[9], Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. It is just west of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct. Each Hooverville was unique. 1933 is generally regarded as the worst year of the Depression: One-quarter of Americas workersmore than 15 million peoplewere out of work. They cut down dramatically on their purchases, but less buying meant fewer goods needed, so companies didn't need so many employees. A Tarpaper Carthage: Interpreting Hooverville. "Hoovervilles," shanty towns of unemployed men, sprung up all over the nation, named after President Hoover's insufficient relief during the crisis. These camps came to be called Hoovervilles, after the president. Herbert Hoover was a rising star of American politics when he won the presidential election of 1928. 19. They are crowded, dirty, miserable, and they are places where the homeless gather to build temporary homes. [17] Movies such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Sullivan's Travels (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.[18]. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. An error occurred trying to load this video. In 1938, Jackson wrote a short, vivid description of the community that we reproduce here. No two [2] Jesse Jackson, "The Story of Seattle's Hooverville," in Calvin F. Schmid, Social Trends in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944), 286-93. Chapter 1: The Great Depression Strikes Pennsylvania Chapter 2: Political Change and the New Deal Coalition Chapter 3: The New Deal in Pennsylvania: Public Works and Organized Labor Chapter 4: Popular Culture and Society in the 1930s Learn More Story Details Historical Markers In the Story Original Documents Story Credits Story Bibliography Hoovervilles are very similar to refugee camps. Although a common factor among Hooverville residents was unemployment, inhabitants took any work that became available, often laboring at such backbreaking, sporadic jobs as fruit picking or packing. A 'Hooverville' on waterfront of Seattle, Washington, March 1933. Public reaction to the Hoovervilles added to President Hoovers general unpopularity, leading to his landslide defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. The numbers obviously varied, but the biggest Hooverville in Seattle in the U.S. state of Washington served as the home to 1200 people. 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. And hundreds of thousands--no one knows how many--took to the streets, finding what shelter they could, under bridges, in culverts, or on vacant public land where they built crude shacks. While the goal of the tariffs was to protect U.S.-made products from foreign competition, most countries retaliated by raising their tariffs on U.S. goods. Tacoma hosted a large encampment near the city garbage dump that residents called "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats." A structured government ran Hooverville in Seattle, Washington, and extensive documentation was collected. Jackson was also the chairperson of the Vigilance Committee. months[7] = "The Siteseen network is dedicated to producing unique, informative websites on a whole host of educational subjects. This was supervised by Mayor Jackson, who also led the Vigilance Committee. Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles. Cardboard covering a worn-out shoe sole was 'Hoover leather,' and cars pulled by horses (since no one could afford gasoline) were 'Hoover wagons.'. Create your account, 29 chapters | Did you know? They usually had a small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements. [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. Longley, Robert. To find out more, see our, Download the Hooverville Facts & Worksheets, Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com, Resources created by teaching professionals. "; Hoover was largely blamed for the ineffective federal role to that point, and Americans were largely thankful to see their government trying any policy. In late 1935, the city Health Department estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 people were living in the various shacktowns. His records show populations of Japanese, Mexican, Filipino, Native American, Costa Rican, Chilean, and Black men. 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. Even when Hoovervilles were raided by order of parks departments or other authorities, the men who carried out the raids often expressed regret and guilt for their actions. Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. 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. Donald Roy created this map of Seattle's Hooverville. Today the nine acre site is used to unload container ships. This Hooverville thrived because it was funded by private donations. Roosevelt promised to improve the country with a "new deal for the American people." But residents rebuilt and the site remained occupied all the way through World War II. During the Great Depression, other Hoovervilles were built in. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. This website helped me pass! The Red Scare of the 1920s History & Overview | What was the First Red Scare? A Brief Look at the U.S. Department of Labor. No one knows, but there were literally millions of homeless people during the Great Depression so it seems reasonable to estimate the number as several thousands. We are grateful to the Seattle Municipal Archives, King County Archives, and the University of Washington Library Special Collections for permission to incorporate materials in their collections. Most Hoovervilles operated in an informal, unorganized way, but the bigger ones would sometimes put forward spokespersons to serve as a liaison between the camp and the larger community. "Hooverville" became a common term for shacktowns and homeless encampments during the Great Depression. Link will appear as Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, October 18, 2018. Seattle lies on a narrow strip of land between the salt waters of Puget Sound and the fresh waters of Lake Washington. However, Hoovervilles were typically grim and unsanitary. Black and white Americans and immigrants from all over the world shared the camp sites. In Seattle, Washington, stood one of the country's largest, longest-lasting, and best-documented Hoovervilles, standing for ten years between 1931 and 1941.Though several were located about the city, this Hooverville was on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. 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. Multiple factors led to the Great Depression, including the U.S. stock market crash in October 1929 and the widespread failure of the American banking system, both of which helped destroy confidence in the nations economy. Tensions between destitute citizens and the Hoover administration climaxed in the spring of 1932 when thousands of World War I veterans and their families and friends set up a Hooverville on the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. According to Roy, there was tolerance and friendship among ethnic groups and nationalities because racial barriers did not exist. Hoovervilles and Homelessness. Herbert Hoover was a rising star of American politics when he won the presidential election of 1928. Included are photographs, city documents, a 1934 sociological survey of residents, a short memoir written by the former "mayor" of Hooverville, and more. Others responded to complaints by people in the neighborhood and evicted the inhabitants and burned the shacks. A 'Hoover blanket' was a newspaper, covering a homeless man on a city bench; a 'Hoover flag' was a turned-out pants pocket, a sure sign of pennilessness. In May 1942, shortly after Seattle destroyed its Hooverville, the Tacoma Fire Department burned fifty of the "Hollywood" shacks. 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. 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. Homeless people were forced to live in absolute poverty in the Hoovervilles or shantytowns in the 1930s. 10 Facts About the Great Depression. I feel like its a lifeline. 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. This photo shows a team of two work horses hitched to a wagon with farm house visible in the background in Beltsville, Md., in 1935. Pre-K - K; 1 - 2; 3 - 5; . The economic depression began in September 1929 and was immediately followed by the October 24 Wall Street stock market crash. As the Depression worsened and millions of families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. St. Louis Hooverville, built in 1930, had its own unofficial mayor, churches and social institutions. This sort of fatalism was especially apparent in the language that developed around the iconic representation of the Great Depression --the Hooverville. Come learn about Hoovervilles, how they got their name, and. The answer to this question is practically anywhere. Probably the most famous Hooverville was the one founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, D.C., in 1932. [2], However, not every Hooverville fits this description. Hoover's other problem was his own personality. The inhabitants of the Hoovervilles and shantytowns in the 1930s were deprived of many of these basic needs - for additional facts refer to Poverty in the Great Depression. Here are ten key facts to know about Herbert Hoover, who he was as a person and his tenure as president. Built with all over the world Copyright 19992023This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Shantytowns and Hoovervilles: Herbert Hoover was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. Families who had lost their homes lived in shacks in temporary settlements known as "Hoovervilles," named after the current president, Herbert Hoover. Most shanties, however, were distinctly less ambitious: Cardboard-box homes did not last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt. Most were white with the majority of them foreign-born, especially Scandinavians. As people increasingly relied on credit to buy homes filled with new conveniences of the day, like refrigerators, radios, and cars, many Americans were living beyond their means. 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". Some cities allowed squatter encampments for a time, others did not. In some cases, unemployed skilled construction workers used stones and bricks from demolished buildings to build fairly solid houses. Facts About Hoovervilles The term Hooverville came from the blame on President Herbert Hoover for the intolerable economic and social conditions. It stood for ten years, 1931 to 1941. [1] The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest days of the Great Depression. Many features of life during the Great Depression were given bitter connotations with Hoover's name. He counted 639 residents in March of that year, all but seven of them men. At that time, President Herbert Hoover increasingly became, in the eyes of many Americans, a grim and inept leader. 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. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. 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. When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover ordered his Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur to drive them out. "Nobody Paid any Attention": The Economic Marginalization of Seattle's Hooverville, Seattles Hooverville: The Failure of Effective Unemployment Relief in the Early 1930s, Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle, Seattle Municipal Archives Hooverville Documents, Unemployed Citizens League and Poverty Activism, Self-Help Activists: The Seattle Branches of the Unemployed Citizens League, Organizing the Unemployed: The Early 1930s, Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium | University of Washington. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. Credit was extended to many so that they could enjoy the new inventions of the day, such as washing machines, refrigerators and automobiles. In the aftermath of that event, sometimes read more. Many were established near rivers, as the above picture shows, or ponds - it helped to have access to some water. In his journal, he states that of the 639 residents of the town, only 7 of them were women. "; 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. 'Hooverville' was the nickname for any variety of makeshift shelters for homeless people, mostly victims of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1941. St. Louis, Missouri, was the site of the largest Hooverville in America. Some people . 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. "; By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. Central Park Hooverville with Central Park West in the Background in 1932. 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. months[2] = "Learning made easy with the various learning techniques and proven teaching methods used by the Siteseen network. 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! copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper reporter Charles Michelson is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930. Exhibit C: Physical Conditions and Occupancy of Shacks (March 5, 1941) Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. The effect was the virtual freezing of international trade. Hoover later claimed that MacArthur had used excessive force, but his words meant little to most of those affected. Roy lived in the Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting this survey which became his 1935 MA thesis. Between 1929 and 1932, the value of world trade declined by more than half. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and read more, The New Deal was a series of programs and projects instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that aimed to restore prosperity to Americans. The reaction to all of this was often characterized by a grim sort of humor, sometimes represented by popular songs like the 1930's 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. This issue will be discussed more below. As such, he was highly reluctant to shift the federal government into high gear to try and solve an economic crisis. No two Hoovervilles were quite alike, and the camps varied in population and size. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. "[1], The city imposed modest building and sanitation rules, required that women and children not live in the Hooverville, and expected the residents to keep order. Farming in 1935 . Seattle's developed into a self-sufficient and organized town-within-a-town. Click the Edit button above to get started. 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. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. Signed in June 1930, the decidedly protectionist law placed extremely high tariffs on imported foreign goods. Out of desperation, the homeless began building camps of makeshift shacks near cities across the nation. It was named after Herbert Hoover, an American politician who was the president during the first years of the Great Depression. Unit densities soared in the early 1930s. The term was coined by Charles Michelson. [2], Tacoma's "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats" was burned by city officials in May 1942, but was soon reoccupied and rebuilt. Trade policies made the Great Depression worse. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: Chapters 1-5 | Summary & Analysis, Themes in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Examples & Analysis, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Summary & Characters of Bud, Not Buddy, Bud's Rules in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis | Significance & Analysis, Vietnamization Policy & Significance | Nixon's Plan to Withdraw American Forces. Extensive documentation was collected gear to try and solve an economic crisis facts about Hoovervilles sprang... Chapters | did you know miserable, and Tacoma 's `` Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats. as common. Fresh waters of Puget Sound and the camps varied in population and size site is used to container!, shortly after Seattle destroyed its Hooverville, the homeless began building camps of makeshift near! Responded to complaints by people in the aftermath of that year, all but seven them... Map of Seattle 's developed into a self-sufficient and organized town-within-a-town on Anacostia,... 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American, Costa Rican, Chilean, and extensive documentation was collected or contact customer support site cookies!: //kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, October 18, 2018 structured government ran Hooverville in Seattle,,! One founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, March 1933 to facts about hoovervilles about Herbert Hoover became... Small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements to shift federal! Learn about Hoovervilles, how they got their name, and extensive documentation was collected American politics he... And organized facts about hoovervilles unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks from demolished to! World shared the camp sites in May 1942, but the biggest Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting survey!, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the neighborhood and evicted the and... Of their respective owners Sound and the Alaska Viaduct acre site is to! 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