Woman's Club of Winter Park

The Woman’s Club of Winter Park is notable as it pertains to social history, because this was the first organization in Winter Park to build its own clubhouse. Since 1921, the building has served as a social center for the community and has housed the many activities and programs of the Woman’s Club. Between 1921 and 1945 the Woman’s Club of Winter Park was a leader in addressing a multitude of social, health, environmental, and educational issues, and provided numerous opportunities for the self-improvement of its members in the areas of art, drama, music, literature, foreign languages, and cultures. The building is also significant as a fine example of the Neoclassical Revival style, designed by New York architect L. Percival Hutton and built by L. C. Townsend, an important local contractor.

As the United States prospered and matured during the late 1880s, the role of women changed; many had managed businesses and property and had become involved in the abolition movement earlier in the century. Women devoted more time to interests other than their own families. American women began to organize and form clubs, both for their own intellectual and social benefit and to improve the lives of others. Whether in small towns or urban centers, these organizations met, often in the women’s homes, to discuss literature, the arts, education, politics, child welfare, civic problems, and a wide variety of varying topics. These clubs were one aspect of the progressive movement sweeping the United States. The General federation of Women’s Clubs was formed in the 1880s as a means of uniting these local groups. The Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs was organized on February 21, 1895, in Green Cove Springs, and was admitted into the national organization in 1898. 

Many of the early Florida women’s clubs began as civic improvement organizations. The FFWC, for example, successfully lobbied the State Legislature for compulsory school attendance and other education-related laws, using persistent “sandspur tactics”, and was the leading force in the establishment in 1916 of the Royal Palm State Park, which later evolved into the Everglades National Park. 

In the summer of 1914, three women met in Winter Park to plan the organization of a community woman’s club: Lucy Worthington Blackman, wife of the president of Rollins College, Dr. William F. Blackman; Lucy Meriwether Batchelor (Mrs. DeHaven Batchelor); and Alice Knox. All three were exemplary in their civic involvements as educators and organizers. The first meeting was held the next year, on January 13, 1915, at Osceola Lodge, the home of Mrs. Charles Hosmer Morse, who served until 1918 as the first president. Mrs. Blackman was the vice president, and Mrs. Hiram Powers was elected as the secretary/treasurer. Thirty women, including the three original planners, formed the charter membership of the Woman’s Club of Winter Park, a pretty college town situated in Orange County around a cluster of lakes.  

During its first years the Woman’s Club took an active part in improving life in Winter Park. The original charter proclaimed its purpose: “To associate the members in study and in efforts to advance the social, civic, educational, and moral welfare of Winter Park”. The Winter Park Post gave front page coverage to the Club’s activities: they arranged the first community Christmas tree in 1915 and a year later became involved in the Canning Club movement, a home demonstration project. The members helped the women of the neighboring African American community, Hannibal Square, organize a Woman’s Civic League and raised funds to improve the school in that community. The Woman’s Club of Winter Park continued to grow as the population of the town did. By 1916 there were over seventy members, and the club was incorporated in 1918.  

The Women’s Club formed a committee in 1917, headed by Mrs. Hiram Powers, to find a site for a clubhouse. In 1920, Charles Hosmer Morse, known as the “Father of Winter Park” for his contributions to the development of the town, donated five lots of land on Interlachen Avenue. L. Percival Hutton, the nephew of a member, Mrs. Robert MacDonald, was selected as the architect, even though his office was in New York City. The Building Committee carried on extensive correspondence with Hutton, preserving valuable documentation in the process of planning and designing the clubhouse. Hutton chose L. C. Townsend, a prominent Orlando contractor, to oversee the construction. The building was to cost $40,000 to construct, most of which was acquired through private member donations and the rest being covered by minor loans. The clubwomen organized themselves into clusters of “Twigs” to raise funds to pay back the loan: The Bridge Twigs held bridge parties, the Dancing Twigs invited friends to a subscription dance at the local Country Club, the Tiffin Twigs set up a tearoom, and so on. With these imaginative and dedicated efforts, the Woman’s Club eventually paid off the loan in 1926.  

By the time the clubhouse was completed in early 1921, there were two-hundred-twenty-three members in the Woman’s Club of Winter Park. The clubhouse served as a lecture hall, a theater, a concert hall, a ballroom, a banquet hall, an art gallery, and, of course, as a place where the members met to conduct their business and hold study classes and social events. The Woman’s Club took its mission of self-education seriously. The Club organized classes ana members were expected to enroll in one or more of them. Over the years the topics have been varied: music, languages, drama, bridge, international relations, world religions, interpretive reading of Shakespeare, and public speaking, to name a few. Nonmembers could also attend classes for a small fee.  

Community improvement was not neglected for self-education, however. As early as 1916 the Club erected signs designating Winter Park as a Bird Sanctuary, and in 1919 a petition was sent to the State Legislature requesting municipal suffrage for women. When equal suffrage was granted in May, the first to register were Club members Mary Leonard and Mrs. C. D. Powell. To further commemorate the “coming-of-age" of women, the Civics Committee of the Club hosted a party at the Town Hall to which all women voters were invited. 

Woman's Club of Winter Park, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed December 23rd 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/77843481.

History, The Woman's Club of Winter Park, Inc.. Accessed January 22nd 2021. https://www.womansclubofwinterpark.com/about-us/history/.