Chicago has been the fastest growing city of the world. “The city of the Century” is the name given to this historic city. It is a great city of the greatest people who devoted almost their whole life to this city. Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Clarence Darrow, Mary McDowell, Thorstein Veblen, Albert Parsons, Ida B. Wells, George Pullman, Louis Sullivan and Danker Adler are few of the people among them. No large city even Peter the Great’s St.
Petersburg had ever grown as fast as Chicago. Right from the beginning, the city was envisioned. In 1830, empty prairie defined the grid of the future metropolis. The streets, the blocks and the All ys were designated. Its growth was phenomenal. In just forty years, Chicago grew from 100 people to the city of 300, 000 thousand.
Over half of them came from abroad. On October 8, 1871, the fire viper out the city. 18, 000 building were burnt. Economic potential of the city was still there. The citizens were determined to rebuild. Architects and Engineers came from around the world and started building just what it was like before.
In 10 years after the fire, Architects had begun to make buildings that were unprecedented. The city was now buying, consuming, trading, manufacturing and selling more then ever before. 350 trains a day were coming to Chicago to do business. The downtown was locked by the boundaries of water and a railroad.
Chicago was the second largest city of the nation. People from all parts of the world were attracted to Chicago because that was the place where they saw lots of business opportunities. That was the place where they thought they could start their new career. Even today, 70% of the people are originally from other countries. As we know that there were thousands of immigrants in Chicago, few questions always strikes in mind, like “Who helped these immigrants? , How did they manage to communicate in English? , What did they do after coming here? , where did they live?” etc. I found the answer after an easy try.
It is Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr’s Settlement house, that was called Hull House lately.