WHIO-TV Meteorologist Kirstie Zontini will emcee the ceremony, which will also feature special guest speaker Winifred Fiedler, great grandniece of Susan B. Anthony. Also, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon Kennedy and U.S. District Judge Walter Rice will share brief remarks.
The event is open to the public. Home tours will be available. An optional buffet meal will be provided for $20.
>> Did you know you can eat lunch at the Dayton Woman’s Club?
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The Ohio Historical Marker program recognizes DWCF’s many contributions through its 103- year history including philanthropic endeavors, community support and women’s rights issues.
Since 1957, 1,750 markers have been placed throughout Ohio which share our states history.
For more than 100 years, the Dayton Woman’s Club has been a home for social, charitable and professional growth.
Credit: DAYTON WOMAN'S CLUB
Credit: DAYTON WOMAN'S CLUB
HOW THE WOMAN’S CLUB GOT ITS START
After the flood waters receded in 1913, a group of civic-minded ladies saw the need to form an organization for women that would be a center for civic and literary activities, according to the Dayton Daily News archives.
Julia Patterson Crane, the sister of National Cash Register Corp. founder John H. Patterson, was among the women who sought to find a home for the club.
>> DAYTON HISTORY: Dayton Woman’s Club marks more than 100 years
In an effort to help revitalize the city, Patterson urged his sister and the newly formed group to purchase a “downtown mansion that was still solid after the flood,” according to Mollie Hauser, historian of the Dayton Woman’s Club.
The home at 225 N. Ludlow St., one of the oldest in the city, was built in the late 1840s by Robert W. Steele in the Classic Revival style. It was purchased for $25,000 from the second owners, the family of Napoleon Bonaparte Darst.
Darst made extensive changes to the home, adding a mansard roof, which raised the mansion profile to three stories. Inside he added marble mantle pieces in the parlors and detailed ornamentation to the ceilings. A flower garden and fountain complemented the property in the back.
The elegant home was deemed a perfect site and club members purchased stock at $10 a share to come up with the $5,000 down payment.
On Nov. 1, 1916, the Dayton Woman’s Club, referred to as the “Woman’s Clubhouse Company of Dayton, OH,” was incorporated.
Marie J. Kumler, the first president of the club, wrote the house should be a base for education and philanthropy, serving “as a meeting place for music, art and study clubs and circles composed of women or of men and women.” It should also be an “open forum for the presentation and discussion of all subjects pertaining to educational, civic or social improvements and for a social center for women.”
Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com
Credit: Lauren Rinehart for Dayton.com
Lectures and weekly book reports were held in the auditorium on the second floor for the women, according to Hauser. A piano stood on the stage and the outstanding singers and actresses of the time put on performances.
Maintaining the historic home was expensive and in 1918 an addition was put on with 21 rooms that were rented to “ladies of good character.” These young single women worked downtown at the Rike-Kumler department store and in law offices. The last tenant of good character left the home in the early 1980s. The building was reconfigured for club use.
Civic and social activities were a popular draw for women and in 1924 there were more than 1,500 with memberships to the club.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The philanthropic and educational work continued through the decades. In the 1970s and 1980s membership began to decline as more women entered the workforce. In 2006 men were allowed to join and Dayton Daily News columnist Dale Huffman became the first male member.
>> Meet 7 local women who changed the world
Today the members of the Dayton Woman’s Club maintain the group’s aim as well as preserve the historic home.
“I fell in love with the beauty of the house and have learned so much about the women that founded this city,” said Hauser, who can recite a list of influential members such as suffragette and library scientist Electra Doren and Katharine Wright, whose brothers Wilbur and Orville invented the airplane.
“You come into the house and you realize these women needed a voice in the city and what better way to have a voice than to have their own organization,” she said.
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