Portia Club | |
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  | |
| Location | 225 N. 9th St., Payette, Idaho |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 44°04′40″N116°56′02″W / 44.07778°N 116.93389°W Coordinates: 44°04′40″N116°56′02″W / 44.07778°N 116.93389°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1927 |
| Architect | I.C. Whitley |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 10000159 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 7, 2010 |
The Portia Club is a women's club based in Payette, Idaho. Its clubhouse building, at 225 N. 9th St. in Payette, was built in 1927 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. [1]
Payette is a city in and the county seat of Payette County, Idaho, United States. The population was 7,433 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ontario, OR−ID Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.
The club was formed in 1895. [2] It was named for Portia, [3] the beautiful and intelligent protagonist of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
Portia is the protagonist of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. A rich, beautiful, and intelligent heiress of Belmont, she is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose among three caskets. If he chooses the right casket, he wins Portia's hand in marriage. If he chooses the incorrect casket, he must leave and never seek another woman in marriage. She is shown to think little of various foreign noblemen of similar rank who are most likely to seek her hand in marriage and still less of two seem to attempt her father's assigned task. Instead she favours a young but impoverished Venetian noble, soldier and a scholar, Bassanio who goes on to choose the right casket.
"They may have started their club over a small tea party in 1895, but during the next twenty years they started the Payette City Library, funded Children's Free Health Clinics, organized the Payette Apple Blossom Festival, sponsored lectures on laws that affected women and children, held debates on women's issues and spread the virtues of art and literature throughout the city of Payette, Idaho." [2]
It joined the Idaho Federation of Women's Clubs in 1904 and later the General Federation of Women's Clubs. [3]
The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of over 3,000 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Many of its activities and service projects are done independently by local clubs through their communities or GFWC's national partnerships. GFWC maintains nearly 100,000 members throughout the United States and internationally. GFWC remains one of the world's largest and oldest nonpartisan, nondenominational, women's volunteer service organizations.
Fundraising for a building started in 1919. Eventually more than $4000 was accumulated, and Fruitland, Idaho architect I.C. Whitley was hired to design it. He designed it in Spanish Colonial Revival style, which the architect had learned about in trip to southern California. [4]
Fruitland is a city in Payette County, Idaho, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 95 in the Treasure Valley of southwest Idaho, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Boise on the border with Oregon. It is part of the Ontario Micropolitan Area. Fruitland is named after apple orchards that surround the community, and its slogan is "The Big Apple of Idaho."
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In 2005, the historic building was acquired by a 501c3 nonprofit, The Friends of the Portia Club, Inc., formed to restore and preserve it. It now serves as a community center and is available for rental. [5]
