Is the original settlement house method – having every day citizens of one socio-economic class live among those of another — a legacy that we should bring back to life? We may or may not need to such places, though I admit I would like to see the model tried again. But we could benefit from finding new ways, in Addams’s words, to come together “on the common road.”What those new ways are must be discovered by those willing to experiment and change their minds. Addams did not set out in 1889 to become a political ally of working people. It was the unexpected result of the new life she chose. She later said, “A settlement [is] an institution attempting to learn from life itself.” By creating and leading such an open-minded, flexible organization, she helped herself and hundreds of other prosperous people form cross-class political alliances to work for social justice. But it all started with social ties. As Jane Addams pointed out more than one hundred years ago, citizens cannot cooperate so long as one group thinks itself superior to another.