UNITED SOUTH END SETTLEMENTS

The Harriet Tubman House is home to adult programming, senior service programming, and the administrative offices for United South End Settlements. Built in 1976 for USES, the Tubman House has a rich history as a landmark at the corner of Massachusetts and Columbus Avenues. It was the first major commission for Don Stull – then, one of only a dozen African-American architects in the nation – who won awards with the Tubman House and went on to design Boston's award-winning Ruggles Street subway station and the new police department headquarters.

The building comprises a multi-level, open floor plan filled with natural light from skylights and large floor-to-ceiling windows. Its external walls on Columbus Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue are decorated with a mural depicting the ethnically diverse history of the past 100 years in the South End. A newly installed elevator and renovated bathrooms have made the building fully handicap accessible.

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The South End House is a historic building that has become home to USES' youth programs including our Pre-School, After School and Summer Day program. Next door is USES' Children's Art Centre which offers art classes and projects for children attending programs in the South End House.

The Children's Friend Society built the South End House at 48 Rutland Street in 1840 as a home for orphaned children. USES' connection to that site began in the early 1900s. A wide variety of settlement house programs and services have operated out of the facility since that time. With a philanthropic infusion of over $2 million in the form of capital support, today the building is fully inhabited, bursting with children of all ages and alive with activity from morning to night.

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The Children's Art Centre (CAC) was built in 1918 at 36 Rutland Street through the efforts of settlement-house administrator, Albert Kennedy and FitzRoy Carrington, curator of prints at the MFA. The building was designed by Alexander Emerson, and the first president of the CAC was the renowned architect, Ralph Adams Cram. In the early years, young people of the South End enjoyed exhibits of art prints organized by Mr. Carrington. As time went by, children started to express interest in copying what they saw on the walls. Art classes for boys and girls were started as a result. In the 1930s, the director of the CAC realized that South End children might grow to adulthood without ever seeing original art – the exhibits at the CAC featured only prints - and she began soliciting local artists and galleries for loans for rotating shows. The CAC gained the reputation as being a "museum" for children. It was at this time that the director put an end to the copying of the art on display and started more sophisticated art classes that allow the children to use their imaginations to the fullest. Among the notable artists who received their start at the Children's Art Centre is the South End's own Allan Rohan Crite. The most active period for the CAC was the 1930s through the 1960s. Photographs from those decades show dozens of children drawing and painting at cramped tables, the young artists literally bursting through the French doors. Other early photos depict dramas being staged in the CAC courtyard and live music being enjoyed while the children painted or modeled with clay. Children from all different backgrounds and ethnicities attended the CAC. Viewing photographs of CAC children through the years gives one an idea of the many immigrant groups that called the South End "home".

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Camp Hale, located on Squam Lake in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has been providing residential camping experience to approximately 180 young men and women every summer since 1900. Traditionally an all-boys camp, Camp Hale established an all-girls session in 2012 to provide inner-city girls with the chance to experience the beauty and unique opportunities that Camp Hale has to offer. The basic camping program serves 6 to 14 year old youth using the natural setting of the lake and mountains to provide an alternative environment away from the stresses of urban living, in which the youth have an opportunity for development and realization of personal potential within the framework of an enriching experience. These experiences are broken into three parts of the day representing individual achievement, peer group interaction, and community responsibility. The Leaders in Training program targets youth between the ages of 14 to 16 year olds, generally former campers, as potential counselors and prepares them through work, special training sessions, and mentor-supervised leadership experiences.

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