 The Wednesday ClubFounded in 1895 |
The Wednesday Club: A Brief History
By Judith Witty
he year was 1895, and in a growing city, ten women from San Diego’s pioneering families gathered at the home of Adelaide Luce to form a literary club modeled after those found in San Francisco. Within the month, two dozen friends and relatives had been recruited, and 33 charter members adopted a constitution and ten bylaws. Lydia Horton, wife of San Diego’s prime promoter and real estate developer, became the club’s first president.
From the beginning, the constitution spelled out the club's objective as the “pursuit of artistic and literary culture.” In 1913, members added the provision “to study the problems of our time.” For over 100 years, this purpose has remained unchanged. In addition, the farsighted early members established the traditional annual luncheon and a yearly “entertainment,” now known as Play Day. What has changed over time is the original initiation fee of $3.00, annual dues of $2.00, and a dress code requiring hats and gloves.
Even before the 20th century dawned, and thanks to Lydia Horton’s persuasive written campaign, she convinced Andrew Carnegie to fund the first Carnegie library west of the Mississippi here in San Diego. Club members diligently raised $500 in support of the effort. The club later gave a like amount to the Balboa Park improvement fund and an equal contribution to the Fine Arts Gallery (now the San Diego Museum of Art) for purchasing two coveted paintings.
The club quickly outgrew the practice of meeting in members’ homes, and in 1900, a clubhouse costing $930 was built on a Sixth Avenue lot. Within ten years, it also became too cramped, so in 1909, the group parlayed that clubhouse, along with some creative financing into the current site at Sixth and Ivy Lane. Architect Hazel Waterman and interior designer Alice Klauber, both Wednesday Club members, drew up the plans for the clubhouse—the club’s home since 1911.
By 1925, The Wednesday Club was looking ahead on another front when they enlarged the kitchen and custodial quarters. The house has been redecorated numerous times since in the fashion of its day. To celebrate the club’s centennial in 1995, an annex was built to house the archives and host board meetings. Ongoing maintenance projects since 2007 returned the building to its Craftsman beginnings.
When the Panama-California Exposition opened in Balboa Park in 1915, the ladies of The Wednesday Club, with the help of 16 other women’s clubs, offered to host a large room in the California Building as a visitors’ social center for lectures and entertainment, with some events spilling over into the Ivy Lane clubhouse. The exposition had hardly closed when World War I abruptly halted the club luncheons and study classes, and members plunged into volunteer war work.
The pattern was repeated for Balboa Park’s California Pacific International Exposition in 1935-36; Wednesday Club member Mrs. Lorenze Barney again headed the Women’s Executive Committee for the fair. During World War II, just a few years later, members loaned the clubhouse to Civil Defense, and many of them volunteered to keep the Red Cross waiting room decorated.
The wartime volunteer efforts set a precedent as club members became heavily involved in organizations on their own, and soon after, they decided they would henceforth serve the greater community as individuals rather than under the club banner.
For well over a century, members have shared their considerable talents with the San Diego community at large and within The Wednesday Club, which limits its membership to 225 Active participants and 50 Associate members.