The Ebell Club of Santa Paula is a 1917 mansion, built as a

women's club The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a par ...

with the aim of the advancement of culture, and now serving as the home of the Santa Paula Theater Center. The

Santa Paula Santa Paula ( Spanish for " St. Paula") is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. Situated amid the orchards of the Santa Clara River Valley, the city advertises itself to tourists as the "Citrus Capital of the World". Santa P ...

chapter, formed in 1913, was the ninth California women's club; the first was established in Oakland by Adrian Ebell in 1876, and the movement was involved in a range of progressive campaigning on social issues. The building, at 125 S. Seventh Street, was designed by Hunt & Burns and built by contractor William A. Hudson. The clubhouse is in

Bungalow/Craftsman In the United States, the National Register of Historic Places classifies its listings by various types of architecture. Listed properties often are given one or more of 40 standard architectural style classifications that appear in the National ...

style. It is surrounded by a park in

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

style that was part of the original design for the club. Alice Stowell McKevett donated land for Ebell Park and contracted the first half of the building in memory of her husband. The dining room and kitchen were added in 1928 by Harriet McKevett Teague and the McKevett Corporation. In 1987 the McKevett Corporation deeded the building to the Santa Paula Community Fund, who in turn deeded it to the Santa Paula Theater Center. For several years the club and the thespians shared the space but the ladies have since parted to a space rented by the First United Methodist Church. The property was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places 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 or "great artistic v ...

in 1989. Its NRHP nomination asserted it is "an outstanding example of the shingled Craftsman style", and the "only example of its type in Santa Paula where a Craftsman era institutional building was designed with a complementary landscape plan." It is also one of few preserved historic clubhouses in

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnar ...

and is the only women's clubhouse in Santa Paula. and

References

External links

Santa Paula Theater Center
Women's club buildings in California Santa Paula, California Buildings and structures in Santa Paula, California Theatres in California Clubs and societies in California Women's clubs in the United States Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Ventura County, California Buildings and structures completed in 1917 History of women in California {{VenturaCountyCA-NRHP-stub

See also

References

External links