Chicago Commons

Originally located on the near Northwest Side and now headquartered in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, it serves underresourced communities throughout the city.

Five years of faith and free-will have these been, of struggle and patience and loyal fellowship, in the uncompelled attempt to live a normal life of human service in that part of the great city where we seem to be most needed, rather than where the neighborhood seems to offer the most of social prestige or of privilege.

[2] He established the settlement in 1894, in a poor immigrant neighborhood a short distance northwest of downtown, and moved there with his wife and four children in 1895.

He had originally envisioned the Chicago Commons as a sort of field laboratory for research and training in social work, but this quickly gave way to a broader conception of the settlement's obligations to the community.

[2] The new association changed its approach, establishing community centers but eliminating the residency component which had marked the original settlement houses.

[8] The association steadily expanded its offerings through the 20th century, opening a center in Bucktown in 1958, and one at the Henry Horner Homes in 1965.