One Friday afternoon in March 1904, a group of Santa Clara women met to create the Santa Clara Woman’s Club as a civic improvement club.
On April 4, 2024 another group of women met to celebrate the founders and reflect on 120 years of community service. Mayor Lisa Gillmor presented the club with a City proclamation honoring its 120-year history.
Also on hand to celebrate with the club were City Council Members Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy, Suds Jain, Kevin Park and Kathy Watanabe; Janet Stevenson of the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara; and California Federation of Woman’s Club president Barbara Briley Beard.
In her remarks, Beard noted that Women’s Clubs established 75% of U.S. libraries and were instrumental in getting lines painted on the new motor roads and passing the 1906 Food and Drug Act.
The club’s first full year, 1905, found the club busy on making Santa Clara a better and more attractive place; initiating what eventually became the City’s annual clean-up campaign. A 1906 pamphlet the club published reports:
“The first work undertaken was the improvement of the old historic Mission Plaza, which had been neglected for years. Ground was cleared of weeds, plowed, fertilized and sown to lawn, red geraniums and shrubs planted; lawn mower and other implements purchased; fences and benches painted; drinking facilities supplied; rubbish box provided and gardener engaged at salary of $25 per month.”
The club also “busied itself” straightening Franklin Street, improving the train depot, advocating for better telephone service in the City, planting flowers at the post office and organizing Memorial Day celebrations.
The club was also active in the women’s suffrage movement — Santa Clara County was the only Bay Area county to vote in support of women’s suffrage in the October 10, 1911 election. After the law passed, the Woman’s Club was instrumental in getting women registered to vote the following year, registering 90 women to vote in January 1912.
The Woman’s Club’s minutes for the March 1911 minutes report that “Catherine Bingham spoke on suffrage.” And at Sept. 1911 meeting, members resolved that “if a rig could be procured, those able would ride in the Labor Day Procession” in support of women’s suffrage. Later that month, club member Lucy Higgins presented a Suffrage Day at Washington and Franklin Streets, reported the Oct. 3, 1911 Santa Clara News.
The club has continued to add to its impressive record of contribution to the community with a nursing scholarship fund and donations to groups as varied as the Senior Center, Bill Wilson Center, JW House, Loaves and Fishes and other community groups.
Since 1914, the club has met at the Adobe on 3260 The Alameda, which was bought for $350. Built in 1790, the Adobe is the oldest — perhaps the oldest — surviving adobe in Northern California. It dates back to the third Mission Santa Clara church, which was dedicated by Father Junipero Serra in 1784.
On July 27, 1914, U.S. Senator James Phelan visited the club to honor the newly refurbished Adobe.
“Prettily gowned in dainty summer attire, the members of the Hon. James Phelan this afternoon to their new club house,” wrote the San José Mercury Herald.
Phelan concluded his remarks by saying, “If it were not for the spirit which leads men and women far from utilitarian fields to such work as this, we would be poor indeed. I share with you in the pleasure of your work and I wish you God-speed.”
Local historian Mary Hanel contributed research for this story.
More about the Woman’s Club:
SCU Prof Unearths More Woman’s Club Adobe History
Santa Clara Woman’s Club Played Key Role In Getting Vote For Women In 1911