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One such Hooverville “towns” was located in New York City’s Central Park. When the stock market crashed in 1929, it occurred just as a rectangular reservoir north of Belvedere Castle was being taken out of service. By 1930, a few homeless people set up an informal camp at the drained reservoir but were soon evicted. But, having nowhere to go, they would come back and as public sentiment became more sympathetic, they were allowed to stay. Called “Hoover Valley,” the reservoir soon sported a number of shacks on what was labeled "Depression Street."  One was even built of brick with a roof of inlaid tile constructed by unemployed bricklayers. Others built dwelling from stone blocks of the reservoir, including one shanty that was 20 feet tall. Though the settlement could not have been popular with the tenants of the new Fifth Avenue and Central Park West apartments, but they mounted no protest.

Hooverville in Central Park, New York City.

There were other such settlements in New York – one called “Hardlucksville” which boasted some 80 shacks between Ninth and 10th Streets on the East River. Another called “Camp Thomas Paine,” existed along the Hudson in Riverside Park. The Central Park disappeared sometime before April, 1933 when work on the reservoir landfill resumed.

In Seattle, Washington stood one of the largest, longest-lasting, and best documented Hoovervilles in the country, standing for ten years, between 1931 to 1941. Though there were several located about the city, this Hooverville was located on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. The camp began when an unemployed lumberjack Spread over nine acres, it housed a population of up to 1,200. The camp began when an unemployed lumberjack named Jesse Jackson and 20 other men started building shacks on the land. Within just a few days 50 shanties were made available to the homeless. However, the Health Department soon posted notices on every shack to vacate them within a week. When the residents refused, the shacks were burned down. But, they were immediately rebuilt, burned again, and rebuilt again, this time underground, with roof made of tin or steel. With Jesse Jackson acting as a liaison between Hooverville residents and City Hall, the Health Department finally relented and allowed them to stay on the condition that they adhere to safety and sanitary rules. Jackson became the de facto mayor of the shantytown, which also included its own form of community government. The “town” existed until the land was needed for shipping facilities prior to World War II.

A Chicago, Illinois Hooverville sprung up at the foot of Randolph Street near Grant Park, which also claimed its own form of government, with a man named Mike Donovan, a disabled former railroad brakeman and miner, as its “Mayor.” In an interview with a reporter, Donovan would say “Building construction may be at a standstill elsewhere, but down here everything is booming. Ours is a sort of communistic government. We pool our interests and when the commissary shows signs of depletion, we appoint a committee to see what leavings the hotels have.”