Part of a national settlement house movement during the Progressive Era in America, the South End House opened its doors in Boston, Massachusetts, as the Andover House in 1891. Its founder, Dr. William J. Tucker, was a Congregational minister and social reformer who taught at the Andover Theological Seminary located in Andover, Massachusetts. Dr. Tucker immediately hired Robert A. Woods to act as the house’s director. Woods was very involved in progressive reform movements on the national level and in the settlement house movement in Boston. One of the first things Woods did was to change the organization’s name to the South End House as its original name the new name evoked more of a connection to the community it served.(1)

As the organization’s by-laws state: “the object of the Corporation shall be to establish and maintain a House in the City of Boston as a residence for college graduates and others engaged in work for social and moral betterment with particular reference to the neighborhood in which it is located.”(2) Workers and volunteers under Woods’ guidance lived in the South End House and interacted on a daily basis with residents of Boston’s impoverished South End neighborhood. As many of the neighborhood’s residents were immigrants, much of the workers’ efforts were aimed at assimilating these individuals to American life.

Settlement house workers hoped to preserve family life, promote cultural and intellectual development in the neighborhood, provide employment counseling, daycare, and tutoring in the English language. The association sponsored clubs and classes for all ages, lessons in citizenship, and excursions outside of the city. For the immigrant residents of the South End, the settlement was intended to be a unifying community center. For the workers and volunteers, many of whom were recent college graduates interested in reform and social services, the South End House represented a center for social study and a laboratory in which they put new social science theories into practice.

In 1938, the South End House Association owned five pieces of property, including houses at 20 Union Park (headquarters), 48 Rutland Street, and 640 Harrison Avenue in Boston. A fourth house was located in Woburn where the Association ran a summer program -- Winning Farm Camp. The Association also owned a facility in Poland Springs, Maine, (and later in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire); in the summer months, the South End House operated a boy’s caddy camp in mountain resort areas.(3)

In 1960, the South End House merged with the Harriet Tubman House, the Children’s Art Center, the Hale House, and the Lincoln House to form the United South End Settlements.(4) By joining forces, the five area settlement houses were able to pool resources, share programs and space, and reach a larger community. Today the United South End Settlements/Harriet Tubman Gallery is an active neighborhood center still very much involved in youth programs, local art, and community outreach.