Greg Tucker, The Murfreesboro Post, July 26, 2016
With a genealogy that reaches back to a 19thcentury book club, the fight for women’s suffrage and memorials to the Confederacy, the Woman’s Club in Murfreesboro celebrates its Centennial this month with an expanded role.
In December 1915 members of the Library Association, the Suffrage League and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) initiated discussion in Murfreesboro that led to the July 22, 1916 incorporation of the Woman’s Club. Mrs. W. B. Earthman was the first president. Other early club leaders included Mrs. R. W. Vickers, Mrs. Sam Mitchell, Mrs. W.A. Ransom, Mrs. H. L. Fox, Mrs. C. B. Huggins, Mrs. C. R. Byrn, Mrs. John M. Butler and Mrs. A. L. Todd.
The Library Association was organized in Rutherford County in 1889 by the members of a book club which had first gathered in 1887 to share and discuss popular literature of the period. The ladies’ first book for discussion was “Ramona” by Helen Hunt Jackson, a popular romantic novel set in southern California. As a result, they called themselves the Helen Jackson Club. To promote reading and literacy, the ladies began purchasing and collecting books which they offered on loan to local residents.
Initially, the Library Association collection was kept on an empty counter in the Booker Smith Drug Store. Books were loaned without charge, but families were encouraged to join the association (annual dues were 50 cents). When the book collection outgrew the drug store counter, it was moved to the Mason Court building on East Main Street. The association also contributed to the area’s cultural development by bringing prominent authors, lecturers and musicians for public programs.
In 1915 the library moved to the space above Vickers’ Drug Store on the courthouse square. (Vickers was in partnership with R. H. Stickney and in 1920 sold his interest to Ed Griffis.) With the library collection exceeding 1000 volumes, it was moved the following year to a room in the Masonic Building on the southeast corner of East Main and the Public Square (“McFadden’s Corner”). A neighboring tenant in the building was an informal and recently organized Woman’s Club.
In September 1916 the newly-chartered Woman’s Club agreed to purchase the historic Baskette house at 221 East College Street from the J. M. Haynes family (local hotel owners) for $6125 “on easy terms.” The Library Association agreed to donate its fund (about $700) towards the purchase in exchange for a permanent home for the library collection in the new clubhouse.
The residence that became the clubhouse was originally built by William T. Baskette, a local physician, and his new wife Helen Crichlow in the 1850’s. Late in the 19th century it was the home of Judge Fletcher Ready Burrus, a member of the 43rd Tennessee General Assembly. Before being acquired by hotelier James Monroe Haynes, the house was owned by Montfort Fletcher Jordan, another hotel proprietor.
Preservation of the antebellum mansion has been an important part of the club’s activity during its first century. The club renovated the second floor in the late 1920’s to include two private apartments that provide rental income to help with the maintenance of the building. The nursing director for the new Rutherford County Health Department was one of the first tenants. In its 50th year (1966), the club received the Award for Excellence in Architectural Preservation from the Murfreesboro Architectural & Zoning Society. Past president and 50-year member Frances Hunter recalls spending most of the anniversary year on the “reserve list” before receiving a membership invitation on December 12, 1966.
Although the UDC and the Suffrage League did not establish themselves in the mansion, they and others have used the facility for social events, meetings, weddings and recitals. Meeting space continues to be available to local organizations and individuals on a rental basis. (Catering can be arranged.) Patriotic and charitable groups have traditionally used club meeting space without charge.
The library was placed in a front room near the front door for convenient public access. The Library Association, led by charter member Mrs. Dewitt Smith, continued to run the library until 1923, when it was turned over to the club and Miss Frankie White was appointed librarian. For the next 25 years, the Woman’s Club Library functioned as the only lending library serving Rutherford readers. During much of this time Miss Ada Youngserved as the librarian, maintaining and adding to the collection.
When the Linebaugh Library opened in Murfreesboro in 1948, use of the Woman’s Club library declined although the lending library continued to be active for at least another decade. “When the question came up (during the 1950’s) …as to whether the Club should give their book collection to Linebaugh, those of us who knew the part the library had played in (the Club’s history)…felt that we would be untrue to the founders of the Club to dispense with the library. The books give a cultural atmosphere which enhances the Club…and the books are read,” said Mrs. J. B. Black in 1961.
The Library Association/Woman’s Club collection remains exactly where it settled in 1916–the front room of the historic Baskette house, now the Woman’s Club, at 221 East College. The writing desk of 19th century author Mary Noailles Murfree (also known as Egbert Craddock) remains in place. The chair given in honor of Library Association promoter and charter member Mrs. Dewitt Smith still serves those who browse the collection of over 2000 volumes, mostly predating 1948.
From its inception, the club objective has been “to aid and encourage the intellectual and social interests of its members; to promote the civic and philanthropic activities of the community; to maintain and care for a library; and to maintain a clubhouse for the use and pleasure of its members.” Recently granted a 501c3 tax status for education and architectural preservation, the club today has plans to establish several scholarships for Rutherford County college students.
In its early decades, club membership was said to represent the intellectual and social “elite” of Murfreesboro. A membership applicant was expected to possess the appropriate “manners and graces.” Several of today’s more senior members recall that their predecessors would occasionally refer to the “lettuce test.” Certainly a member of the Woman’s Club should know the “proper way to eat lettuce.”