The human costs of the depression and the Pullman strike led to the organization in 1894 of three of Chicago's most famous settlement houses: Chicago Commons, Northwestern University Settlement House, and the University of Chicago Settlement House. Located at 140 Union Street, Chicago Commons served as home to Graham Taylor and other settlement workers and as a meeting place for neighborhood activities. It originally had belonged to a German-American family who had moved as industry replaced agriculture. After the Great Fire in 1871, it served as the office of the Northwestern Railway. Subsequently, the main house became a boarding house for lake seamen while the annex provided housing for eight "very poor Italian families."

Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-37112)