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Chicagoans like Ellen Gates Starr and
Jane Addams, St. Louis possessed a
cadre of willing workers seeking to
address the needs of the people they
saw around them. Founded in 1889,
Chicago’s Hull House is perhaps the
best-known of settlement houses in
the United States, but what came to be
called Kingdom House originated as an
idea in the minds of several people and
groups during that same era.
These individuals possessed one
common trait – a love of God and a
commitment to bettering the social
environment of God’s people in need.
These workers hearkened from diverse
backgrounds comprising an assembly
of Methodist Episcopal Church, South
women organized under the St. Louis
Conference of Women’s Parsonage &
Home Mission Society, a converted Jew,
and a second-vice president of a local
shoe company. Together they shaped
the vision that became the reality of
Kingdom House.
In April of 1886, the General
Conference created the Woman’s
Department of the Board of Church
Extension as an adjunct of the Board
and to help provide parsonages for those
who needed assistance. The General
Conference changed the departmental
name in 1890 to Woman’s Parsonage
and Home Mission Society and the St.
Louis Conference Society organized in
1891. Two years later representatives
from Conference Societies met in
St. Louis to consider plans for city
evangelism. That Conference founded a
City Mission in St. Louis – the first to be
established by women in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
3
By 1897 there were 74 social
settlements sponsored by a variety of
denominations scattered throughout
the United States. But as late as 1900
there were no church settlements in
connection with the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. Many church leaders,
in fact, opposed the establishment of
social-religious centers, believing that
“churches, schools and orphanages are
real church work, not these ‘playhouses
of the women.’”
4
However, this did not
prevent the Women’s Board of Home
Mission from establishing the first
church settlement in Nashville in 1901.
The minutes of the 1898 St. Louis
Conference of Woman’s Parsonage &
Home Mission Society illustrate how
C
hapter
O
ne
: B
eginnings
(1902-1927)
B
C
P
hotos
:
B:
The father and
children are seated on
the family’s bed.This
overcrowding was typical
of poorer families in
large urban areas in the
early 20th century
C:
Clinic family as observed
by the Visiting Nurse,
circa mid-1920s.This
family of seven lived here
in a one-room attic.The
stove served as both a
heat source and food
preparation center.
3