The club was founded in 1920 when eight women met and established a charter with the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The building was completed in 1925 through community support: the Burke & Farrar development company gifted the land, local architect and future mayor John Hanford Wester donated the plans, and local high school shop students made the bookshelves.[3]
The building initially served as Kirkland's first public library with donated books and offered free well baby visits with a pediatric clinic. During the Great Depression, the group provided food and clothing to needy families and the building hosted musical events, parent–teacher association meetings, and a Camp Fire club. The club paid off their mortgage in 1937 and the library moved across the street to city hall in 1948.[3] The club continues to provide annual scholarships to local high school students.[4]
In 1999, the group donated a tiered fountain to local cemetery, a civic project that had been proposed in the 1880s but never funded until then.[5] In 2015, the group received support from the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation to secure the pair of chimneys to the roof in order to stabilize them and avoid collapse.[6]
The facilities in the clubhouse are rented out for wedding receptions, funerals, and birthdays.[2] A number of civic organizations without their own building have also met at the location including the Kiwanis and American Legion.[7][3]
Architecture
The brick fireplace in the clubroom
The clubhouse is a wood one-story vernacular building with exterior brick chimneys on each end. The front of the building has a central entry bay with three double-leaf French doors and a large ramp that replaced the original two steps. The large windows are composed of multi-light casement units separated by wood mullions. The low-pitched roof has a gable running parallel with the front of the building and overhanging eves with a boxed cornices.[3]
The interior consists of a clubroom to the left of the entrance and a front entry and library room to the right, in what is now a combined room. A kitchen and storage room are located to the rear of the building. There are two fireplaces, a smaller one in the library with a stone voussoir and a larger one in clubroom with a brick voussoir containing a decorative keystone. The rooms have coved ceilings with oak flooring and the original flower-shaped light fixtures.[3]
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