Formation | November 20, 1885 |
---|---|
Purpose | education and service |
Headquarters | Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
Location |
|
Affiliations | General Federation of Women's Clubs |
Ossoli Circle Clubhouse | |
Location | 2511 Cumberland Avenue |
Nearest city | Knoxville, Tennessee |
Built | 1933 [1] |
Architect | Charles I. Barber [2] |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 85000620 [2] |
Added to NRHP | March 21, 1985 [2] |
Website | GFWCOssoliCircle.org/ |
The Ossoli Circle is a women's club located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1885 as a literary society, the club is a charter member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the first federated women's club in the South. [3] Ossoli has long played an active role in obtaining economic and educational opportunities for women in Tennessee, and its members campaigned for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment (giving women the right to vote) in the early 1900s. [3] The club currently sponsors over two dozen projects and organizations. [4]
The Ossoli Circle was founded by women's rights activist Lizzie Crozier French (1851–1926), who had been inspired by a visit to New York's Sorosis Women's Club, a literary and book club organized in 1868. [5] The first meeting was held at the East Tennessee Female Institute on November 20, 1885, with 12 of the 25 women invited by Crozier-French responding to the invitation. [5] At the suggestion of its first president, Mary Boyce Temple (1856–1929), the club was named in honor of feminist Margaret Fuller Ossoli. [5] Initially a literary society, Ossoli set as its goal the intellectual and moral development of its members. [3]
Early Ossoli members included Knoxville's most educated women. Lizzie Crozier French was director of the East Tennessee Female Institute, and had been educated at the Convent of the Visitation in Washington, D.C. [6] Mary Boyce Temple was a graduate of Vassar College, [7] and Angie Warren Perkins (1858–1921) had been a professor at Wellesley College. [8] Mary Faith Floyd McAdoo (1832–1913) was a noted regional author, and Annie Booth McKinney (1855–1926) was a frequent contributor to magazines such as Harper's Bazaar , Munsey's Magazine , and Vogue . [9]
In 1889, Lizzie Crozier French represented Ossoli a meeting at the Sorosis Club for the purpose of organizing the General Federation of Women's Clubs. [5] The following year, Ossoli members Mary Boyce Temple and Annie Booth McKinney attended the Federation's ratification convention. [5] Temple was chosen as the Federation's first corresponding secretary. In 1896, at Ossoli's urging, the Tennessee Federation of Women's Clubs was established. [5] By this time, Ossoli's membership had grown to 75 members. [3]
In the early 1890s, Ossoli turned its attention toward providing education opportunities for girls and studied the possibilities of coeducation at the state's universities. [10] The University of Tennessee began admitting women in 1892, in part due to Crozier-French's efforts, [11] and Ossoli president Angie Warren Perkins served as U.T.'s first Dean of Women. [8] In the early 1900s, Ossoli funded traveling libraries for the region, and provided assistance to rural schools. The Circle was also instrumental in the formation of a state vocational school for girls. [3]
In 1960, the Circle marked its diamond anniversary with the publication of a 268-page "History of Ossoli Circle," compiled by Mrs. E.L. Bowman. To mark the Circle's centennial in 1985, a 25-year time capsule was dedicated. This time capsule was opened at the Circle's 125th anniversary celebration in 2010. [5]
The Ossoli Circle currently supports over two dozen organizations and projects. Organizations supported by Ossoli include St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, UNICEF, the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Suffragist Coalition, Childhelp, the Knox Area Rescue Ministry, and the Young-Williams Animal Shelter. [12]
During its early years, the Ossoli Circle met at the East Tennessee Female Institute's Mosaic Hall, at the corner of Henley and Main in downtown Knoxville. [5] Following the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897, several Ossoli members had Knoxville's exhibition building moved from Nashville to Knoxville, where it was rechristened the "Woman's Building." [5] Ossoli met here until it burned in 1906. [13] The Circle met at the Lyceum Building at the corner of Walnut and Cumberland from 1917 until it was torn down in the early 1930s to make way for the Knoxville Post Office. [5]
The current Ossoli Circle Clubhouse on Kingston Pike (formerly Cumberland Avenue) was built in 1933 and designed in the Colonial Revival style by noted Knoxville architect Charles I. Barber of the firm, Barber & McMurry. [1] The facade of the building features a pedimented portico supported by Doric columns. [1] The interior includes a vestibule which opens into a lobby, a hallway entrance flanked by Ionic pilasters, an auditorium with a capacity of approximately 200, as well as a library, dining room, and classrooms. [1]
The Ossoli Circle Clubhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, in time for the Circle's centennial anniversary.
Powell, formerly known as Powell Station, is a census-designated place in Knox County, Tennessee. The area is located in the Emory Road corridor, just north of Knoxville, southeast of Clinton, and east of Oak Ridge. It had a population of 13,802 during the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Concord is an unincorporated community in Knox County, Tennessee, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, the Concord Village Historic District. The United States Geographic Names Information System classifies Concord as a populated place. It is located in western Knox County, east of Farragut and west of Knoxville. Mail destined for Concord is now addressed to Concord, Knoxville, or Farragut.
John Hervey Crozier was an American attorney and politician active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, during the mid-nineteenth century. Described as "an orator of uncommon brilliancy" and "one of the brainiest men ever sent by Tennessee to congress," Crozier represented Tennessee's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1845 to 1849. While originally a member of the Whig Party, Crozier switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party in the 1850s, and supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. Crozier retired from public life after the war, and spent his remaining years engaged in scholarly pursuits.
Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh was an American attorney and politician who represented Tennessee's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1873 to 1879. The son of a prominent state legislator, Thornburgh fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, and served as attorney general of the state's third judicial district after the war. Following his congressional term, he formed a law partnership with several prominent Knoxville attorneys, and engaged in philanthropy.
The Knoxville Gazette was the first newspaper published in the U.S. state of Tennessee and the third published west of the Appalachian Mountains. Established by George Roulstone (1767–1804) at the urging of Southwest Territory governor William Blount, the paper's first edition appeared on November 5, 1791. The Gazette provided an important medium through which Tennessee's frontier government could dispense legislative announcements, and the paper's surviving editions are now an invaluable source of information on life in early Knoxville.
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century. He represented Tennessee's 1st Congressional District in the 36th U.S. Congress (1859–1861), where he gained a reputation as a staunch pro-Union southerner. He was elected to a second term in 1861 on the eve of the Civil War, but was arrested by Confederate authorities before he could take his seat.
The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1869, the ETV&G played an important role in connecting East Tennessee and other isolated parts of Southern Appalachia with the rest of the country, and helped make Knoxville one of the region's major wholesaling centers. In 1894, the ETV&G merged with the Richmond and Danville Railroad to form the Southern Railway.
The Ramsey House is a two-story stone house in Knox County, Tennessee, United States. Also known as Swan Pond, the house was constructed in 1797 by English architect Thomas Hope for Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey (1764–1820), whose family operated a plantation at the site until the U.S. Civil War. In 1969, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in the region's early 19th-century history.
Statesview, or States View, is a historic house located on South Peters Road off Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1805 by Knoxville architect Thomas Hope and rebuilt in 1823 following a fire, Statesview was originally the home of surveyor Charles McClung. Following McClung's death, newspaper publisher Frederick Heiskell purchased the house and estate, which he renamed "Fruit Hill." The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and political significance.
The Knox County Courthouse is a historic building located at 300 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1886, it served as Knox County's courthouse until the completion of the City-County Building in 1980, and continues to house offices for several county departments. John Sevier, Tennessee's first governor, is buried on the courthouse lawn. The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in the county's political history.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a historic Catholic church located at 414 West Vine on Summit Hill in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The society operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area.
Margaret Elizabeth Crozier French was an American educator, women's suffragist and social reform activist. She was one of the primary leaders in the push for women's rights in Tennessee in the early 1900s, and helped the state become the 36th state to certify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote, in 1920. She also founded the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and led efforts to bring coeducation to the University of Tennessee.
James Gettys McGready Ramsey was an American historian, physician, planter, slave owner, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for his book, The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century, a seminal work documenting the state's frontier and early statehood periods. Ramsey was also a major advocate for development in East Tennessee, leading efforts to bring railroad access to the region, and helping to organize the region's first medical society.
The East Tennessee Female Institute was an all-female institution of higher learning that operated in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, from 1827 until 1911. Originally chartered as the Knoxville Female Academy, the school offered high school and college-level courses to the women of Knoxville and surrounding counties in the years before the University of Tennessee became coeducational. With the rise of free public education in Knoxville in the early 1900s, enrollment at the institute, which was tuition-based, gradually declined.
Oliver Perry Temple was an American attorney, author, judge, and economic promoter active primarily in East Tennessee in the latter half of the 19th century. During the months leading up to the Civil War, Temple played a pivotal role in organizing East Tennessee's Unionists. In June 1861, he drafted the final resolutions of the pro-Union East Tennessee Convention, and spent much of the first half of the war providing legal defense for Unionists who had been charged with treason by Confederate authorities.
James Churchwell Luttrell II was an American attorney and politician who served as Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, during the Civil War. His eight-year term (1859–1867) was the longest for any Knoxville mayor until the late 20th century, when it was surpassed by Victor Ashe's 16-year term. Luttrell also served as state comptroller in the late 1850s, and was elected to the state senate following his term as mayor.
Mary Boyce Temple was an American philanthropist and socialite, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first president of the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and published a biography of the club's namesake, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in 1886. She also cofounded the Tennessee Woman's Press and Author's Club, the Knoxville Writer's Club, and the Knox County chapter of the League of Women Voters. She represented Tennessee at various international events, including the Paris Exposition of 1900 and at the dedication of the Panama Canal in 1903.
John Miller Fleming was an American newspaper editor, attorney and politician, active primarily in Tennessee during the latter half of the 19th century. He rose to prominence as editor of the Knoxville Register in the late 1850s, and worked as the editor of various newspapers, including the Knoxville Press and Herald, the Knoxville Tribune, and the Knoxville Sentinel, in the decades following the Civil War. He also served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, and was appointed Tennessee's first Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1873.
Mary Utopia Rothrock, was an American librarian and historian.