History of the Woman's Club of Arroyo Grande
In May, 1937, Arroyo Grande's first Woman's Club, "dedicated to self culture and advancement and civic betterment," was organized at a preliminary meeting held on a Friday afternoon in the grammar school auditorium that stood where the Ford Agency now exists on the corner of Traffic Way and Fair Oaks. Sybil Poyner presided, and was later elected as our first president. They presented a fashion show, speakers from the SLO Monday Club, and gave a tea. 150 ladies attended and 70 signed up as charter members. Meetings were to be held on the second Friday of each month.
A fund-raising project was in order for this new club, and one was chosen which would involve the entire community, emphasizing the debt owed to the local farmers. They voted to have a country fair, to be held at harvest time. It was a two-day event, held at the grammar school, with some 1100 people attending to enjoy exhibits, concessions, entertainment and food. They cleared $500--a good amount in 1937.
The project continued to be held every year and grew in size except for two years during WWII. In 1946, it came back--bigger and better, and this time it spilled over into the city streets. By the 10th year, it had become too large for our club to handle, so we called for a civic committee to be formed to manage it. Thus it is operated to this day.
The Woman's Club continued to take part in the Harvest Festival. Six of our members, Billie Swigert for one, performed in a vaudeville show, as a Can-Can dancer. (They got a lot of mileage out of those costumes, dressing up in them to sell corsages one year, and another time they sold flowers and plants from pretty carts.) One year a member named Mrs. Brown prepared FIFTY apple pies, and they were baked in the ovens at Carlock's Bakery on Branch Street. (That is Ron Carlock's father--you know--Ron's Nursery.)
When standardized booths became a requirement, things became difficult and most of our husbands went on strike after just one experience setting up and dismantling the booths. The club's Harvest Festival chairmen had to think of other ways to participate. We had a bingo game one year, and another, a nail-pounding competition.
In the 1980s, a new member named Jane Johnson came up with a wonderful idea--that we dress in clown costumes and sell balloons. That was really fun and was well-accepted by the community. For several years, we sold balloons and our clowns were also invited to appear at various nursing homes, health fairs and other public gatherings. But then, more and more organizations began to give away balloons at the Harvest Festival, creating serious competition. And worse--our young member, Karen Lujan, took a job and resigned from the club. She had been doing all of the real work, renting helium tanks to fill the balloons and using her motor home as a center of operations. Nobody else had her youthful energy, so this project died.
These days our Harvest Festival involvement is pretty much limited to participating in the parade. Until recently we had our president and maybe a charter member or two riding in an open, vintage car, and two clowns carrying our Woman's Club banner while walking in front of the car. Now, we're usually limited to the President and immediate past president riding in the car. There haven't been any able bodied members to dress in clown costumes and carry the banner, and the whole reason for the clown costumes seems to be lost on our current members.
We have held other fund raisers over the years--bazaars, rummage sales, flower shows, book sales. (oh, my, the book sales! There again husbands tended to go on strike after one or two experiences hauling large cartons of books.) With these efforts, this club accrued a $30,000 building fund. Note: we did fun thins, too. Most of we older members look back with fondness upon Hi Jinks, which was a members-only and R-rated home talent show.
The mention of the building fund leads us to the history of our building. Back in 1941, a Mr. and Mrs. Beckett, deeded this land upon which the clubhouse now sits to the City of Arroyo Grande for a city park. There was a proviso that no business nor commercial buildings be built there. Any buildings must be for public purposes, until the year 1956.
In 1952, The Woman's Club purchased the westernmost portion of this land for $25.00, with a written agreement with the city that a clubhouse would be built in the next 10 years. This agreement was extended several times.
In the 1960s, we began approaching the city with the idea of a joint venture on building a "nice clubhouse that would be a credit to the city," but much happened at this time.
By this time the original stipulation on the deed to the city had expired, and a building housing a local radio station was built on this location. The radio station moved out in the early 1970s, and the building went into receivership. We again approached the city on a joint venture and this time they were very interested. In June of 1973, we bid $25,000 at the receiver's sale and the building was ours, but the land under it was owned by the city. We did own, since 1952, what is now the lower parking lot.
An agreement was signed, which was amended several times: In return for the deed for the building, the city promised to maintain and manage it, while giving us free use until the year 2028.
We had our first Christmas tea in our very own clubhouse on December 14, 1973, with a grand opening for the public the next day, December 15.
Somehow, the city acquired a lot of money in six years, and in 1979 they decided to spend $250,000 on an extension to this building and a new agreement was written. One change was to appoint a building advisory committee of four to five members, two of whom were to be members of the Woman's Club. Eileen Taylor and Maud Loomis attended most of these meetings. It is my understanding that the committee was very polite and listened carefully to all of our suggestions and/or objections, then went ahead and did exactly as they pleased. The building of a stage was one bone of contention. So, we had that built at a later date, using money willed to us by past president Elaine Garey. Due to some building code or insurance, or something, this is not to be called a stage. It is a platform. On one dispute we prevailed, the building was to be and still is called the Arroyo Grande Woman's Club and Community Center.
Work began on the extension in June, 1980. In the fall of 1980, we held our meetings at the Methodist church social hall while the remodeling was going on, and our board meetings were held in the conference room of a local bank. We had our first tea in the new building on January 9, 1981. The frazzled chairman, Agnes Lewis, announced that they had worked under a great handicap because the remodeling was not quite complete and our dishes and other equipment had not all been moved in yet.
So here we are, many years from our beginnings, in a building that was completed over 20 years ago. Our deal with the city turned out to be pretty good, considering that they have invested ten times the money that we did. As a club, we have enjoyed many years of friendship and work for our community we should be very proud of our accomplishments.
(Compiled and presented by Ginnie Howells, September 1977. Edited by Ginnie Howells June 2002 )
