People's Houses

The Republic's industrial and educational reforms began in the big cities. How were they to be carried to the four corners of the country? The People's Houses were the institutional answer to that question.

Founding and Structure

• Opening (19 February 1932). Fourteen People's Houses opened with ceremonies on the same day in fourteen provinces; the decision to found them had been taken at the CHP congress of 1931.
• Growth. The number of People's Houses reached 34 by the end of 1932, 103 in 1935, 210 in 1938, 373 in 1939 and 379 in 1940. On 19 February 1940 a further 141 People's Rooms (Halkodaları) opened. Sources differ slightly.
• Nine branches. Activities were divided into the branches of Language-Literature-History, Fine Arts, Drama, Sports, Social Assistance, People's Classrooms, Library, Village Work, and Museum and Exhibitions; each People's House ran at least one of these.

Concrete Outcomes

• Libraries and reading rooms. The book count of People's House libraries rose from 59,444 in 1932 to 437,176 in 1940. Regional journals such as Ülkü, Uludağ and İdeal were also published.
• Theatre and music. Many Anatolian districts encountered stage theatre for the first time through these buildings.
• Sports facilities. Volleyball, gymnastics and athletics fields and small indoor sports halls were built.
• People's classrooms. Literacy courses and vocational training were offered; the classrooms formed the rural arm of the alphabet reform.
• Village work branch. This branch passed on agricultural knowledge, took health education to villages and carried out village-inventory work.

The People's Houses were both a cultural project and an infrastructure project: a theatre stage, a library, a sports ground and a classroom were brought together under one roof and taken to village and town. The classrooms that reinforced the social acceptance of the alphabet reform, and access to the performing arts, became possible thanks to these buildings.