Wikipedia
Community House may refer to:
- Community House (Winnetka, Illinois)
- Community House (Hamilton, Massachusetts)
- Community House (Manhattan, Kansas), listed on the NRHP in Riley County, Kansas
- Community House (Salt River, Cape Town)
- Community House, First Congregational Church, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
The Community House, also known as the Winnetka Community House, is a community center located at 620 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois. The center was completed in 1911, though it has been expanded several times since. Architect Arthur Coffin designed the building primarily in the Tudor Revival style, though his design also incorporated elements of the Prairie School. The building hosted a wide variety of community activities for all ages and genders, including sports and gym classes in its gymnasium, music and photography groups, billiards, and lectures; by the end of 1911, 51 different groups had begun meeting in the center. While the Community House was nonsectarian, its establishment and operation were heavily influenced by Winnetka's Congregational Church and inspired by its principles of community, education, and youth outreach. In keeping with the popular contemporary settlement movement, the church also planned the center as a settlement house; while it lacked living spaces, it included other typical settlement houses features such as its gymnasium, dining areas, and meeting rooms.
The community center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 2007.
The Community House at 284 Bay Road in Hamilton, Massachusetts is a historic social and civic community building serving the towns of Hamilton and Wenham. The Colonial Revival brick building was built in 1921 to a design by noted Boston architect Guy Lowell, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Construction of the building was made possible through the efforts and generosity of George Snell Mandell and Emily Mandell, Hamilton residents and publishers of the Boston Transcript. The Mandells and a group of Hamilton residents worked with Community Service, Inc., a national non-profit that worked to improve recreational facilities. The Mandells purchased the land, in what was then a residential area outside the Hamilton-Wenham business district, and gave it to Hamilton House, Inc., founded to hold title to the property in perpetuity.
The two story building houses an auditorium, sitting room, library, and kitchen on its first floor, and meeting rooms on the second. The basement originally held bowling lanes, a game room, and a men's lounge. Community Service of Wenham and Hamilton, Inc., which manages the building, has over the years offered a wide variety of social, recreational, and educational programs in the facility, and made it available to other community groups as meeting and function space.
The most significant changes to the building have affected the lower level. As bowling rose in popularity, additional lanes were added in a 1934 addition, and also in an adjoining building; the original lanes were converted to a shooting range for law enforcement. With the waning of bowling's popularity, the adjoining building was leased out and eventually sold after being converted to medical offices, and the 1934 addition was converted to meeting space.
Community House situated in Salt River, Cape Town is a unique and historic site of living heritage. It has always been known as a site of activism from around the mid 1980s which has shaped and continues to shape the socio-political landscape of its extended communities. The building itself houses NGO’s and Trade Unions as well as a labour and community history museum centered on the Trade Union Library and its archive. It presently houses twenty-four organizations that focus on labour research, popular education, gender advocacy, HIV/AIDS education, environmental issues, youth development, media production and union organization.
In the mid-1980s, apartheid South Africa saw heightened repression. this repression led to the revival of the workers' movement and was the start of an intense struggle for liberation. The need existed for infrastructure and a stable environment from which trade unions and civic and service organizations could wage this struggle. The Western Province Council of Churches (WPCC) and an NGO, the Social Change Assistance Trust (SCAT) met this need. They purchased a dilapidated auto-workshop in Salt River, an area known for its textile and light metal factories and which marks the origins of industrial unions in the province.
The site was declared a provincial heritage site in 2010.