An awareness of morality in regard to one's behavior; a sense of right and wrong that urges one to act morally: Let your conscience be your guide. b. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience.
Inspired by the British movement, American social reformers began founding settlement houses in the late 1880s to respond to growing industrial poverty. In 1886, Stanton Coit founded Neighborhood Guild, the first US settlement house, in New York City.In 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr founded Hull-House in Chicago, which would eventually become the most famous settlement house in the US.By 1887, there were 74 settlements in the United States, and the number had ballooned to over 400 by 1890.pproximately half of the major US settlement houses were led and staffed predominantly by women. Among the most influential leaders were Jane Addams, Mary Simkhovitch, Helena Dudley, Lillian Wald, Mary McDowell, Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, and Edith Abbott.
America' most famous settlement house, Hull House, was the creation of Jane Addams, later a Nobel Laureate for Peace, and Ellen Starr. Established in 1889, it was intended as a place where the two women could share their knowledge of art and literature with the people surrounding the institution, mostly immigrants.oday, it is estimated that there are more than 900 settlement houses in the United States, according to UNCA, an association of 156 of them. Formerly known as the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, UNCA was actually founded in 1911 by Jane Addams and other pioneers of the settlement movement.