The Beverly Hills Women's Club is an historic clubhouse and social club in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

.Caroline M. Roman
Beverly Hills Women's Club Holiday Tea with Tiffany & Co.
''

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'', January 05, 2011Beverly Hills files
/ref>Marc Wanamaker, ''Early Beverly Hills'', Arcadia Publishing, 2005, p. 7

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History

Beginnings

The club was founded in October 1916, and it served as a unit for the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

The clubhouse

In 1925, they raised US$4,000 at a horse show attended by the likes of

Hobart Bosworth Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth (August 11, 1867 – December 30, 1943) was an American film actor, director, writer, and producer. Bosworth began his career in theater, eventually transitioning to the emerging film industry. Despite a battle with ...

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

, Stanley S. Anderson (owner of the

Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Hollywood film stars, rock stars, and ...

), Cecilia DeMille (daughter of

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

), Charles E. Toberman,

Silsby Spalding Silsby Spalding (May 29, 1886 – May 5, 1949) was an American businessman and politician. He served as the first List of mayors of Beverly Hills, mayor of Beverly Hills, California, from 1926 to 1928. Early life Silsby Morse Spalding was bor ...

(Mayor of Beverly Hills), and Alphonzo Bell (developer of

Bel Air, California Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Los Angeles Westside, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills, Bel Air forms the Platinum Triangle ...

). Later that year, they used that money to move into the newly constructed clubhouse. The clubhouse is a one-story,

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

-clad

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

with a tiled hip roof. It features

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s, scrolled

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

, an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

topped by a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with a shield and urn motif surrounding the main door, and

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s. It was designed by the architectural team Gable & Wyant, who also designed Hangar One. The clubhouse has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles County, California __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles County, California. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles C ...

since October 4, 2006.

The social club

Early members, who rode horses to make their way to the club, included Mrs Burton E. Green and actress

Norma Shearer Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated women. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, ...

. Special guests included

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

and

Gloria Swanson Gloria Mae Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for h ...

. It sponsored the

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...

Horse Show and exhibited art such as

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

's ''Saint Francis of Assisi'' and, in 2007, Roland Muri. In 1930, they created the

Electric Fountain The Electric Fountain is a water fountain with public art sculptures and evening lighting, surrounded by mosaic pavement, seating, and landscaping. It is located in Beverly Gardens Park on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards in ...

in Beverly Hills through efforts from

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many Silent film, silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influent ...

's mother. In 1963, they published a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

, ''Beverly Hills Women's Club Cook Book: Fashions in Food''. Recent guests include

Stephen J. Cannell Stephen Joseph Cannell (; February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment (formerly Stephen J. Cannell Productions) and The Cannell Studios. After start ...

. One former president is Jill Tavelman, ex-wife of singer

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

and mother of actress

Lily Collins Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is an English and American actress. Born in Guildford and raised in Los Angeles, she began performing on screen at the age of two in the BBC sitcom ''Growing Pains''. In the late 2000s, she began acting a ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Women's club buildings in California Buildings and structures in Beverly Hills, California Clubs and societies in California Women's clubs in the United States Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Houses completed in 1925 Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California Women in California