Hooverville

Encyclopedia : H : HO : HOO : Hooverville

Portland], [Oregon]

Hooverville is a term describing a series of villages that appeared during the Great Depression in the United States from 1929 through the 1930s and 1940s. These villages were often formed in desolate areas or unpleasant neighborhoods and consisted of dozens or hundreds of shacks and tents that were temporary residences of those left unemployed and homeless by the Depression. People slept in anything from open piano crates to the ground. The government did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for technically trespassing on private lands.

The word "Hooverville" is a spin on the last name of the 31st President of the United States during the beginning of the Depression, Herbert Hoover.

Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed building skills and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of box wood, cardboard, and any scraps of metal they could find. Some individuals even lived in watermains.

Most of these unemployed residents of the Hoovervilles begged for food from those fortunate enough to have housing during this era. Several other terms came into use during this era, such as "Hoover blanket" (old newspaper used as blanketing) and "Hoover flag" (an empty pocket turned inside out). "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to line a shoe with the sole worn through. A "Hoover wagon" was a car with horses tied to it because the owner could not afford gasoline; in Canada, these were known as Bennett buggies.

Stanford University

Hooverville was also a derogatory word for the substandard and inadequate graduate student housing at Stanford University through the late 1990s.[link] For about 25 years, the administration housed a portion of its graduate students in 41 mobile homes on campus, formally called Manzanita Park, and more than half of the graduate students were not given on-campus housing at all, which caused considerable resentment.[link] Herbert Hoover is closely identified with the university; in addition to having spent much of his life there, the most prominent building on campus, Hoover Tower, is named for him.

External links

[Photos of a new father figure in Hooverville in Portland, Oregon], near the Ross Island Bridge, from a Library of Congress website

[Photos and details of a Hooverville in Seattle, Washington], from a King County, Washington website

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.