Foundational Growth: The Role of California Women's Clubs in Community Building, Historic Preservation and Environmental Conservation
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Date
2023-06
Authors
Possert, Nicole Y.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Starting in the late 1980s, I lived in the Highland Park community of Los Angeles
for nearly thirty years. Over half of that time, I helped infuse new energy into the
landmark Highland Park Ebell Club (HPEC), one of the oldest surviving women’s clubs
in Los Angeles. (Figure 1.) That two-decade journey of service, continuing the legacy of
many previous generations of local women who envisioned, built, and sustained their
community, led me to this research. The gendered space of the HPEC’s “Clubhouse”
and its distinct and lasting presence in Highland Park piqued my interest in the
unexplored role of women in society and how they shaped community both physically
and socially. The work and contribution of these women, through their club and in
collaboration with other women, can be experienced in the built environment well
beyond the clubhouse they built. They shaped their community’s landscape by
preserving nature as parkland, creating playgrounds, libraries, museums, building theirown residences and landscaping, and actively working to preserve and conserve places
in and beyond their locale in the name of community service. Today these advocacy
actions are considered historic preservation and environmental conservation activities
and fall within the broader umbrella of place making/ keeping.
These women and their accomplishments within the women’s club ecosystem
are relatively unknown and certainly undervalued in today’s academic and professional
discourse about the important role of women in community building, historic
preservation, and environmental conservation. In this terminal project, I expand the
knowledge and importance of these untold histories by uncovering and shedding new
light on the contributions of women’s clubs in California.
Description
92 pages
Keywords
historic preservation, California Women's Clubs, environmental conservation