming of these dwellings, known as 'Hoovervilles'. Click here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. What were the rickety shacks in Hoovervilles and Shantytowns built with? Follow the Great Depression Project/ Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project on Facebook. Sign Me Up. Hoovervilles and Homelessness. The publics frustration with President Hoovers refusal to deal with the Depression peaked in the spring of 1932 when an estimated 15,000 World War I veterans and their families established a Hooverville along the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. On June 17, 1932, many of the veterans, known as the Bonus Army, marched on the U.S. Capitol demanding payment the badly needed WWI combat bonuses the government had promised them. It maintained itself as a free-standing community until 1936, when it was razed. Donald Francis Roy, a resident of Seattles Hooverville, recorded 639 residents, only 7 of whom were women. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. After hosting several homeless settlements, the reservoir was dubbed the Hoover Valley and Depression Street. Longley, Robert. Seattle is fortunate to have the kind of detailed documentation of its Hooverville that other cities lack, and we have compiled these unique resources here. But even as the Great Depression eased and the Hoovervilles began to vanish, they remained a potent symbol of how a combination of bad luck, governmental philosophy, and rotten timing could create a lasting, negative image. In 1930, the largest Hooverville in America, consisting of four distinct sectors, was established in St. Louis. This is especially clear from the lyrics which included this line: 'They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead; why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?'. 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. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize.. As fears grew, many Americans believed the U.S. government could and should do something to help. Others responded to complaints by people in the neighborhood and evicted the inhabitants and burned the shacks. A request from the city was that women and children would not be allowed to live in the shantytown. "; When Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief read more, The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred on October 29, 1929, when Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. He explained that the population was fluid, as men sold their shacks to newcomers and moved on, and at its maximum during the winter months when it reached as hight as 1,200. City of Seattle.Americans React to the Great Depression. Hoover Pullmans were rusted railroad boxcars used as dwellings. Black and white Americans and immigrants from all over the world shared the camp sites. Credit was extended to many so that they could enjoy the new inventions of the day, such as washing machines, refrigerators and automobiles. 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. Built with all over the world Copyright 19992023This site uses cookies to improve your experience. [6], After 1940, the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty housing eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles. 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. Banks closed, and factories shut down; thousands and then millions of jobs were lost. Seattle's Hooverville and its residents were portrayed as violent, exotic, and separate from the rest of Seattle, obscuring the social accomplishments and self-organization of shantytown residents. In 1932, a new mayor was elected based on his support for the Unemployed Citizens League. READ MORE:Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? 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 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. Roy found the relaxed social atmosphere remarkable, describing "an ethnic rainbow" where men of many colors intermingled "in shabby comraderie. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of WWI veterans seeking expedited benefits, dubbed the Bonus Army. Hoovervilles Appear Nationwide As the Depression worsened and millions of families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. Seattle was also the location of seven other shantytowns. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white. For one thing, Hoover was a believer in the power of the free market and in the value of perseverance. Request for removal of Interbay shacks (April 24, 1937) 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. An error occurred trying to load this video. Roosevelts recovery program, known as the New Deal, eventually reduced unemployment, regulated banking and helped turn the ailing economy around with public works projects and other economic programs. Seattle's main Hooverville was one of the largest, longest-lasting, and best documented in the nation. Home Facts Privacy About Blog Contact Terms. In his journal, he states that of the 639 residents of the town, only 7 of them were women. Life in the encampments remained best described as grim. Library of Congress. The Great Depression saw the collapse of the United States' economy, rampant unemployment and a broad sense of hopelessness. The peak of the Great Depression was from 1932 to 1933. See the fact file below for more information on the Hoovervilles, or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Hooverville worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment. Letter from Housing Authority to City Council (March 4, 1941) However, their request was denied by Congress and Hoover ordered them evicted. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. 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