How Women Saved The City

To uncover the contribution of women to urban development during this period, Daphne Spain looks at the places where women participated most actively in public life-voluntary organizations like the Young Women's Christian Association, the Salvation Army, the College Settlements Association, and the National Association of Colored Women. In the extensive building projects of these associations-boarding houses, vocational schools, settlement houses, public baths, and playgrounds-she finds clear evidence of a built environment created by women.

Exploring this environment, Spain reconstructs the story of the "redemptive places" that addressed the real needs of city dwellers-especially single women, African-Americans, immigrants, and the poor-and established an environment in which newcomers could learn to become urban Americans.

Daphne Spain is professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia.