Pillsbury Settlement House, Minneapolis

The Plymouth mission was a settlement house established by the Plymouth Congregational Church in 1879. Katherine Plant reorganized the mission into Bethel Settlement in 1897. It provided social services including a day nursery for working mothers, an employment bureau, a kindergarten, and a home economics department. 

In 1905, two successful flour mill owners John and Charles Pillsbury gave Bethel $40,000 in order to build a new facility. The renamed Pillsbury Settlement House (below) was completed in 1906. The Pillsbury Settlement House also offered youth and adult social clubs, and music events, and hosted many community meetings.[bib]24[/bib] In 1933 it was recorded that over 200,000 people attended classes or programs at the Pillsbury House. Affectionately called, “the good old ‘Pill House,” it was a crucial community center for Riverside residents.[9] Other hangouts in the area included other dance halls, Scandinavian saloons, local drugstores, Augsburg Seminary, and the YMCA.