Paine, Robert Treat, Jr. (1835-1910)

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Wells Memorial Institute

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, August 28, 1906

Address on the Second National Peace Congress, March 12, 1909 (excerpt)

Jane Addams to Robert Treat Paine, December 10, 1904

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Birth Date

1835-10-28

Death Date

1910-08-11

Birthplace

Boston, MA

Biographical Text

Robert Treat Paine, a descendent of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a lawyer, philanthropist, and internationally known peace activist. During the late nineteenth century, he helped improve living conditions for Boston’s poor communities through the improvement of ventilation and sanitation in a notorious tenement house known as the “Crystal Palace,” and by rehousing twenty-five poor families displaced by the construction of a train station, among other projects. As head of the Workingman’s Building Association he also oversaw the construction of more than 200 small, affordable dwellings in the South End, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods of Boston. His charitable interests extended to fellowships for the study of society’s ethical problems, the physical and moral welfare of the poor, the construction of Trinity Church in Boston, the Children’s Aid Society, the Congress of Workingmen’s Clubs, and the American Peace Society, which he was serving as president at the time of his death in 1910.