Hull House

In 1913, people began arriving at Hull-House asking to see a child no one could produce. The rumor called it the Devil Baby: a red-skinned infant with a tail, supposedly born after a father rejected the baby he had wished for. Jane Addams later described the episode as more than a curious tale. Neighborhood women, she wrote, were using the story to speak about domestic violence, family hardship, and the vulnerability of women and children. The visitors came to see a baby; Hull-House became a place where a community’s fears and grievances surfaced.

The settlement had opened in 1889, when Addams and Ellen Gates Starr moved into a residence on Chicago’s Near West Side. Thousands of newly arrived immigrant families lived and worked nearby. Addams and Starr set out to live alongside their neighbors and build services in response to their needs. Mary Keyser, who joined them from the Addams household, became an important connection to the surrounding community.