The Houston Heights Woman's Club, founded by sixteen wives of Houston Heights founders and originally called the Houston Heights Literary Club, held their first meeting at Mrs. Cummings' home on January 15, 1900. The club appointed its first officers, including president, vice president, and secretary, and formed a constitution and program of work to be accomplished. Meetings were subsequently held every Monday at a different member's house each week and the members dedicated themselves to the discussion, study, and enjoyment of literature and music. In 1912, members sought to raise money to construct a building specifically for club business. With Mrs. D.D. Cooley's generous donation of property at 1846 Harvard, the members set out to raise money to build the club house. Currently, the club meets in the one-story bungalow that it built and has expanded into four departments including literature, music, civic, and art, which all meet once a month to create programs, and once a month collectively to discuss each department's programs. The club is one of the oldest woman's clubs still meeting in Houston today and has been showcased on several antique shows and local tours.
The records of the Houston Heights Woman's Club consist of awards, certificates and citations acknowledging the positive efforts and contributions to the community made by the members, yearbooks detailing the year's events and providing membership lists, photo albums showcasing the numerous activities the club's members have taken part in over the course of the years, and administrative materials, including meeting minutes and audit reports among other documentation. All materials date from 1900 to 2004. The collection arrived in the archives in excellent order, arranged chronologically and neatly in binders, albums, and yearbooks. The records have been processed chronologically into four series: awards, certificates and citations; yearbooks; albums and scrapbooks; and administrative documentation.
Terms are either Library of Congress Subject Headings or taken from local sources.
Open for research.
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Houston Heights Woman's Club Records, Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, University of Houston Libraries.
Donation by Houston Heights Woman's Club, 2006
Amanda R. Martinez, 2006
The awards, certificates and citations series contains award certificates given to the Houston Heights Woman's Club by the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs for outstanding direction under certain administrative boards in various years in the club's existence. The series also consists of recognition and appreciation certificates and citations from various organizations for the club's activities and assistance provided to others.
The yearbooks series contains small bound yearbooks dating from 1906 through 2004. The yearbooks outline the club's information in detail for each year respectively, including a listing of officers, executive boards, standing committees, departmental activities and programs, meeting information and updated rosters. Between 1906 and 1914, the club was referred to as the Literary Club.
The albums and scrapbooks series contains photographs displayed in albums chronologically and mostly sorted by corresponding events.
The administrative documentation series consists of meeting minutes notebooks covering extended periods of time, and records from the Board of Directors and Executive Board meetings. Other administrative items include financial audit reports, materials of interest, including publications and clippings, a revision of the by-laws, and miscellaneous hand-written notes from the members.