Lea Demarest Taylor

Lea Demarest Taylor (June 24, 1883 – December 3, 1975) was the head resident of the Chicago Commons, a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, from 1922 to 1954. Her social life, however revolved principally around the settlement; she had already been elected a full resident of the settlement in 1899, at the age of 16. She soon continued on to Vassar College, where she graduated in 1904. She did not continue to graduate school, explaining later in life that her work at the settlement "was my graduate education."

During the 1910s Taylor conducted detailed research on the problems facing the neighborhood. In 1917, during World War I, the settlement established a draft board, and Taylor used her position as secretary of the draft board to collect even more information on the local community, which she used for her research in subsequent years. Her experience working with her brother Graham Romeyn Taylor on the causes of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 spurred a lifelong interest in race relations and racial equality.

Directorship

Taylor took her father's place as head resident at Chicago Commons in 1922. She had in fact already been doing much of the head resident's work for several years, since assuming the role of assistant head resident in 1917.

The 1940s brought an unprecedented challenge for the Chicago Commons, as the movement of African Americans into the neighborhood around the settlement led to violent reactions from the neighborhood's white residents. Taylor resisted calls from the local community for segregation, organizing racially integrated camps and other activities, but was not able to stem the rising tide of animosity. On October 10, 1947, a racially motivated fire left ten African Americans dead and 60 injured in a crowded apartment building a short distance from the settlement. Taylor described it as "the worst disaster in the field of inter-racial warfare that has happened in Chicago". In addition to arranging relief for the victims, she served on the coroner's jury on the fire, which delivered a finding of arson as the cause.

In 1948, as people moved away from the neighborhood due to the impending construction of the Kennedy Expressway, the Chicago Commons Association merged with nearby settlement Emerson House and sold its massive building to raise funds for nonresidential community centers. Taylor ceased to be the head of the Chicago Commons Association at this point, but remained head resident at a short-lived new location further to the northwest. She finally retired from the position of resident in 1954.