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What is a Hooverville?
During the Great Depression in the United States, millions of homeless people settled in teeming communities of makeshift shacks known derisively as “Hoovervilles” after Republican President Herbert Clark Hoover, whom they blamed for their plight. Charles Michelson (born 1869), formerly the New York World’s Washington correspondent and subsequently hired in 1929 to direct publicity for the then beleaguered Democratic National Committee, supposedly coined the term. (1) The first use of the term “Hooverville” in the print media in 1930, according to Dickson and Allen, may have been in an article referencing a shantytown in Chicago, Illinois, which called itself Hooverville. (2) The New York Times published a 179-word article about this shantytown, titled “Chicago jobless colonize; Shanty town called ‘Hooverville’ has a ‘mayor’ on its ‘Easy Street.’” (3) The article reads, Hooverville, so-called by a colony of unemployed men, has sprung up in Chicago’s front yard at the foot of Randolph Street near Grant Park, like one of the mushroom mining towns of bonanza days of the Far West. A primitive form of government has been set up in this “shanty town” and Mike Donovan, a disabled former railroad brakeman and miner, is “Mayor” by common consent. It has its Prosperity Road, East Street and Hard Times Avenue, all crudely labeled. The shacks are built of discarded materials. The “Mayor’s” residence is at the corner of Prosperity Road and Easy Street, is made of brick, wood and sheet iron. “Building construction may be at a standstill elsewhere, but down here everything is booming,” said “Mayor” Donovan today. “Ours is a sort of communistic government. We pool our interests and when the commissary shows signs of depletion, we appoint a committee to see what leavings the hotels have.” (3) Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., noted that Hoover’s name became “a prefix charged with hate.” (2) For example, newspapers the homeless used to cover themselves were “Hoover blankets,” farmers called jackrabbits “Hoover hogs,” empty pockets pulled inside out were “Hoover flags,” freight cars used for shelter were “Hoover Pullmans,” cardboard used to line a shoe with the sole worn through was called “Hoover leather,” and an automobile with horses tied to it because the owner could not afford gasoline was called a “Hoover wagon”” (1-2,4)
One of the largest Hoovervilles in the U.S. sprouted along the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1930. “It consisted of four distinct sectors. St. Louis’s racially integrated Hooverville depended upon private philanthropy, had an unofficial mayor, created its own churches and other social institutions, and remained a viable community until 1936, when the federal Works Progress Administration allocated slum clearance funds for the area. “ (1) The New York Times ran two stories about the St. Louis Hooverville, as follows: Dour no-rent colonies with an aggregate population of 400 men and women have been established along the banks of the Mississippi River here. They bear the significant names of Hooverville, Hoover Heights, Merryland and Happyland. The shacks are made from such odd materials as the owners can salvage. The residents of these colonies are persons hard-hit by the depression who are willing to work if they can find employment. Mayor Gus Smith of Hooverville says he and his neighbors will stay on the river bank all Winter. (5) The following year (1932), the St. Louis Hooverville gave abundant proof this week that it is a permanent settlement. It dedicated a church, and Gus Smith, self-appointed “Mayor” of the community, is the pastor. The building is a shanty constructed of orange crates and scrap lumber; its pews are rough timbers salvaged from the near-by dump heaps. Hooverville residents are not “bums.” They are victims of the depression period who live in shanties of their own construction on the river bank. (6)
Another short description of the Hooverville in St. Louis reads: Built of ramshackle makeshift housing, by 1931 it was home to five hundred black and white residents; later it would stretch a mile long. The Unemployed Councils of St. Louis, organized by the Communist Party, agitated in these areas against the power structure of St. Louis and the nation, arguing for redistribution of wealth and the end to the capitalist system that had brought about the Great Depression. According to a 1931 Russell Sage Foundation study, St. Louis's relief system for the unemployed during the early years of the Great Depression was among the most miserly in the country. Relief (or welfare) was based on a regressive funding method where the burden fell heaviest on the working class. Agitation against the system was based on the idea that only collective action would force more fairness on the system. Since African Americans were the group worst hit by the Depression in St. Louis (they were one-tenth of the population but one-fourth of the unemployed and were the largest group on relief but received a lower allotment than whites), they were an important base for agitation for the unemployed movement. They became prominent in many of the demonstrations and sometimes outnumbered whites. By 1933 they constituted one-third of the small Communist Party membership in St. Louis. (7) Another famous Hooverville blossomed in New York City’s Central Park where homeless men built comfortable shacks with furniture and stoves for heat. It existed between 1931-33 in the former Lower Reservoir of the city water supply system, which was being emptied and landscaped in the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond.” (1) Another writer notes, According to The Park and the People: A History of Central Park by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar (Cornell University Press, 1992), by late 1930 a few homeless people had set up an informal camp at the reservoir site, but were evicted by the police. As the Depression set in, public sentiment became more sympathetic. In July 1931, a judge suspended the sentences of 22 unemployed men sleeping in Central Park -- apparently in various locations -- and gave each one $2 out of his own pocket. In November, the Municipal Lodging House set a record in sheltering 3,853 men in one night. Other accounts indicate that the homeless colony had again established itself in the empty reservoir, and in December, a New York Times reporter described six shacks, one with a stove, housing nine men. “We work hard to keep it clean, because that is important,” said one man. “I never lived like this before.” The next day seven of the men were arrested as vagrants, but the charges were dismissed. In September 1932, 29 men were arrested “with apologies and good feelings on both sides” in what the Parks Department itself described as “Hoover Valley.” At the time, there were 17 shacks along “Depression Street,” all with chairs and beds and some with carpets. One was even built of brick with a roof of inlaid tile by unemployed bricklayers who called it “Rockside Inn.” “They repair in the morning to comfort stations to shave and make themselves look presentable and keep their shacks as clean as they can,” reported The Times. A health official said that “unless the city should see fit to install running water and sewerage facilities, the camp will have to go.” (8) Although “public and official sentiment was on the side of the Hooverville residents,” notes another observer, Deputy Parks Commissioner John Hart razed the encampment on September 22, 1932. “‘We don’t want to do it, but we can’t help it,’ Mr. Hart said, adding that although the men had maintained good order, had built comfortable shacks and furnished them as commodiously as they could, there were no water or sanitary facilities near the settlement.’ There were other Hoovervilles in the city in the 1930s. One existed along the Hudson in Riverside Park, another was at the end of 10th Street on the East River. Red Hook [Brooklyn] had its own Hooverville as well, off Columbia Street.” (9) The largest of Seattle’s Hoovervilles was on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. It lasted from 1931 to 1941. One writer notes, The stock market crash in October 1929 helped trigger a devastating depression that dominated the Northwest for nearly a decade. The economic downturn gradually affected more and more people. Mortgage foreclosures, delinquent taxes, and sharply rising unemployment were the experiences of many. Between 1929 and 1933, a hundred thousand businesses failed across the nation. Racial minorities, women, and the unskilled were the first to lose their jobs. By the time President Hoover left office in 1933, 13 million were unemployed, about 25% of the work force. Some unemployed became transients, searching for jobs and food. In Seattle, unemployment was 11% in April 1930, rising to 26% by January 1935. Families doubled up in apartments, others were evicted and built makeshift houses. Groups of these dwellings for the homeless were called Hoovervilles. In Seattle, one of the largest cluster of homeless was located on the tide flats on the site of the former Skinner and Eddy Shipyard. Its boundaries were the Port of Seattle, warehouses, and Railroad Avenue. A city of shacks, dwellings were fashioned from packing boxes and any other discarded materials the residents could find. Hundreds of men lived there. Other large cluster of shacks in Seattle were located in the southern industrial section and in Interbay. Several attempts were made to get rid of the shack towns during the 1930s. City officials saw them as a health problem and a nuisance. Finally, in 1941, a shack elimination program began and the shack towns were systematically eliminated. (10) Another author writes that an unemployed Seattle lumberjack named Jesse Jackson and 20 other men started building shacks on vacant land owned by the Port of Seattle located a few blocks south of Pioneer Square. Within a few days, they built 50 shanties. After the squatters were brought to the attention of the City of Seattle, the Seattle Health Department posted notices on every shack to vacate within one week. Seven days later the Seattle Police arrived with cans of kerosene and burned down the shacks. The squatters immediately rebuilt. About a month later, the city burned down the shacks once again. This time the residents burrowed into the ground and constructed roofs made of tin or steel. The city relented and allowed them to stay on the condition that they adhere to safety and sanitary rules.
The man named Jesse Jackson became the liaison between Hooverville residents and City Hall and local businesses. He was the most public Hooverville resident and people began to call him the Mayor of Hooverville. He stated: ‘I am just a simple person, living among simple people, whose status in life is the same as theirs, trying to do the best I know how to administer in my poor way to their wants. The men often seek my advice and bring their troubles to me. I advise them the best I can on many questions. I am often able to prevent many little rows that might develop into big ones.’” …A census taken during March 1934 counted 632 men and seven women living in 479 shanties. Their ages ranged from 15 to 73. Included were 292 Caucasians foreign born, 186 Caucasians born in the United States, 120 Filipinos, 29 Negroes (African Americans), three Costa Ricans, two Mexicans, two Indians, two Eskimos, and one Chilean. Hooverville remained in existence till the end of the Great Depression. (1,11) The Hooverville in Portland, Oregon, was located along the Willamette River. Many of the men living there during the winter worked in the nearby orchards of the Willamette and Yakima Valley in the summer.
The Washington, D.C. Hooverville mushroomed on the Anacostia flats south of the Capitol in the spring and summer of 1932. The so-called “Bonus Army,” a group of World War I veterans from across the United States, lived there while “lobbying” U.S. Congress for passage of the “bonus bill,” which would release their cash payouts for service rendered during World War I before the established 1945 due date. (12) The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, but the Senate defeated it on June 17, 1932. When the majority of the veterans refused to leave their Hooverville encampment, President Hoover ordered U.S. Army Chief of Staff Douglas A. MacArthur to evict them on July 28, 1932. The Anacostia Hooverville was torched and its inhabitants unceremoniously driven from the city. At its height, the veterans’ Anacostia Hooverville housed some 15,000 people.
In summary, a severe housing crisis swept the United States in the 1930s during the Great Depression, forcing unemployed (or severely underemployed) (mostly) men to use their wits to survive by building crude shantytowns with available materials at the edges of urban areas, such as Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; New York City; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Washington, D.C. There were hundreds of other Hoovervilles throughout the country. (13) In many cases, they were unsanitary and public health departments forced their razing. Notes:
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