Hall, Helen, 1892-1982

Settlement worker and social reformer.

Social worker.

Helen Hall succeeded Lillian Wald as Headworker at the Henry Street Settlement House, New York City, in 1933.

Helen Hall, settlement worker and social reformer, was born 5 January 1892 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her family later moved to Chester, New York, where her father established, ca. 1911, a surgical instruments manufacturing plant, Wilford Hall Laboratories. Miss Hall studied art and social work at Columbia University and the New York School for Social Work, 1912-15. In 1947, Bates College awarded her an honorary doctor of laws degree; in 1969, Smith College conferred on her an honorary doctor of humane letters degree; and in June 1972, she received an honorary degree from Columbia University.

She married Paul Underwood Kellogg, editor of the Survey, in February 1935. He died in 1958.

In 1916, after her coursework at the New York School for Social Work, Hall organized Neighborhood House in Eastchester, New York, and also worked with the Westchester County Department of Child Welfare. During World War I, she directed Red Cross work for American Expeditionary Force base hospitals in France. She organized a girl's club for the YWCA in Alsace after the Armistice. From 1920-22 Hall worked for the United States War Department in China and the Philippines supervising women's relations and organizing recreational services for enlisted men.

After her tour of duty in the Orient, Hall directed University Settlement in Philadelphia from 1922 to 1933. In 1928, Albert J. Kennedy appointed her chairman of the Unemployment Committee of the National Federation of Settlements. The Committee conducted a number of nationwide surveys of urban unemployment, 1928-32, and published Some Folks Won't Work (1930) and Case Studies of Unemployment (1931). Additionally, Hall wrote several articles on unemployment, testified before legislative bodies in support of unemployment insurance and relief, delivered speeches about unemployment conditions, and served as an advisor on unemployment for Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot. In the early 1930s, Hall visited England and made comparative studies of unemployment conditions and methods of relief.

The board of directors of Henry Street Settlement in 1933 asked Hall to succeed Lillian Wald as headworker of the New York City settlement, a position Hall held until her retirement at age 75 in 1967. Like Wald, Hall was committed to social action and social justice, and she emphasized the importance of changing public policy to secure decent urban neighborhoods.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named her a member of the advisory council to the Committee on Economic Security, which drafted social security legislation. She was president of the National Federation of Settlements from 1934-40. As a member of a special commission of the Foreign Policy Association in 1934, Hall studied the social and economic conditions in Cuba.

During World War II, 1942-43, Hall took a leave of absence from Henry Street Settlement to rejoin the American Red Cross. She organized service clubs and rest homes for the Red Cross in Australia and the South Pacific.

Throughout her career, Hall was involved with consumer affairs. In 1934-35, she served as consumer representative of the New York State Milk Advisory Committee. She helped organize and served as chairman of the Consumers' National Federation, 1936-41. Later, she was named vice-chairman of a consumer advisory committee to the Office of Price Administration. In 1952, Hall became a board member and advisor for Consumers' Union. Her work at Henry Street Settlement led to a joint settlement study of purchasing and credit practices of low-income families; the project resulted in a book, The Poor Pay More, published in 1963.

In the decades following World War II, Hall initiated many community programs to combat juvenile delinquency. In 1955, she helped found the Lower Eastside Neighborhood Association; and in 1957, she assisted in organizing Mobilization for Youth. Additionally, Miss Hall fought for improved medical care on the Lower East Side and sought to interpret the work of the United Nations to her neighbors.

Helen Hall's autobiography, Unfinished Business, was published in 1971. Miss Hall died in her Manhattan apartment on 31 August 1982, at age 90.