Home queer home.
Hull-House is quite possibly among the queerest abodes in the nation. Renowned social-justice advocate Jane Addams, who's rumored to have been a lesbian, lived there. Gender & Sexuality tours immerse visitors in Chicago and Hull-House history, while pondering an enduring question: Was Jane Addams gay?
"She our guiding light," Jane Addams Hull-House Museum Educator Lina Reynolds said while gesturing toward a portrait of Addams.
The museum, 800 S. Halsted St., has conducted tours every Friday in June. Popularity prompted the museum to continue the tours during July. Addams isn't the only queer element featured. Contrary to convention wisdom, according to Reynolds, Hull-House wasn't a homeless shelter.
It was an intentional community led by women. Addams led Hull-House, with Mary Rozet Smith by her side most of the time. When they were apart, Addams would take a large painting of Rozet Smith with her on trips, when it was hanging in her Hull-House bedroom ( when it hangs now after being found in the basement ).
"This relationship has been looked at and talked about a very long time," Museum Educator Michael Ramirez said.
He said they were partners for more than 40 years, bought a home together and talked about adopting children. However, there's no definitive proof. Despite the debate among some circles, the LGBT community claims Addams as one its heroes.
She's among those honored on pillars in Boystown.
"Why not call a spade a spade?" Ramirez said.
Unlike Hull-House residents Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge, Addams and Rozet Smith burned their intimate letters. Still, their relationship, Ramirez said, inspires some intrigue.
The community included married couples as well as single men and women, characterizing itself as a family of choice. So, Reynolds noted that creating families of choice mirrors what LGBT people do today.
"It's a really interesting experiment with domestic space," Reynolds said.
Community members were from Addams' social class. Gerard Swope, who become president of General Electric, and Julius Rosenwald, a Sears co-owner, both lived at Hull-House. With that said, community space didn't consist of Hull-House alone. It and 13 buildings occupied the area where University of Illinois at Chicago now stands.
Only Hull-House and its dining hall, which is now a museum, remain standing. Reynolds said, in Hull-House's heyday, 10,000 people took advantage its various programs each week. Hull-House operated, in that location, from 1889 to 1963. Hull-House residents took a buyout and formed the Hull-House Association, which closed in 2012 due to financial problems.
Child care was among those programs. Children were given baths and immunizations. And, they also had the chance to attend summer camp. The portrait of Jenny Dow hangs in a museum recreation of a classroom.
Community members established the city's first juvenile justice system and paved the way for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Reynolds highlighted some contradictions. Hull-House created a social safety net and a "chosen family," while emphasizing the nuclear family in public.
Abbott would become of the dean of what is now the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. Breckenridge became the first woman to graduate from University of Chicago Law School.
Abbott and Breckenridge never called themselves lesbians. Interestingly, they were accepted by each other's families. However, at that time, acceptance of being different only went so far. People could be arrested and prosecuting for cross-dressing.
It was only allowed on Halloween, according to Ramirez. Police, he said, often raided "gay balls" after midnight—since Halloween was over. Ramirez also talked about an early marriage equality case. Death revealed Nicolai de Raylan was actually a woman, so her wife couldn't receive the inheritance. The De Raylans weren't at Hull-House.
Ramirez and Reynolds sifted through documents on a table in one of the downstairs rooms. They had one purpose in mind.
"It's basically to see how queerness has always been here," Reynolds said.
Other Hull-House residents included Ellen Gates Starr ( who co-founded Hull-House with Addams ), whose sexual orientation is easy to pinpoint, Reynolds said. Starr was a bookbinder, who bound a book of poetry by Sappho.
Sappho was a poet, who hailed from the island of Lesbos. Of course, both are roots of the words Sapphic and lesbian. In fact, Starr helped re-introduce Sappho to the world. Addams and Starr's once close relationship deteriorated, according to Reynolds. Starr left Hull-House and spent her last days in a convent.
Tours take place 3-4 p.m. on Fridays throughout June and July, with the exception of Independence Day.
