"Meeting the Needs of Our Time"
Builders of the Humane City in Los Angeles,
1900-1950

The George A.V. Dunning Lecture
by Michael E. Engh, S.J.

The Historical Society is pleased to share with you the partial text of a lecture by Michael E. Engh, S.J. entitled "Meeting the Needs of Our Time: Builders of the Humane City in Los Angeles, 1900-1950". It was the second George A.V. Dunning Lecture, given at the Regal Biltmore Hotel on Sunday afternoon, November 12, 2000. The annual lecture series is designed to bring together the academic community, the civic and cultural leadership, and the general public in order to gain new historical perspective on subjects of importance to the Los Angeles community. We trust you will find the lecture by Fr. Engh to be a rewarding experience.

Copyright © 2001 Historical Society of Southern California

How did Angelenos develop the social capital to cope with their problems, and with what success? Who were some of the major contributors to the social capital of this city, and what can we know of their motivations? How did the movements for government reform and civil rights further stretch the prevailing notions of appropriate social interaction, trust, and reciprocity?

The following examples only begin to address the question of who laid the foundations for much of the city's social infrastructure between 1900 and 1950. As one Angeleno wrote, we must all throw ourselves into the task of "meeting the needs of our time." What they did and did not do can engage our imagination, revive our enthusiasm, or inspire our continued nurture of social habits that sustain this city and make it a viable civic entity.

Early Contributions to Social Capital

The economic depression of the 1890's brought misery on an unprecedented scale in the city of Los Angeles. As the circumstances worsened, local clubwomen in 1894 invited Jane Addams, co-founder of Hull-House in Chicago, to address the Friday Morning Club. Inspired by her presentation, thirteen women founded the College Settlement Association to aid the city's impoverished residents. They opened the first settlement house west of the Mississippi River, the Casa de Castelar. Volunteers staffed a kindergarten, clubs for children, recreational activities, a reading room with public library books, and a variety of other services. Visiting the neighborhood of Alpine and Castelar streets (in present-day Chinatown) opened the eyes of the clubwomen to the poverty that came with urban growth. Expanding their operation, they began to examine the conditions of daily life in that district of the city.

Bessie D. Stoddart (1871-1950) reported finding the neighborhood then known as "Sonoratown," filled with "[s]warming tumble-down habitations of every variety" that lacked basic sanitation and running water, yet commanded exorbitant rents. The College Settlement's members demanded the establishment of a municipal Housing Commission to address for the first time the lack of affordable housing in Los Angeles. The Mayor and the City Council reluctantly agreed, but enabling legislation armed the Commission with little authority. Undeterred, the Commissioners vigorously combed the neighborhoods and cited negligent landlords for unkempt property. Some owners preferred to evict their tenants and level their rental properties rather than make them habitable. The City Council placed the work of the Housing Commission in the understaffed Health Department, which proved unable to address the causes of slum housing. The problem of inadequate housing did not vanish, but has marred the face of the city to this day.

The workers of the College Settlement turned their energies to providing further social services. Alarmed by their study of criminal activity by young people, the women successfully lobbied in 1903 for the establishment of the Juvenile Court system, the second such court in the nation. The Settlement's members also secured municipal funding for a visiting nurse, the first public health nurse in the United States. In time, the Board of Education employed a nurse in every public school. Given the range of their concerns, the Settlement also affiliated with the first citywide non-denominational charitable organization, the Associated Charities of Los Angeles.

Casa de Castelar's staff invited students at the State Normal School (now known as UCLA) to work at the Casa. The experience radically changed at least one young woman. Mary Julia Workman (1871-1964), daughter of the City Treasurer (and former mayor) had lived a comfortable life on her parents' estate when she turned her energies towards a career in the public schools. Her involvement at Casa in 1898 opened her eyes to the needs of the immigrant poor, particularly children. In 1901, she and other Catholic women established the second settlement in Los Angeles, the Brownson House Settlement Association, at 422 Aliso Street; it later moved to 711 Jackson Street.

Workman challenged prevailing assumptions about foreign-born immigrants and how best to deal with them. Fluent in Spanish, Workman was able to listen to the people she assisted, as well as to recognize the virtues and attributes they brought to Brownson House. She began to question the notion of the melting-pot "Americanization" accomplished through a heavy-handed assimilation that disregarded possible contributions from immigrant cultures. Believing that immigrants enriched American society, she recognized that reciprocity was an essential aspect of working in the inner-city. Both the immigrant and the native-born volunteer needed to undergo their respective forms of Americanization.

Workman recognized that persuading immigrants to adopt American values and practices required "mutual confidence and mutual support" between immigrants and settlement workers. Personal or "neighborly" contact enabled both to develop trust in one another. Volunteers began to identify with the people of Brownson House neighborhood and to learn about "[h]ealth, housing, hours of labor, wages, industrial conditions, and all that touches the immigrant's life." Association with the residents promoted what she termed a "primitive flexibility" that enabled Brownson House to avoid bureaucratic rigidity. In 1916 she described how the volunteers benefited from their service:

It has given them an insight into the heroism of many whom the world calls poor. It has brought them into sympathetic contact with life from another viewpoint, and, with this vision of humanity and its needs, comes an expansion of sympathy which quickens the heart, broadens the mind, and emerges in the usefulness of service in the cause of God and humanity.

Trust and reciprocity, essential to a community's social capital, characterized Workman's approach at Brownson House and the subsequent forty years of her civic service. Her insight has become all the more obvious today as Angelenos struggle to live out the ramifications of residing in an increasingly intercultural society.

Other social settlements appeared in the city sponsored by churches (the Bethlehem Institute of the Methodists, the Neighborhood Settlement of the Episcopalians, and Santa Rita of the Catholics), private individuals (the Coleman Settlement House), and the Los Angeles Rotary (Los Angeles Settlement House). The Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, the YMCA, and the YWCA all engaged in similar outreach, as did a host of smaller institutions. One undertaking in particular warrants review.

The above represents an excerpt of Michael Engh's lecture. To request a complete copy, please call the Historical Society of Southern California at (323)222-0546 and one will be sent to you at no charge, as long as the supply lasts.