On Feb. 9, 1892, Mary S. Berry, wife of the editor of The San Diego Union, and six other women met and formed the San Diego Woman’s club to address issues of personal and civic betterment. The woman’s club movement in San Diego, which began with the formation of the San Diego club in 1892, tackled issues of specific interest to women and girls, including having a police matron hired at the city jail and voting rights for women, as well as broader civic interests such as compulsory education, public libraries and consumer protection.
From The San Diego Union, Sunday, February 3, 1952:
Woman’s Club Will Celebrate 60th Birthday
By Emily Stoker, Club Editor
It all began 60 years ago over the teacups and though the seven women who chatted over those cups were an earnest and farsighted septet, it’s doubtful they realized what a powerful pot of tea they set abrewing.
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For the club formed that long ago winter day in San Diego became not only the city’s oldest and largest woman’s club but such a force for civic good that it hurried along many things (compulsory education, for instance) that the public today takes for granted.
HAS 800 MEMBERS
This “oldest and biggest” club, of course, is the San Diego Woman’s Club and Tuesday its more than 800 members will observe their 60th anniversary at a luncheon and program in their clubhouse.
Which clubhouse, that stately and spacious two-storied Colonial-style building on Third Ave. and Maple St., already is too small to accommodate an 800 turn-out in the big auditorium. Those who will gather to celebrate the club’s 60 years and to honor the 20 living past presidents, then, are the early reservations-makers. Reservations closed yesterday.
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As past leaders of this “biggest and oldest” are honored, the club will honor in memory the women who hatched the fine teacup plot back in 1892. She was Mrs. Mary (John R.) Berry, wife of an old-time editor of The San Diego Union.
A retiring, quiet woman and a college graduate in the days when a college sheepskin was not too highly coveted in female circles, Mrs. Berry invited six friends to luncheon that 1892 afternoon. It was over the teacups that the seven, after Mrs. Berry’s proposal to form a club, pledged themselves “to work for the betterment of San Diego.”
‘CONSPIRATORS’ LISTED
The tea-drinking conspirators were Mrs. Berry, Mrs. Flora Kimball, for whom Olivewood Club of National City was named; Mrs. C.E. Kinney, Mrs. G.K. Phillips, Dr. Lottie Park, who became the club’s first president; Mrs. Rose Hartwick Thorpe (she wrote “Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight”) and Miss Estelle Thompson.
Though the seven could not know just how much their club would grow and accomplish, the did know what a group of women, banded together, can accomplish on the credit side of the civic ledger.
PROGRAM FOLLOWED
After Mrs. Berry’s luncheon for six, the woman’s club officially was formed Feb. 9 with 25 charter members. The program they instigated then was so good, it’s pretty much the type of program followed today by most clubs.
The program embraced these things: Home, education, literature, philanthropy and reform, music and art, philosophy and science. First meeting were held in private homes, then a house on D St. (now Broadway) was purchased.
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The next clubhouse was a brown, ivy covered building on Ninth Ave. Dedication of the new clubhouse—one of the finest in the state and the meeting place for scores of groups which rent the sizable auditorium – was in 1940.
SECTIONS FORMED
As the club membership grew, age and interest differentials called for formation of sections. Today there are nine sections, many of them large clubs in themselves. The Sections are Arts and Crafts, Book Review, Valerian (evening section), Fine Arts, Garden, La Cadena (another evening section), Music, Study and Travel Three of the sections give scholarships, two “go all out” for philanthropy.
2020-02-09 14:02:03Z
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/local-history/story/2020-02-09/from-the-archives-the-san-diego-womans-club-was-founded-128-years-ago
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