A "Hooverville" was a
shanty town built during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
by the homeless in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. They were named after
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, who was
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. The term was coined by Charles Michelson. There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s.
Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and was a common sight before 1929. Most large cities built municipal lodging houses for the homeless, but the Depression exponentially increased demand. The homeless clustered in shanty towns close to free soup kitchens. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
enacted special relief programs aimed at the homeless under the Federal Transient Service (FTS), which operated from 1933 to 1939.
Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills, and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. They usually had a small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements. Men, women and children alike lived in Hoovervilles. Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles relied on
public charities or
begged
Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...
for food from those who had housing during this era.
Democrats coined many terms based on opinions of
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
such as "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used as blanketing). A "Hoover flag" was an empty pocket turned inside out and "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to line a shoe when the sole wore through. A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed.
After 1940, the economy recovered, unemployment fell, and shanty housing eradication programs destroyed all the Hoovervilles.
Population of Hoovervilles
While some Hoovervilles created a sort of government, most were unorganized collections of shanty houses. This lack of organization has made it difficult to identify the populations within Hoovervilles. Some claim to have been made up of men, women, and children, while others claim to only have had men.
One exceptional Hooverville of Seattle, Washington held a structured government and collected extensive documentation. This Hooverville had its very own unofficial “mayor,” Jesse Jackson. The city of Seattle tolerated the unemployed living situation and imposed loose building and sanitation rules. A request from the city was that women and children would not be allowed to live in the shantytown. This was supervised by “Mayor” Jackson, who also led the Vigilance Committee.
Donald Francis Roy, a citizen of Seattle’s Hooverville, took detailed recordings of the population during his time there. In his journal, he states that of the 639 residents of the town, only 7 of them were women.
However, not every Hooverville fits this description. Photos from shantytowns across the country show images of families, including women and children, dwelling in their makeshift home.
Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. Migrant workers and immigrants greatly suffered from the lack of work and made up a large portion of the Hoovervilles across the country.
Roy’s 1934 census provides a breakdown of the population by ethnicity and nationality. His records show populations of Japanese, Mexican, Filipino, Native American, Costa Rican, Chilean, and Black men. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white.
Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
Roy documents a unique spirit of tolerance and amiability between ethnic groups. He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in ‘normal’ society did not stand within the Hooverville. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. Roy noted that the only Filipinos and Mexican men were segregated, generally due to language rather than racial discrimination.
Notable Hoovervilles
![Bonus marchers 05510 2004 001 a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Bonus_marchers_05510_2004_001_a.gif)
Among the hundreds of Hoovervilles across the U.S. during the 1930s were those in:
*
Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...
in the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
: The
Bonus Army
The Bonus Army was a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups – who gathered in Washington, D.C., in mid-1932 to demand early cash redemption of their servic ...
, a group of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
veterans seeking expedited benefits, established a Hooverville in 1932. Many of these men came from afar, illegally by riding on railroad freight trains to join the movement. At its maximum there were 15,000 people living there. The camp was demolished by units of the U.S. Army, commanded by
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
.
*
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, New York City: Scores of homeless families camped out at the
Great Lawn
The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are two connected features of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The lawn and pond are located on the site of a former reservoir for the Croton Aqueduct system which was infilled during the ...
at Central Park, then an empty reservoir.
*Riverside Park, New York City: A shantytown occupied Riverside Park at 72nd Street during the depression.
*
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
had eight Hoovervilles during the 1930s. Its largest Hooverville on the
tidal flats
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...
adjacent to the
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a government agency overseeing the seaport and airport of Seattle, Washington, United States. With a portfolio of properties ranging from parks and waterfront real estate, to one of the largest airports and container t ...
lasted from 1932 to 1941.
*
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
in 1930 had the largest Hooverville in America. It consisted of four distinct sectors. St. Louis's racially integrated Hooverville depended upon private
philanthropy
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, 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
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
allocated
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
funds for the area.
In popular culture
Hoovervilles have often featured in popular culture, and still appear in editorial cartoons. Movies such as ''
My Man Godfrey
''My Man Godfrey'' is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, who had been briefly married years before appearing together in the film. The screenplay for ''My Man Godfre ...
'' (1936) and ''
Sullivan's Travels
''Sullivan's Travels'' is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. A satire on the film industry, it follows a famous Hollywood comedy director (Joel McCrea) who, longing to make a socially relevant drama, sets out to ...
'' (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.
* Hooverville featured in the 2007 ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' stories ''
Daleks in Manhattan
"Daleks in Manhattan" is the fourth episode of the third series of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007. It is part one of a two-part story. Its concluding part, "Evoluti ...
'' and ''
Evolution of the Daleks
"Evolution of the Daleks" is the fifth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 April 2007, and is the conclusion of the two-part story begun in ...
'', which were set in 1930 New York. This version of the shanty town was based in Central Park.
* ''
Man's Castle
''Man's Castle'' is a 1933 pre-Code American film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young.
Plot
Well-dressed Bill (Spencer Tracy) takes pity on Trina (Loretta Young), a hungry young woman he meets in a city park an ...
'', a 1933 film directed by
Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage (; April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning American film director and actor, known for directing '' 7th Heaven'' (1927), '' Street Angel'' (1928), '' Bad Girl'' (1931), '' A Farewell to Arms'' (1932), ''Man's ...
, focuses on a number of down-and-out characters living in a New York City Hooverville; the main characters (played by
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
and
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...
) are lovers who cohabitate in a shanty outfitted with a skylight.
* In ''My Man Godfrey'', a 1936 screwball comedy, "Forgotten man" Godfrey Smith (played by
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
) is living in a Hooverville when he is patronised and "adopted" by Irene (
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 2 ...
).
* In ''Sullivan's Travels'', a 1941 comedy film written and directed by
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Best Origina ...
, John L. Sullivan, a wanderlust movie director, played by Joel McCrea, visits a Hooverville and accidentally becomes a genuine tramp.
* The musical ''
Annie
Annie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress
* Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer
The ...
'' has a song called "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", which takes place in a Hooverville beneath the
59th Street Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East ...
. In the song, the chorus sings of the hardships they now suffer because of the Great Depression and their contempt for the former president.
* In 1987, the Liverpool group
The Christians had a British hit with the song "Hooverville (And They Promised Us The World)".
* During a temporary housing crisis, the comic strip ''
Piled Higher and Deeper
''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newspaper and webcomic strip written and drawn by Jorge Cham that follows the lives of several grad students. First published in 1997 when Cham was a grad student himself at Stanfo ...
'' refers to a fictional solution to the resulting housing crisis at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
as "Hooverville" due to its proximity to Stanford's
Hoover Tower
Hoover Tower is a structure on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. The tower houses the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, an archive collection founded by Herbert Hoover before he became President of the United Stat ...
.
* The 2005 version of ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'', directed by Peter Jackson, depicts the Hooverville in New York's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
at the beginning of the film.
* The 2005 movie ''
Cinderella Man
''Cinderella Man'' is a 2005 American biographical sports drama film directed by Ron Howard, titled after the nickname of world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock and inspired by his life story. The film was produced by Howard, Penn ...
'' also referenced the Central Park encampment.
* In the novel ''
Bud, Not Buddy
''Bud, Not Buddy'' is the second children's novel written by Christopher Paul Curtis. The first book to receive both the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature, and the Coretta Scott King Award, which is given to outstan ...
'', set during the Great Depression, an early scene involves the police dismantling a Hooverville. Bud calls it "Hooperville".
* In Nelson Algren's ''
A Walk on the Wild Side
''A Walk on the Wild Side'' is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn", a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans.
Algren n ...
'', the main character Dove Linkhorn is described as descending from "Forest solitaries spare and swart, left landless as ever in sandland and Hooverville now the time of the forests have passed."
* In John Steinbeck's famous novel ''
The Grapes of Wrath
''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award
and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...
'', the Joad family briefly settles into a Hooverville in California.
* In
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...
's "Timeline-191" series of books, the equivalent of Hoovervilles in the United States and
Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
are called Blackfordburghs and Mitcheltowns, respectively, after fictional presidents Hosea Blackford of the US and Burton Mitchel of the CS. The term “Hoovervilles” still exists in this timeline, albeit as a partisan term used by Socialists (who alongside the right-wing Democrats dominate US politics) to highlight their continued existence under President Hoover and to detract from Blackford's poor legacy.
* Hoovervilles are part of
James Lincoln Collier
James Lincoln Collier (born June 29, 1928) is an American journalist, professional musician, jazz commentator, and author. Many of his non-fiction titles focus on music theory and the history of jazz.
He and his brother Christopher Collier, a h ...
's 2000 history book''The Worst of Times: A Story of the Great Depression''.
* The ''
Talespin
''TaleSpin'' is an American animated television series first aired in 1990 as a preview on Disney Channel and later that year as part of ''The Disney Afternoon''. It features characters adapted from Disney's 1967 animated feature ''The Jungle Boo ...
'' comic book ''The Long Flight Home'' portrays a Hooverville filled with anthropomorphic-animals.
Kit Cloudkicker
This is a list of characters in the The Walt Disney Company, Disney animated series ''TaleSpin''. ''TaleSpin'' was previewed on The Disney Channel in May through July 1990, and premiered Broadcast syndication, in syndication in September of that ...
was also a resident of it before joining
Don Karnage
This is a list of characters in the Disney animated series ''TaleSpin''. ''TaleSpin'' was previewed on The Disney Channel in May through July 1990, and premiered in syndication in September of that year.
Higher for Hire
* Baloo von Bruinwald XI ...
's air pirates.
See also
*
Potemkin village
In politics and economics, a Potemkin village (russian: link=no, потёмкинские деревни, translit=potyómkinskiye derévni}) is any construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a co ...
*
Reaganville
References
External links
Photos of a new father figure in Hooverville in Portland, Oregon near the
Ross Island Bridge
The Ross Island Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. It carries U.S. Route 26 (Mount Hood Highway) across the river between southwest and southeast Portland. The bridge opened in 1926 and was d ...
, from a
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
website
Hoovervilles and Homelessnessfrom the
Great Depression in Washington State Project
The Great Depression in Washington State Project is a multimedia web resource based at the University of Washington in Seattle. Created in the context of renewed economic hard times in 2009, the Project includes essays, maps, digitized newspaper a ...
, including photographs, paintings, maps, essays and first-hand accounts of life in Seattle's Hoovervilles.
Photos and details of a Hooverville in Seattle, Washington from a
King County, Washington
King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...
website
Photographs of California Hoovervilles (Sacramento, Kern County) via Calisphere, California Digital Library
*
{{Herbert Hoover, state=collapsed
Presidency of Herbert Hoover
Great Depression in the United States
Shanty towns in the United States
Human habitats
American culture
Homelessness in the United States