The Woman's Club of El Paso was founded in the late nineteenth century, and during that time was the only woman's organization in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. The Woman's Club also allowed women in El Paso to become involved in community service and activism. The building which is the home for the club is located on 1400 N. Mesa Drive, and was erected in 1916. The club, now a non-profit organization, traces its official origins back to 1894, and continues to provide an "educational and cultural center for its members." The building is registered in 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 ...

History

Mary Hamilton Mills arrived in El Paso with her husband, William Wallace Mills on March 8, 1869. Mills began to create a social circle, which started to meet in 1881 and included Flora Hague, Octavia Magoffin, Olga Kohlberg,

Eugenia Schuster Eugenia Mananyi Schuster (1865–1946) was a community activist in El Paso, Texas, and one of the presidents of the Woman's Club of El Paso. She was also the founder of the El Paso Pan-American Round Table. Biography Schuster was born in Hungary ...

, Carrie Fewel, Lemire Morehead, Elizabeth Irvin, Margaret Beall, Eliza Berrien, Laura Loomis, Carrie Race, Maude Austin, Harriet Shelton, Frances McCutcheon, Rebecca Falvey, Mary Voss, Carrie Sutherland and other important women in El Paso. Members of the group met at various locations in El Paso. First, they called the group the Child Culture Study Circle. The club was organized in 1894, first meeting in Mills' home on San Francisco Street. Mills was the unofficial president until 1895, when she was officially elected as president of the club, which was known at the time as The Current Topics Club. The club later changed its name to the Woman's Club of El Paso in 1899. The Woman's Club decided to create a permanent building for the club in 1915, raising club dues and appealing to local businesses for donations in order to get funding. The clubhouse was designed by the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, Otto H. Thorman and construction began in 1916. The building was the first free-standing woman's clubhouse in the state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The clubhouse was officially opened on November 8, 1916.

Community service

Members of the Woman's Club were involved in the establishment of Texas's first public school

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

. The club, led by one of the Woman's Club presidents, Olga Kohlberg, worked to get a kindergarten established in the first school building in El Paso, Central School, in 1893. Kohlberg also helped establish the first

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

in El Paso, by creating the Ladies' Benevolent Association. Members of the club were also heavily involved in establishing the

El Paso Public Library The El Paso Public Libraries is the municipal public library system of El Paso, Texas. The library serves the needs the public in El Paso, Texas, Chaparral, New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It consists of 14 branches and one Bookmobile serv ...

. Mary Irene Stanton, who was the first president of the El Paso Library Association in 1895, was elected the Woman's Club vice-president that same year. Stanton created the first children's library in the United States. By 1913, El Paso had "over thirty women's organizations," though most were social in nature, and contrasted with the "civic and

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

objectives" of the Woman's Club. Another president of the club,

, helped

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s from the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

in 1916, working with Amigos Listos. The club worked to get safe food and public sanitation laws passed and also worked to protect

San Jacinto Plaza San Jacinto Plaza is a historic park located on the corner of Oregon and Mills in the heart of Downtown El Paso, Texas. History When the US government leased land from Smith's ranch, for the first Post opposite El Paso (meaning El Paso del Norte ...

Services

The Woman's Club of El Paso hosts annually a Fall Festival to raise money for the preservation of the clubhouse, a holiday

Wassail Wassail (, , most likely from Old Norse ''"ves heill"'') is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation ei ...

party and also a Spring Celebration. Auxiliary groups to the Woman's Club are the Arts and Crafts Study Club, the Book Club and the Junior Woman's Club of El Paso. The Junior Woman's Club was founded 1934 and works with local

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

to help improve the community of El Paso. The club's building can be used as a venue for local events. The club also "regularly features and supports local artists."

Notable members

* Kate Moore Brown, served as president. * Olga Kohlberg, served as president. *

, served as president.

Bibliography

References

External links

Official site

Junior Woman's Club of El Paso
{{Authority control Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Georgian architecture in Texas Beaux-Arts architecture in Texas Buildings and structures completed in 1916 El Paso County, Texas 1894 establishments in Texas Women's organizations based in the United States National Register of Historic Places in El Paso County, Texas Women's clubs in the United States History of women in Texas