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Woman's Club of Hollywood

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Coordinates: 34°06′10″N 118°20′45″W / 34.1029°N 118.3457°W / 34.1029; -118.3457 (Woman's Club of Hollywood)
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For the organization in Florida, see Hollywood Woman's Club.

Woman's Club of Hollywood
AbbreviationWCH, WCOH, HCLA
SuccessorHollywood Club LA
Formation1905
TypeWomen's club
Legal status501c3
Location
Coordinates34°06′10″N 118°20′45″W / 34.1029°N 118.3457°W / 34.1029; -118.3457 (Woman's Club of Hollywood)
Websitewcoh.org
womansclubhollywood.org
hollywoodclubla.org
Formerly called
Hollywood School for Girls
Woman's Club of Hollywood
1949 clubhouse
AreaHollywood
Built1903
1947–1949
ArchitectUnknown
Arthur E. Harvey
Architectural stylePrairie School
Spanish Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.16000883[1]
LAHCM No.604
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 27, 2016
Designated LAHCMNovember 1, 1994[2]

The Women's Club of Hollywood, also known as the Hollywood Club LA, serves as a social and philanthropic organization with close connections to the local film industry. The historic women's club sits on the former campus of the Hollywood School for Girls.

Club history

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Fourteen women founded the club in 1905 with the goal of establishing a library in Hollywood.[3] That library opened in a temporary location in 1906 and then the group received funding from Andrew Carnegie for a permanent building. In 1910, that library became a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library which continues today as the Frank Gehry designed Frances Goldwyn Library.[4]

Gazebo sculpture with a base consisting of four stainless steel sculptures of famous actresses
Women's statue at original location on Hollywood Boulevard

After that initial success, the group's mission became broader as it grew alongside Hollywood.[5] In 1914, they constructed a permanent clubhouse on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Four Ladies of Hollywood are now located. The club helped to found Hollywood Hospital, Hollywood Studio Club,[3] Hollywood Bowl,[6] and Hollywood Union High School.[7]

In the 1920s, the group hosted music and educational presentations, including a poetry reading by Vachel Lindsay.[8] During both world wars, the club served as a Red Cross center.[3]

By the mid-1940s, the area around their original location became primarily commercial, so the group first sold their Hollywood Concert Hall and then their original clubhouse. They bought a former school campus on La Brea Avenue to construct a new clubhouse, while keeping the original schoolhouse.[9]

Completed in 1949, that clubhouse included multiple spaces for meetings and events. The club received regular visits from Hollywood celebrities including Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin,[10] Mary Pickford, and Gary Cooper to host luncheons and lectures.[5]

As women faced fewer social restrictions in 20th century, the club faced competition for their time. While the WCH counted over 900 members in the 1960s, by the 1970s most members worked outside the home and had less time to volunteer.[7] By the 1990s, the membership consisted mostly of retirees.[10]

In the 2010s, a leadership struggle ensued followed by a proposal to replace the clubhouse with a condominium development in the now densely developed La Brea Avenue area.[11] The group considered merging with Hollywood Heritage, and, in 2011, it attempted to file for bankruptcy.[10] During this period, membership continued to dwindle.[12]

In recent years, the club increasingly embraces its association with the Golden Age of Hollywood to encourage a revival. This includes hosting a fashion show of movie wardrobes from the Western Costume Company[5] and screening classic films.[13] Beginning in 2024, the venue is cobranded as the "Hollywood Club LA".[14]

Hollywood School for Girls

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Black & white photo of woman wearing a light suit and a dark hat
Principal Louise Knappen Woollett

Sophie Hogan founded the Hollywood School for Girls in 1909 which eventually moved into a former house on La Brea Avenue in 1915. Louise Knappen became the principal and lived on-site until she married local architect William Lee Woollett. By 1917 the school's student body consisted of 100 girls and 12 boys;[3] the latter were limited to the lower grades.[15] After constructing stand-alone cottages to serve as classrooms, the campus became an outdoor educational environment.[16]

The school maintained close links to the movie industry, including taking field trips to the set of Lasky-DeMille Studios. The children of prominent families attended the school including Noah Beery Jr., Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jean Harlow, Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Evelyn Scott, Irene Mayer Selznick,[7] Francis X. Bushman, Reginald Denny, Peggy George, Joel McCrea, Katherine DeMille,[3] Agnes de Mille, and Mary Hunter Wolf.[17] The school's French teacher, Edith Head, went on to become an Academy Award-winning costume designer for Paramount.[18][19]

The school closed in 1932 due to the Great Depression and the Hollywood Woman's Club purchased the property in 1945.[3] In the interim, Studio Village operated on the site as an artist colony[20] that included science fiction artist Chesley Bonestell as a resident.[7] Finally, the original schoolhouse became guest apartments for the club.[10]

Architecture

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Local architect Arthur E. Harvey designed the 1949 clubhouse[21] in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.[10] Compared to his other commissions, the structure is simpler because of post-war material shortages. The exterior of the two-story building consists of cream-colored exterior walls with a low pitched Spanish tiled roof. The south facade along the driveway includes pilasters with iron sconces. On the north side, an arcade spans the original front entrance with a round tower. On the east side is a small, one-story addition which shifted the entrance to face the road.[7]

The interior includes a large foyer with painted wooden ceiling beams, a ticket booth, and cloakroom by the entrance. A two-story auditorium dominates the rest of the first floor and includes hardwood floors with a raised stage. The second story includes meeting rooms while the one-story addition contains a commercial kitchen and a lounge.[7]

The older 1903 Hollywood School for Girls building originally belonged to Charles Hanchett whose widow sold it to the school. The two-story wooden house uses clapboard siding with a corner porch, bay windows, and a rear porch in a Prairie School design. When owned by the school, the downstairs served as a meeting space while the upstairs served as the principal's living quarters.[7] Later, the artist colony used the building as the Little Theater while the Woman's Club housed guests in what became their Hospitality House.[9][12]

In 1994 the city recognized the club as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument[2] and, in 2016, the National Register of Historic Places listed the site.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "National Register of Historic Places Weekly Lists 2017" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. December 29, 2017. p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Historic – Cultural Monuments (HCM) Listing" (PDF). Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. City of Los Angeles. August 27, 2009. p. 23. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lord, Rosemary (Fall 2017). "The Hollywood School for Girls at Woman's Club of Hollywood". Discoverer Hollywood Magazine. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  4. ^ Simross, Lynn (June 9, 1986). "Frances Goldwyn Library to Premiere in Hollywood: The Light, Open $3.24-Million Building Is Part of a New Chapter in Institutional Design". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c Fuchs, Andrea (May 2006). "Hollywood IN vogue". Film Journal International. 109 (5). New York City: Mediabistro: 22. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via EBSCO.
  6. ^ Thabet, Andrea (May 2006). "From Sagebrush to Symphony: Negotiating the Hollywood Bowl and the Future of Los Angeles, 1918–1926". Pacific Historical Review. 89 (4). University of California Press: 569. JSTOR 27215225. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Lord, Rosemary; Canon, Elizabeth; Rand, Catherine (July 2016). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Woman's Club of Hollywood" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places (Draft). Washington, D.C.: National Park Service. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via County of Los Angeles.
  8. ^ "Lindsay in Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. October 29, 1929. p. 30. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b Barker, Mayerene (October 5, 1967). "New Clubhouse Meets Members' Needs" (PDF). Los Angeles Times. p. 34. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via NRHP Nomination.
  10. ^ a b c d e Medina, Jennifer (April 6, 2011). "A Fixture of Hollywood's Past, Now Tarnished by Strife". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  11. ^ Kudler, Adrian Glick (April 6, 2011). "Coup For Condos Accusations at Woman's Club of Hollywood". Curbed Los Angeles. Vox Media. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  12. ^ a b Nichols, Chris (January 15, 2015). "Endangered Spaces: 12 Historic Buildings in Los Angeles Under Threat". Los Angeles Magazine. Emmis. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  13. ^ "Chaplin films to be shown at Women's Club of Hollywood". Beverly Press Park La Brea News. June 20, 2019. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  14. ^ "Introducing... Hollywood Club LA at the Woman's Club of Hollywood". Century City News. February 12, 2024. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  15. ^ "Hollywood School for Girls". Los Angeles Times (Advertisement). September 4, 1917. p. 18. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ de Mille, Agnes (October 1951). "Dance to the Piper". The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  17. ^ "Groundbreaking Stage Director Mary Hunter Wolf Dead at 95". Playbill. New York City. November 13, 2000. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  18. ^ Conrad, Tracy (February 16, 2024). "History: A Modernism Week-inspired look at the history of designer Edith Head". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, California: Gannett. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  19. ^ Mikesell, Terry (May 25, 2016). "Lancaster museum showcases work of Hollywood designer Edith Head". The Columbus Dispatch. Gannett. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  20. ^ "End of Colony: 'Studio Village' New Club Site". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. February 25, 1946. p. 13. Retrieved April 26, 2025 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  21. ^ Meares, Hadley (April 1, 2020). "LA's most beautiful storage building was also a speakeasy". Curbed Los Angeles. Vox Media. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
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