He described the population as fluid in 1938, owing to men selling their homes to newcomers and moving on. Considered by many to be one of the most successful of Roosevelts New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three read more, In the early 20th century, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation devised plans for a massive dam on the Arizona-Nevada border to tame the Colorado River and provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing Southwest. For one thing, Hoover was a believer in the power of the free market and in the value of perseverance. [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. 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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. Small camps and sites in towns sprang up in any available space. 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. Americas longest lasting Hooverville in Seattle, Washington, stood for ten years, from 1931 to 1941. When a new mayor took office in 1932, owing his election in part to support of the Unemployed Citizen's League, Seattle's Hooverville gained a measure of official tolerance that allowed it to survive and grow. Families who had lost their homes lived in shacks in temporary settlements known as "Hoovervilles," named after the current president, Herbert Hoover. It is a city built on hills and around water, in a mild marine climate that encourages prolific . 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. Some shelters were little more than holes in the ground covered with tin or cardboard. A large number of small houses were constructed from scrap materials. He was the President, after all, and there were many things he could do--but he was in trouble from the start, for a couple of different reasons. Lessons from Hooverville still have not been learned today. Because of the lack of government, it took a lot of work. A survey located 1687 shacks in five substantial colonies and many smaller ones. As the optimism of the 1920s gave way to fear and desperation, Americans looked to the federal government for relief. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. University of Washington: The Great Depression in Washington State. OKIESOkies is a term applied generally to people from the American Southwest who migrated to the Pacific Coast, particularly to California, during the Great Depression. This sort of fatalism was especially apparent in the language that developed around the iconic representation of the Great Depression --the Hooverville. 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. "; Many features of life during the Great Depression were given bitter connotations with Hoover's name. Anyone who has seen the famous old Civil War movie ' Gone with the Wind' might remember the Shanty Town on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia that was occupied by freed slaves and poor whites. Farming in 1935 . months[1] = "Find information about the instructive websites produced by international publisher Siteseen Ltd. "; In "The Grapes of Wrath" the camp is described as filthy, filled with hopeless, despairing residents. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Additionally, although the 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, had been a decade of prosperity, income levels varied widely and numerous Americans lived beyond their means. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of. During the fall and winter of 1931 and 1932, unemployed workers established Seattle's "Hooverville," a shantytown named in sarcastic honor of U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), on whose beat the Great Depression began. The longest lasting Hooverville, located in Seattle, Washington, stood as a semi-autonomous community from 1931 to 1941. Most were unemployed laborers and timber workers, few of whom had held any jobs in the previous two years. He wasn't a particularly warm, charismatic individual; he had won the presidency on the strength of his record and his character, but very few people would have described him as sympathetic (though by all accounts, he agonized over the suffering of the Great Depression). A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed. Excerpt from Health Department Annual Report (1935) Signed in June 1930, the decidedly protectionist law placed extremely high tariffs on imported foreign goods. As such, he was highly reluctant to shift the federal government into high gear to try and solve an economic crisis. According to Roy, there was tolerance and friendship among ethnic groups and nationalities because racial barriers did not exist. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. The Red Scare of the 1920s History & Overview | What was the First Red Scare? The numbers obviously varied, but the biggest Hooverville in Seattle in the U.S. state of Washington served as the home to 1200 people. Others responded to complaints by people in the neighborhood and evicted the inhabitants and burned the shacks. 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. 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. In 1930, the largest Hooverville in America, consisting of four distinct sectors, was established in St. Louis. But even as the Great Depression eased and the Hoovervilles began to vanish, they remained a potent symbol of how a combination of bad luck, governmental philosophy, and rotten timing could create a lasting, negative image. By the time the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, enough Americans were working again that virtually all the encampments had vanished. Thousands of World War I veterans, calling themselves the Bonus Army, had arrived in the nation's capital to demand early payment of a bonus they had been promised at the end of the war. Absolutely anything that would provide shelter. 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. By 1932 millions of Americans were living outside the normal rent-paying housing market. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. 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. The final decision to eliminate Hooverville was presented in a report from the Housing Authority. For webquest or practice, print a copy of this quiz at the Great Depression - Hoovervilles webquest print page. During the Great Depression, Hoovervilles provided shelter to many of the homeless population of America. "Nobody Paid any Attention": The Economic Marginalization of Seattle's Hooverville, by Dustin Neighly, Seattles Hooverville: The Failure of Effective Unemployment Relief in the Early 1930s by Magic Demirel, Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle by Donald Francis Roy, The Story of Seattle's Hooverville by Jesse Jackson, "Mayor" of Hooverville, Seattle Municipal Archives Hooverville Documents. Hoovervilles In the 1930s, Hoovervilles (shantytowns) formed coast to coast in cities of the United States. In 1932, a new mayor was elected based on his support for the Unemployed Citizens League. WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. 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 Browse hooverville resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources. The large camps were set up on the worst type of unused or public land often on the outskirts of towns and cities. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles. Advertisement. The quality and livability of structures built in Hooverville camps varied widely. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s. After 1940, all of Hooverville were destroyed as the economy recovered and the unemployment rate fell eventually. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression. Petition for community bath houses in Hooverville (May 15, 1935) Many authorities frequently tolerated the shantytowns out of sheer necessity. Trench Warfare in WWI: History & Facts | What is Trench Warfare? 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. 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. Though Hoover later agreed that MacArthur had used excessive force, irreparable damage to his presidency and legacy had been done. months[6] = "Uncover a wealth of facts and information on a variety of subjects produced by the Siteseen network. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. The name was a reference to Herbert Hoover who was the President of the United States during the at the start of the Depression and widely blamed for it. "; Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. The Great Depression (1929-1940): Tutoring Solution, Franklin D. 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