Woman's Club of Minneapolis

Last updated

Woman's Club of Minneapolis
AbbreviationWCOM
Formation1907
Founders Gratia Countryman, Ruth Keyes, & Jean Sherwood Rankin
Type Women's club
Coordinates 44°58′04″N93°17′05″W / 44.96778°N 93.28472°W / 44.96778; -93.28472
Region served
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Membership280 (2025 [1] )
President
Lois Carlson
Website www.womansclub.org
The Woman's Club of Minneapolis
Minneapolis Woman's Club Under Construction - DPLA - 390fabf6982e3e2c98c06900a7475599.jpg
The back of the building during construction
Location410 Oak Grove Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403
Area Loring Park
Built1928
Built byMadson Construction Co.
ArchitectLéon Eugène Arnal with Magney & Tusler
Architectural style Italian Renaissance Revival
NRHP reference No. 04000955 [2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJanuary 11, 2022
Designated CMDL1998

The Woman's Club of Minneapolis is a women's club in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The National Register of Historic Places listed their former clubhouse.

Contents

History

The organization began in 1907 when Ruth Keyes and Jean Sherwood Rankin proposed the idea to Gratia Countryman, the Chief Librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library. [3] Prominent early members included community activist Clara Ueland [4] , suffragist Maud Conkey Stockwell, [5] and politician Mabeth Hurd Paige. [6] The women elected author Alice Ames Winter as their first president. [3]

Alice Ames Winter, the club's first president Alice Ames Winter 1921 (cropped).png
Alice Ames Winter, the club's first president

The WCOM grew quickly, exceeding 1,000 members by 2021. [6] In 1928, the group opened a dedicated clubhouse in the Loring Park neighborhood. [7]

The club engaged in regular charitable work. It set up a free eye clinic, sewed masks during World War II, [8] provided scholarship, and built playgrounds. [7] The group also tackled social issues of the day including working to prevent spoiled milk, serving school lunches below cost, teaching English language classes to immigrants, [3] and providing fresh meals for unhoused people in Minneapolis. [7]

The club also hosted a variety of events including educational lectures by Helen Keller, [4] Winona LaDuke, Eve Ensler, Louise Erdrich, [9] Olivia de Havilland, Alex Haley, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Phyllis Schlafly, Maria von Trapp, and Frank Lloyd Wright. [3] Musical performances included Bright Eyes, Low, Magnetic Fields, [10] Lissie, and Trampled by Turtles. [11] In 1996, ukelele player and falsetto singer Tiny Tim died off stage during a charity fundraiser. [12] [13]

In 1990, membership became open to men for the first time. In 2006, the WCOM celebrated their centennial. [4]

As women gained increasing access to the workplace and professional organizations competed for their time, fewer new members joined the club: [14] membership peaked at 1,850 in the 1950s, declined to 700 by 2006, [3] and dwindled to just 280 in 2025. [1] By that point the group could no longer afford to operate their clubhouse [15] so the members voted to sell it, but planned to continue meeting elsewhere. [1]

Building

Architect Léon Eugène Arnal designed the 1928 clubhouse [16] which cost $300,000 (equivalent to $5,493,605in 2024). [8] The Italian Renaissance Revival building is set into a hill with the front facing Oak Grove Street while the back faces the Loring Park Pond. The exterior of the building uses multiple shades of tan brick with stone belt courses and windowsills. [6]

Main lounge with stone fireplace and open stairs The Woman's Club of Minneapolis interior hall, June 2014 3.jpg
Main lounge with stone fireplace and open stairs

On the front facade, the main entrance consists of limestone stairs with a balustrade [14] below a stone medallion with the club's name. Corbelled arches emphasize the four largest windows. The back of the building has a ground-level arcaded loggia with stone columns below brick loggia with balconies. [6]

The interior includes a 650-seat auditorium, ballroom, dining room, sitting rooms, bathrooms, and library. The fourth floor serves as the formal piano nobile include a two-story lounge with a wood-beam ceiling, a stone fireplace, and open stairs behind arched columns. The upper floors originally provided bedrooms with shared baths, but the club later converted these into offices and meeting rooms. [14]

Minneapolis designed the building as a local landmark in 1998 [6] and the National Register of Historic Places listed it in 2022. [2] As club membership declined, the building increasingly became a wedding venue [10] In 2024, the building needed $30 million in repairs and the WCOM unsuccessfully requested state funding. [8] The building closed in 2025. [1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tostrud, Alexander (April 29, 2025). "Woman's Club to Sell Historic Building, Plans to Continue Elsewhere". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Key Enterprises. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  2. 1 2 "National Register of Historic Places Weekly Lists 2017" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places . Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. December 30, 2022. pp. 10–11. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Madison, Cathy (September 12, 2006). "Happiness Harnessing Itself to Good". Minnesota Monthly . Bloomington, Minnesota: Greenspring Media . Retrieved August 31, 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Rainville, Michael Jr. (February 10, 2022). "Charity, Education, and Social Engagement: The Woman's Club of Minneapolis". Mill City Times. Minneapolis. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  5. ↑ Roberts, Kate (Fall 2020). "Jottings on a conference program" (PDF). Curator's Choice. Minnesota History . 67 (3). Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society: 87. ISSN   0026-5497 . Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Woman's Club of Minneapolis". Minneapolis Designated Landmarks . Heritage Preservation Commission. January 21, 2025. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 Peterson, Holly (March 11, 2021). "The Woman's Club". Lavender Magazine. Edina, Minnesota. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Hoff, Jennifer (March 13, 2025). "'Clubs are evolving': Woman's Club of Minneapolis first opened in 1907, will now likely close". KARE-TV . Golden Valley, Minnesota: Tegna Inc. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  9. ↑ Morrissette, Mikki (May 1, 2025). "Sister Tree". Minnesota Women's Press . Minneapolis. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  10. 1 2 Harris, Keith (March 12, 2025). "The Woman's Club of Minneapolis May Be Closed by Summer". Racket Minnesota . Saint Paul, Minnesota. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  11. ↑ Riemenschneider, Chris (January 20, 2023). "Music & Storytellers series returning to Woman's Club with Lissie, Dave Simonett and more" . Minnesota Star Tribune . Minneapolis. Retrieved August 31, 2025.
  12. ↑ Legge, Lisa (November 30, 2016). "Tiny Tim tiptoed to the tulips in the sky, from a Minneapolis stage on this day in 1996" . Pioneer Press . Saint Paul, Minnesota: Digital First Media . Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  13. ↑ Davis, Melanie (April 15, 2024). "Remembering 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips'". American Songwriter . Nashville, Tennessee: Savage Media. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 Lucas, Amy (August 4, 2021). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: The Woman's Club of Minneapolis" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places (Draft). Washington, D.C.: National Park Service . Retrieved August 30, 2025– via Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office.
  15. ↑ Pattee, Ryan (March 13, 2025). "Woman's Club of Minneapolis considers closure as operating funds are expected to dwindle". KSTP-TV . Saint Paul, Minnesota: Hubbard Broadcasting . Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  16. ↑ Jackson, Zoë (March 12, 2025). "Historic Woman's Club of Minneapolis in Loring Park could close in May" . Minnesota Star Tribune . Minneapolis. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.