University of Chicago. Service League.

The University Settlement was established in 1894 under the auspices of the Christian Union of the University of Chicago with Mary McDowell as its first Director. The Settlement's purpose was to "promote neighborhood unity and the improvement of neighborhood and municipal conditions." In 1895 Mrs Frank L. Miller and other University women organized the wives of faculty into the University of Chicago Settlement League in order to generate interest in the Settlement's work and provide it with financial support. In 1957 the Settlement League became the University of Chicago Service League.

From the description of Records, 1897-1994. (University of Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 52247009

The University of Chicago Service League was founded in 1895 as the University of Chicago Settlement League, a social and philanthropic organization of University women interested in supporting the work of the University of Chicago Settlement. Established in 1894 by the University’s Christian Union, the University Settlement was located near the Chicago stockyards in the congested working-class immigrant neighborhood known as the Back of the Yards of Packingtown. Like Hull House, Chicago Commons, and other settlements in the city, the University Settlement sought to improve unhealthy conditions in its neighborhood while promoting reform in working conditions and education and assisting immigrants in their adjustment to American life.

The Settlement League was formed at the suggestion of Mary McDowell, Head Resident of the Settlement, and Mrs. Frank L. Miller, wife of the University’s Dean of Affiliated Work. Those at the first formal meeting of the League in October, 1895 included Mrs. William Rainey Harper, Mrs. William D. MacClintock, Mrs. Charles Zueblin, and Mrs. Harry Pratt Judson, who was elected the first president of the group. The League’s objectives were three-fold: to generate interest and financial support for the University Settlement, to study sociological questions, and to promote social intercourse. Membership was open to women on the University faculty and to wives of faculty, fellows, students, and alumni, with non-University women admitted at a higher annual membership fee.

The League’s fund-raising efforts began with a benefit lecture in 1896 and a successful vaudeville show presented in the spring of 1897. Two years later, the League staged "The Deceitful Dean," a musical satire on campus life which was so popular that a second comedy, "The Academic Alchemist," was produced in 1900. Other League events included a revival of "The Deceitful Dean" in 1906, a dance festival in 1910, and an elaborate Florentine Carnival in Ida Noyes Hall in 1913. Funds raised from these and other activities were used to support clubs, classes, and improved facilities at the University Settlement, and to provide summer outings in the countryside for Packingtown children. League members also worked as volunteers at the Settlement, supported legislation for compulsory school attendance and other reforms, established a committee to investigate the operation of the Juvenile Court, and backed Mary McDowell’s efforts to clean up garbage dumps and build public bathhouses and playgrounds in the Back of the Yards. During World War I, while continuing their support for the Settlement, League members rolled bandages for the Red Cross and held summer dances for servicemen at Ida Noyes Hall.

By 1923, when the League’s membership had reached 600, the influx of younger members began to raise questions about the nature of the League’s program. While the distinction between University and non-University women had been dropped in 1921, many of the newer members were uncomfortable with the large size of the group and felt that the League should respond more fully to specific personal interests. Accordingly, in 1929 the by-laws were amended to permit the creation of special interest groups in music, drama, French, travel, and other fields so that members with similar interests could get acquainted outside the context of regular monthly meetings.

The University Settlement remained the central focus of League activities, however. By 1923, the League was providing 28 per cent of the operating funds of the Settlement and had also accepted full responsibility for the girls program and kindergarten, while contributing $3,000 for a vocational scholarship. In the same year, League member Shirley Farr contributed $3,000 for the purchase of land on which to build a summer camp for Settlement children. Established in Chesterton, Indiana in 1930 after several years in another location, Camp Farr was steadily developed under the direction of the League’s Camp Committee. League funds also permitted the construction of the Settlement gymnasium in 1932 and the swimming pool at Camp Farr in 1935. In addition to Settlement projects, the League supported general relief work during the Depression and World War II, and in 1948 joined the regular Tag Day solicitation for the United Charities of Chicago.

By the 1950’s, the deterioration of housing and rising crime rates in Hyde Park caused many League members to feel that the University neighborhood should be a more immediate concern of the organization. Furthermore, the University, which had never had a formal affiliation with the Settlement, requested in 1956 that its name no longer be used in association with the institution. The Settlement was therefore renamed the Mary McDowell Settlement in honor of its first Head Resident. During this same period, the League was caught up in an intense reassessment of its own goals, since its support was urgently needed by both the Settlement, which still played an important role on the Southwest Side, and the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, which was proving itself an effective agency for combating gang activity in the local area. In 1957, after lengthy debate, the League changed its name to the University of Chicago Service League and became incorporated as a non-profit organization. Henceforth, all money raised by the League was to benefit the Mary McDowell Settlement and a "second philanthropy," the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club.

Following its reorganization, the Service League supported a variety of programs at the Settlement, including clubs and special interest groups, the summer day camp, citizenship classes, a halfway house, and individual counseling. At the Neighborhood Club, the League helped fund the activities of more than 70 organized youth groups and a number of recreation programs. The Mary McDowell Settlement was merged with the Chicago Commons Association in 1967, and the Settlement buildings themselves were demolished several years later, but the League maintained its interest in the old stockyards neighborhood through its support of the Association’s South Side Services Area and annual summer camp, now known as Camp Brueckner-Farr. The League remains an active social and philanthropic organization to the present, its activities representing a long tradition of service to Chicago’s immigrant population, to the Hyde Park community, and to the University.

From the guide to the University of Chicago Service League. Records, 1897-2007, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)