Excerpt from "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle" by Donald Francis Roy (1935) All rights reserved. [9], Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. Named for President Herbert Hoover, the ramshackle settlements ranged in size and were set up across the nation. In June, many of the so-called Bonus Army marched to the Capitol to request early payment of the government bonuses they had been promised for their military servicemoney that would have alleviated the financial problems of many families. St. Louis Hooverville, built in 1930, had its own unofficial mayor, churches and social institutions. Did you know? This pattern became associated with Oklahoma because that state provided a plurality of migrants from 1935 to 1940, the peak of the phenomenon. The longest lasting Hooverville, located in Seattle, Washington, stood as a semi-autonomous community from 1931 to 1941. Click to download the free sample version, Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the. Some were as small as a few hundred people while others, in bigger metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C. and New York City, boasted thousands of inhabitants. President Herbert Hoover & the Great Depression, America During the Great Depression: The Dust Bowl, Unemployment & Cultural Issues, End of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles & the League of Nations, Ku Klux Klan Nativism & Eugenics | Movement & History. The Great Depression caused social upheaval and political unrest. Donald Roy created this map of Seattle's Hooverville. With such a well-developed social order, the camp maintained itself as a functional separate community from 1930 to 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal sweeping economic recovery plan allocated federal funds for its removal. What does it tell you about Hooverville society? Next: Unemployed Citizens League and Poverty Activism. months[10] = "Looking for accurate facts and impartial information? Usually built on the edges of larger cities, hundreds of thousands of people lived in the many Hooverville camps. The committee included two Whites, two Blacks, and two Filipinos. Commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, the U.S. Army burned the Hooverville and drove the veterans out with tanks, tear gas, and fixed bayonets. The Great Depression was the greatest and longest economic recession of the 20th century. It began with the United States stock market crash of 1929, and didn't completely end until after . It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Donald Francis Roy, a resident of Seattles Hooverville, recorded 639 residents, only 7 of whom were women. Click to see google map of shack towns in Seattle area and more photos and descriptions.In Seattle shacks appeared in many locations in 1930 and 1931, but authorities usually destroyed them after neighbors complained. The government refused to pay, citing Depression-era budgetary restrictions. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. The numbers, as mind-boggling as they are, tend not to reflect the actual state of suffering caused by the greatest economic catastrophe in U.S. history. Out of desperation, the homeless began building camps of makeshift shacks near cities across the nation. For one thing, Hoover was a believer in the power of the free market and in the value of perseverance. The New Deal enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated from 1933 to 1939. Why was the Shanty Town called a Hooverville? Hoovervilles were the nickname given to a Shanty Town during the Great Depression and consisted of camps of makeshift shacks or tents set up on unused or public lands. Roy lived in the Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting this survey which became his 1935 MA thesis. President Herbert Hoover, however, refused to propose any assistance programs, saying instead that Americans should help each other. The Hooverville in Seattle was one of the few with detailed documentation. By the end of the decade it covered a six block area and, like Seattle's Hooverville, included a large number of little houses that residents had built out of scrap materials and steadily improved over the years. WW1 veterans formed what was called the Bonus Army and 40,000 people descended on Washington D.C. and set up makeshift camps on areas such as the Anacostia Flats. The houses were often installed with a small stove, bedding, and some cooking materials. Many felt that the government had to help those who lost work in the 1930s. A "Hooverville" was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. The current "Nickelsville" is a nod to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, just as "Hooverville" was a sarcastic nod to . To find out more, see our cookie policy. The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. University of Washington: The Great Depression in Washington State.Hoovervilles in Seattle. Many features of life during the Great Depression were given bitter connotations with Hoover's name. This began with a heated debate over the status and rights of Hooverville residents, who became more visible in petitions submitted throughout the late 1930s. read more, The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program that gave millions of young men employment on environmental projects during the Great Depression. 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. In 1934, Roy recorded a population of non-White people, including Black men, Costa Rican, Chilean, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and. Hoover also didn't think it would work and that a crisis such as this one would have to blow over on its own. 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. Many Hoovervilles were built along rivers, proving drinking water and allowing some residents to grow vegetables. Construction within the strict timeframe proved an immense read more, The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken southern plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a drought in the 1930s. Men, women, and children living in Hooverville either relied on public charities or begged for food from those who had permanent housing during the era. Many authorities frequently tolerated the shantytowns out of sheer necessity. 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A "Hooverville" is the popular name for slum towns built by people without homes during the Great Depression. However, the countrys 31st president, Republican Herbert Hoover, who took office in March 1929, believed that self-reliance and self-help, not government intervention, were the best means to meet citizens needs. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. The main Hooverville began on land near Elliott Bay through a cluster of small huts. Some Hoovervilles were dotted with vegetable gardens, and some individual shacks contained furniture a family had managed to carry away upon eviction from their former home. For example, newspapers used to shield the homeless from the cold were called Hoover blankets, while empty pants pockets pulled inside outdemonstrating no coins in ones pocketswere Hoover flags., When soles wore out of shoes, the cardboard used to replace them was dubbed Hoover leather, and cars pulled by horses because gas was an unaffordable luxury were called Hoover wagons.. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. The new mayor allowed the towns Hooverville to thrive and grow, even granting it some official tolerance. This sort of fatalism was especially apparent in the language that developed around the iconic representation of the Great Depression --the Hooverville. until the land was needed for shipping facilities on the eve of World War II. During the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted about a decade, shantytowns appeared across America as unemployed people were evicted from their homes. 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