Saratoga Foothill Club

In 1915, this Arts and Crafts style clubhouse was built for the Women's Club of Saratoga, which had been established in 1907 with twelve local women. The organization was incorporated in 1914 as the Saratoga Foothill Club. The architect of the redwood-shingled building with a vaulted redwood ceiling was Julia Morgan, a pioneering architect who was the first woman to graduate from the School of Engineering at U.C. Berkeley. The Saratoga Foothill Club became the City of Saratoga's first Historic Landmark in 1988; the building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The historic clubhouse is still owned by the Women's Club and still serves as the meeting space for the Saratoga Foothill Club. The locale also specializes in event rentals, event planning, and catering. Several public events are held in the space, most of which are free to students with IDs.

A group of local women formed a club in Saratoga in 1907 to broaden their education and discuss issues of local concern. The Women's Club of Saratoga began with twelve members and held meetings in members' homes. The group was the first social organization in the town. Julia Morgan (1872-1957) happened to be a sorority sister of one of the founding members of the Women's Club of Saratoga (Grace Fisher Richards, at U.C. Berkeley). A pioneering architect. Morgan was the first woman to graduate from the School of Engineering at U.C. Berkeley; this was before the school even offered courses in architecture. In only three years, Morgan earned a certificate in architecture from the renowned Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She also became the first woman architect licensed in California. Morgan went on to design over a thousand buildings in the San Francisco region, including the magnificent Hearst Castle for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst; however, only one other surviving building was for a private women's club (Sausalito Women's Clubhouse from 1918).

Morgan's Craftsman-Bungalow design for the clubhouse was meant to complement the surrounding residential area with its low, horizontal shape and natural materials. Construction lasted from the summer of 1914 to May 1915 on the lot donated by Mrs. George A. Wood and Mrs. Davis C. Bell. The redwood, one-story building on a concrete foundation was 74 feet wide. A wooden pergola bordered a street from a corner of the building. The entry vestibule led to a hall, which in turn led to either a dining room or a ballroom/assembly room. The spacious ballroom included a stage, corner bookshelves, and a fireplace. A motion picture booth was situated opposite a large bay window. Redwood paneling covered the lower ten feet of some of the rooms or was laid in strips on top of plaster to resemble half-timbering.

The site was first landscaped in the spring of 1918, three years after the clubhouse was completed. A furnace in 1921 took the place of the fireplace for heating the clubhouse. In 1925, the kitchen switched from wood or coal fuel to electric power. A 1936 addition designed by Morgan adjacent to an alley held a kitchen; dressing rooms were located near the ballroom stage, and the restrooms were expanded at the same time. A windstorm damaged some of the glass panes in the circular rose window on the front facade in 1974; they were replaced with crinkle amber glass. A garden on the southeast side of the clubhouse was converted into a paved patio of concrete slabs and brick in 1975. An interior pergola in the northwest portion of the ballroom was removed.

Several notable women were members of the club, including Sarah Brown, the daughter of abolitionist John Brown, and Lillian Fontaine, the mother of actresses Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland. The club's history and landmarks committee was formed in 1938, headed by Florence Cunningham; the committee later became the Saratoga Historical Foundation. The clubhouse was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in the late 1970s.

The ballroom has retained its original hardwood floor, redwood vaulted ceiling, and raised platform stage. The tall windows from 1915 still let in plenty of natural sunlight, and the building has been modernized with air conditioning and wi-fi. While the busy venue is often rented for special private events like dinners and weddings, there are a number of public events scheduled, with admission fees that vary if one is a club member or not (although students with ID are generally admitted for free). Some recent public events included musical performances by advanced high school student musicians and lectures. Club members, who now number about 250, enjoy monthly teas or luncheons.

Cigliano, Jan E. Clarke, Robert. HABS documentation of Saratoga Foothill Club, Saratoga, California. Volume CA-2010. Historic American Buildings Survey. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1979.

Saratoga Foothill Club. Our History, Saratoga Foothill Club. Accessed July 10th, 2024. https://www.saratogafoothillclub.com/our-history.

Saratoga Foothill Club. About, Saratoga Foothill Club. January 1st, 2024. Accessed July 10th, 2024. http://saratogafoothillclub.org/2015/06/29/about/.

Wyman, Beth. NRHP nomination of Saratoga Foothill Club, Saratoga, California. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 2004.