(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); By 1932, between one and two million American people were homeless. In 1933, it was 25%, with 1 out of every 4 people out of work. The economic depression began in September 1929 and was immediately followed by the October 24 Wall Street stock market crash. In 1929, unemployment was around 3%. Summary and Definition: The Shanty Towns, known as Hoovervilles, sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941). Who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town? This page was last edited on 16 February 2023, at 00:48. As the Great Depression worsened, so too did people's moods. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was the President of the United States during the start of the Great Depression and was given the blame for it. They cut down dramatically on their purchases, but less buying meant fewer goods needed, so companies didn't need so many employees. The New Deal enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated from 1933 to 1939. 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. Ultimately, they were a bitterly ironic symbol of the suffering inherent in the worst economic crisis in U.S. History. The city of Seattle tolerated the unemployed living situation and imposed loose building and sanitation rules. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he argued, were all Americans read more, The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. The suffering in the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1941, is hard for modern Americans to wrap their minds around. Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. The photograph dates from about 1932 to 1937. Though Hoover later agreed that MacArthur had used excessive force, irreparable damage to his presidency and legacy had been done. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. St. Louis, Missouri, was the site of the largest Hooverville in America. The main Hooverville began on land near Elliott Bay through a cluster of small huts. Roy found the relaxed social atmosphere remarkable, describing "an ethnic rainbow" where men of many colors intermingled "in shabby comraderie. 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. 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. Petition for community bath houses in Hooverville (May 15, 1935) However, their request was denied by Congress and Hoover ordered them evicted. Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images. The Great Depression drew to an end with the outbreak of WW2 and municipal programs aimed at "eradicating" shantytowns destroyed all the Hoovervilles. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards. The Hooverville in Seattle was one of the few with detailed documentation. Will Work ForAnything. Nonwhites comprised 29% of the colony's population, including 120 Filipinos, 29 African Americas, 25 Mexicans, 4 Native Americans, 4 South Americans, and 2 Japanese. 01 of 10 First Quaker President Hoover was the son of a blacksmith, Jesse Clark Hoover, and a Quaker minister, Huldah Minthorn Hoover. Click the Edit button above to get started. 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. They posed health risks to their inhabitants as well as to those living nearby, but there was little that local governments or health agencies could do. It was named after Herbert Hoover, an American politician who was the president during the first years of the Great Depression. In turn, a new lexicon came into being -- words like "Hoovervilles," "Hoover blankets" and "Hoover hogs." Here are ten key facts to know about Herbert Hoover, who he was as a person and his tenure as president. The Story of the Great Depression in Photos, How the Great Depression Altered US Foreign Policy, Reconstruction Finance Corporation: Definition and Legacy, Biography of Louis Armstrong, Expert Trumpeter and Entertainer, What Is Patriotism? The peak of the Great Depression was from 1932 to 1933. All Rights Reserved. What were Hoovervilles during the Great Depression? The Great Depression was the most severe and enduring economic collapse of the 20th century, and included abrupt declines in the supply and demand of goods and services along with a meteoric rise in unemployment. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. Click here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. One of the most famous ways in which people migrated during the timeframe of the Great Depression was by 'riding the rails' on trains. 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. The Seattle Hooverville covered nine acres of land on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. Divided into distinct sectors, the racially integrated and cohesive encampment was home to as many as 8,000 destitute people. 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. But residents rebuilt and the site remained occupied all the way through World War II. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. 10 Facts About the Great Depression. University of Washington: The Great Depression in Washington State.Hoovervilles in Seattle. All the Hoovervilles were 'eradicated' at the end of the Great Depression in 1941. var current_date = new Date(); month_value = current_date.getMonth(); day_value = current_date.getDate(); year_value = current_date.getFullYear(); document.write( months[month_value] ); was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. This worksheet can be edited by Premium members using the free Google Slides online software. The primary cause was rapid economic growth, which was accompanied by excessive risk-taking at the aggregate level in the market. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. [2] Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. Anyone who has seen the famous old Civil War movie ' Gone with the Wind' might remember the Shanty Town on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia that was occupied by freed slaves and poor whites. Many people turned to farming, and grew the food themselves, like fruits, vegetables, cattle, chickens, sheep, and hogs. 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. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). The quality and livability of structures built in Hooverville camps varied widely. [17] Movies such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Sullivan's Travels (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.[18]. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. Most of them did not find work. Who Were the Democratic Presidents of the United States? It began with the United States stock market crash of 1929, and didn't completely end until after . 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! The camps, dubbed Hoovervilles after Republican President Hoover, often sprang up near charity operated soup kitchens and rivers for drinking water and limited sanitary needs. Each Hooverville was unique. Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper reporter Charles Michelson is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930. In 1938, Jackson wrote a short, vivid description of the community that we reproduce here. Brief History of Seattle. Hoovervilles were not fancy or well-constructed. 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. The Great Depression started on Wall Street. 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. The highly unpopular Hoover was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal recovery programs eventually helped lift the United States out of the Depression. succeed. It stood for ten years, 1931 to 1941. Excerpt from "Seattle's Hooverville" by Leslie D. Erb (1935), [1] Donald Francis Roy, "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle," (M.A. [1] There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s.[2]. The nickname 'Hooverville' was given to the shanty towns that sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression. Hoovervilles of the Great Depression Daily Dose Documentary 6.73K subscribers Subscribe 223 Share 42K views 2 years ago For more episodes, please visit http://dailydosenow.com Today's Daily Dose. Hoovervilles were the nickname given to a Shanty Town during the Great Depression and consisted of camps of makeshift shacks or tents set up on unused or public lands. New York City saw the emergence of many Hoovervilles during the 1930s: During the Great Depression of the 1930s author John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" about the lives of the people living in the Prairies states and the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl. Built with all over the world Copyright 19992023This site uses cookies to improve your experience. These camps came to be called Hoovervilles, after the president. Did you know? Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression. Interesting Facts About the Great Depression The stock market lost almost 90% of its value between 1929 and 1933. 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. No two A "Hooverville" is the popular name for slum towns built by people without homes during the Great Depression. Two young residents at a Hooverville shantytown in Washington, D.C. Longley, Robert. "Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression." In some cases, unemployed skilled construction workers used stones and bricks from demolished buildings to build fairly solid houses. However, that didn't last long. 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. President Herbert Hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, writer John Steinbeck, vividly described his hardships as a young farmworker in the Weedpatch Hooverville near Bakersfield, California. Some squatted, either defying eviction and staying where they were, or finding shelter in one of the increasing number of vacant buildings. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. A shantytown, also known as a Hooverville (named for U.S. President Herbert Hoover), was located in Seattle, Washington, during the Great Depression. The smaller camps tended to come and go, while the larger Hoovervilles proved far more permanent. In his journal, he states that of the 639 residents of the town, only 7 of them were women. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The government refused to pay, citing Depression-era budgetary restrictions. 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. Hoover leather referred to cardboard or newspaper used to replace worn-out shoe soles. Roys 1934 census provides a breakdown of the population by ethnicity and nationality. months[10] = "Looking for accurate facts and impartial information? When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover ordered his Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur to drive them out. To find out more, see our cookie policy. 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. With such a well-developed social order, the camp maintained itself as a functional separate community from 1930 to 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal sweeping economic recovery plan allocated federal funds for its removal. here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. 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. 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. Public dissatisfaction with Hoover soon all but eliminated his chances of being reelected, and on November 8, 1932, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in a landslide. Riverside Park, New York City: A shantytown occupied Riverside Park at 72nd Street during the depression. Hundreds of Hoovervilles were established across the country during the 1930s. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. Some claim to have been made up of men, women, and children, while others claim to only have had men. The camp began when an unemployed lumberjack Spread over nine acres; it housed a population of up to 1,200. This pattern became associated with Oklahoma because that state provided a plurality of migrants from 1935 to 1940, the peak of the phenomenon. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. President Herbert Hoover, however, refused to propose any assistance programs, saying instead that Americans should help each other. It comes from the New York Public Library. Hoovervilles lacked the services found in typical towns. As the Depression worsened in the 1930s many looked to the federal government for assistance. Sign Me Up. Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. Donald Francis Roy, a resident of Seattles Hooverville, recorded 639 residents, only 7 of whom were women. The easiest way to travel across the country was by train and Shantytowns, nicknamed 'Hobo Jungles' sprang up by most city railroad stations. Including the veterans, their families, and other supporters, the crowd of protesters eventually grew to nearly 45,000 people. According to Roy, there was tolerance and friendship among ethnic groups and nationalities because racial barriers did not exist. 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. Shanty towns built during the Great Depression, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Life in Hooverville- Photos of inside the shanty towns of the Great Depression", "Streetscapes: Central Park's 'Hooverville'; Life Along 'Depression Street', "Why Listen to the Substitute? Encampments and shantytowns often referred to as tent citieswith similarities to Hoovervillesbegan appearing in parts of California, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Washington and other states. He was proud of the self-built community, saying "Hooverville is the abode of the forgotten man." Considered by many to be one of the most successful of Roosevelts New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three read more, In the early 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation devised plans for a massive dam on the Arizona-Nevada border to tame the Colorado River and provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing Southwest. read more, The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program that gave millions of young men employment on environmental projects during the Great Depression. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Some Hoovervilles even received assistance from churches and private donors. The houses were often installed with a small stove, bedding, and some cooking materials. READ MORE:Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? Signed in June 1930, the decidedly protectionist law placed extremely high tariffs on imported foreign goods. - 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. Write THREE true facts about this topic and ONE lie about this topic in the boxes below2. This lack of organization has made it difficult to identify the populations within Hoovervilles. Usually built on vacant land, the camps were largely tolerated by city authorities. 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. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. Create your account, 29 chapters | Hoovervilles and Homelessness. Mark has a Ph.D in Social Science Education. Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression. However, understanding that the campers had nowhere else to go, and fearing that they might still fall victim to the Great Depression themselves, most more affluent people were willing to tolerate the Hoovervilles and their impoverished residents. For webquest or practice, print a copy of this quiz at the Great Depression - Hoovervilles webquest print page. , and didn & # x27 ; t completely end until after land near Elliott through... Your account, 29 chapters | Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma in,! The peak of the community that we reproduce here were women Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur drive. 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