The History of
Community Design
and Development
in America
Community Development Archive
The History of Community Design and Development in America

Philanthropic and Spiritual Beginnings

Community development and its commitment to social reform owes much to the legacies of the Second Great Awakening, the economic theory of Henry George, and Protestantism’s Social Gospel.

1850s

Second Great Awakening

A revivalist camp meeting of Methodists in North America. 1819.
Image: Jacques Gerard Milbert via Library of Congress

In the Second Great Awakening, social theorist Henry George and his family experienced a spiritual uplifting at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. This period of revivalism introduced the concept of postmillenialism, which was the belief that Christ’s second coming would come soon, once Chrisitians had established heaven on Earth. This compelled adherents to not just atone for their own sins but also to eradicate sin in society. This religious revival was an impetus for the abolition, Christian Temperance, and women’s suffrage movements.1

1879

Henry George’s Progress and Poverty

A political cartoon of Henry George mounted on a dragon named ‘free trade’ slaying the dragon of ‘landlordism’, a metaphor of what would be the central theme of his New York mayoral campaign. 1880s.
Image: Unknown Illustrator via New York Public Library

It was society’s grave injustices like abject poverty, President Lincoln’s democratic ideals, and a fear of economic monopolies that compelled Henry George to write Progress and Poverty in 1879. He contended that the concentration of unearned wealth was the cause of poverty, identifying that speculation and the restriction of access to resources for financial benefit result in lower wages and the collapse of businesses. As a solution, he proposed a land value tax that would incentivize productive land use and pay for essential services. Progress and Poverty was the second highest selling book in the English language after the Bible in the 1890s.2

Even though his tax proposal did not come to pass, the book’s influence was monumental. Jacob Riis marked the beginning of the Progressive Era as the publication of  George’s book 1879, and Eric F. Goldman, Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University, commented:

“For some years prior to 1952 I was working on a history of American reform and over and over again my research ran into this fact: an enormous number of men and women, strikingly different people, men and women who were to lead 20th century America in a dozen fields of humane activity, wrote or told someone that their whole thinking had been redirected by reading Progress and Poverty in their formative years. In this respect no other book came anywhere near comparable influence, and I would like to add this word of tribute to a volume which magically catalyzed the best yearnings of our fathers and grandfathers.”

Edward T. O’Donnell, Associate Professor of History at College of the Holy Cross
Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015).
A postcard featuring a billboard promoting Henry George’s single tax proposal and illustrating its concept to the common man. 1880s.
Image: Postcard via New York Public Library

1880

The Social Gospel

A revival meeting of Messengers Moody and Sankey conducted at the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Station on Market Street in Philadelphia. 1875.
Image: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated

Between 1855 and 1930, the Third Great Awakening took place in the United States, marking the height of spiritual influence from mainline Protestant denominations. The period was characterized by a strong emphasis on education, moral issues, proselytizing, and social activism. Protestants became repulsed by the visible state of poverty and the physical conditions of American cities. The term ‘social gospel’ originates in minister Charles Oliver Brown’s reference to George’s Progress and Poverty. It was a movement that sought to apply Christian ethics to social problems facing American cities, including economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, child labor, etc.3

A photograph of poor housing conditions in New York City’s tenements. 1903.
Image: Tenement House Department via New York City Municipal Library

Rockefeller’s Spiritual Upbringing

John D. Rockefeller’s strict Baptist upbringing drove his charitable and philanthropic pursuits. He began the practice of donating a percentage of his income to his church as soon as he got his first job as an assistant bookkeeper out of college. He saw every dollar earned as a blessing for his hard work, and he felt spiritually compelled to contribute a part of it. 

By 1880, his donations accounted for half of his congregation’s annual budget, and he was giving to causes beyond the church. However, his charity was still largely guided by the teachings of the church, and the congregation’s leaders provided specific guidance on where to channel the funds. 

Rockefeller was also dedicated to funding education, seeing it as an important tool for individuals to raise their own quality of life. In the 1880s, he made contributions to support schools for Native Americans and African Americans, communities whose educational needs were not being met (e.g., Spelman College in Atlanta, GA).4

A photograph of John D. Rockefeller, Senior and John D. Rockefeller, Junior walking together. 1921.
Image: Rockefeller Family Photographs via the Rockefeller Archive Center

1890

1890
Jacob Riis publishes How the Other Half Lives, exposing Americans to life in the New York City slums.

The Establishment of the University of Chicago

An aerial photograph of University of Chicago’s campus grounds, circa early turn of the twentieth century.
Image: The University of Chicago Library

In 1888, a body of Baptist leaders from across the country founded the American Baptist Education Society (ABES) to support higher education opportunities for their congregation. Clergyman Frederick Taylor Gates left his church in Minnesota and became a founding member and the organization’s secretary. ABES was financially supported by John D. Rockefeller, and the meeting between Gates and Rockefeller became a decades-long relationship that led to the creation of the University of Chicago.

Official portrait of the University of Chicago’s first president, William Rainey Harper. 1890.
Image: The American Review of Reviews via WikiCommons

The university’s first president, William Rainey Harper, felt the need to uphold the study of faith as the university’s central focus. The founders placed the university in Chicago to meet the needs of Western Baptists, who lacked options for higher education. The initial range of studies offered by the school included a business school, a law school, a metallurgy laboratory, and the nation’s first department of sociology.

The University was also engaged in recruitment efforts for new academic talent with a particular focus on free thinkers. The Progressive Era’s spirit of reform was embodied in institutions like University of Chicago and divinity schools like Gates’ alma mater Rochester Theological Seminary.5

1896
The Supreme Court Case Plessy v. Ferguson validates racial segregation by ruling that equal protection principles could be honored if facilities provided are “separate but equal.”

Footnotes

  1. Kathleen D. McCarthy, Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society 1700-1865 (2003) ↩︎
  2. Edward T. O’Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality (2015) ↩︎
  3. Roy Lubove, The Professional Altruist: The Emergence of Social Work as a Career 1880-1930 (1965) ↩︎
  4. Kenneth W. Rose, John D. Rockefeller, The American Baptist Education Society, and the Growth of Baptist High Education in the Midwest (1998) ↩︎
  5. Rose Marie Ohm, The Continuing Legacy of the Chicago School (1988) ↩︎