Hull-House Highlights

"Life at the Jane Club: Working-Girls Happy Home"
JaneClubParlor

How Thirty-Three Young Women Keep House on the Co-Operation Plan in Ewing Street–Comfortable Quarters at Nominal Cost

The first day of May, this year, seven working girls rented one of the lower flats at 253 Ewing street and started housekeeping on the co-operative plan. What was that day an experiment is to-day an assured success and the Jane club, by which name the place is known has an almost national reputation. Monday night the club was seven months old and the occasion was fittingly remembered by the thirty-three young women who now make their homes within its walls. Three flats instead of one are occupied and the club contemplates taking another. But two more members can be accommodated in the present quarters and the two vacant chairs have already been applied for. The entire house would accommodate 100 girls, and the club confidently looks forward to the time when its roster will show that number of names.

All the comforts of home, devoid of hotel and boarding-house conventionalities, are what the Jane club provides for its members. The house is handsomely furnished and possesses all the conveniences of the modern home. The interior on every head denotes the presence of the soft hand of woman.

An Air of Home.

The visitor upon entering the parlor is at once taken with its cosiness. Elegant rugs cover the highly polished maple floor. An upright piano is the property of all, and not a few of the young ladies are accomplished musicians. The walls are hung with pictures that would grace any parlor or drawing room, while the center table is loaded with books of poems, etc. Heavy damask curtains divide the parlor from the two dining-rooms. Back of these is the kitchen, and to the right the storage room, in which thirty-three trunks belonging to the members are kept. This room resembles the baggage room of a railroad depot, for there is nothing small about the size of these trunks. The club has two flats on the first floor, and one of these is cut up into bedrooms. A single flat on the second floor serves the same purpose. Every bedroom is provided with a dressing-case, wardrobe and wash stand. The smaller rooms have only one bed, while the larger ones have two and sometimes three. Nearly all the bedsteads are of white enameled iron with brass trimmings, and with their snowy spreads and downy pillows, are in close keeping with the general neatness and homelike appearance of the entire house. Rugs of the finest quality take the place of carpets in all the rooms, and each bedroom is provided with a number of oil paintings or other handsome pictures.

The entire house is heated by a large furnace, which divides the space in the basement with the coal house and a commodious laundry. The latter is fitted with all the modern appliances for washing, drying and ironing, and those members who desire are at liberty to use it at any time.

How the House is Run.

Two servant girls are employed by the club. They do the cooking and wait on the tables. In the dish-washing process they are assisted each evening by two members of the club. Each girl takes her turn at this work, which is called evening exercise.

The main feature of the Jane club, and the one which the young ladies are probably the proudest, is the fact that they have demonstrated that through co-operation they can enjoy the luxuries as well as the comforts of life at an expenditure of only $3 a week. This is considerably less than the cost of maintaining many of the public and private institutions. The club has a set of officers, but this fact does not relieve the individual members of the responsibility of looking after its interests, for the officers have no more to say about it management than have the members. There is, however, no board of managers, and the girls are responsible to no one but the club. Each one has a night key and she comes and goes at will.

Must All Be Agreeable.

The principle clause in the constitution is that all members shall be agreeable. This clause is strictly enforced. Each Monday evening a meeting is held at which the events of the week are discussed and the members are given an opportunity to complain if there has been any ill treatment. To the credit of the club be it said that during its seven months’ existence there had not been a complaint. Tuesday evening is pay-day. The treasurer installs herself in her official chair—and the young ladies each pay their $3. Then all is serene and a new week is entered upon.

In this connection a few statistics may become interesting. The first month the club expended $3.88 more than it received, but the month following it came out $2.50 ahead. The October receipts were $349.51 and the expenditures $325.59, leaving a balance of $23.92. The money was expended as follows: Groceries, $85.56; meat, $61.40; milk, $21; fuel $24.65; ice, $4.90; wages $51; rent $68; incidentals, $9.08.
The club was named for Miss Jane Addams, in whose mind the idea originated. Miss Addams advanced the first month’s rent and she and Miss Wilmarth donated most of its furniture. Funds have never been solicited, and, it is positively stated, never will be. Several persons have offered money in a patronizing way, but it has always been refused. The girls prefer to be independent and say their home is not a public institution.

The present officers are: President, Mary E. Kenny; vice-president, Rena Doeing; secretary, Mary R. Sullivan; treasurer, Maggie V. Toomer.

"Life at the Jane Club: Workings-Girls Happy Home," 1892 newspaper clipping, in Hull-House Scrapbook 2, folder 507, Hull-House Association Records, JAMC, Special Collections, The University Library, The University of Illinois at Chicago.

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