Chat Work Club

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture Valentine's Day, 1921. Most folks are exchanging cards or maybe stealing a glance across the room.

But thirty-three women in Portland had something else in mind entirely. They sat down together, needles moving, hands busy, voices carrying, and they founded the Chat Work Club. The name came straight from what they did: they worked on their sewing projects while they talked.

Work and conversation, all at once. Practical. Purposeful.

Very Texas. By 1925, the Club had set its sights on something bigger than a quilt. They started raising funds for a public library in Portland.

Now, fundraising is patient work, and these women were patient workers. By 1933, a building was completed. It opened with two hundred and ninety-one books.

Two hundred and ninety-one. Not a vast collection, but a start, and a start is everything. Over the years that library grew, and it moved, occupied a number of structures as communities tend to do when something keeps outgrowing its walls.

Then in 1983, the original library building, the one those thirty-three women worked and talked and dreamed into existence, was moved to this very site. The Chat Work Club, for its part, never stopped. The members remain active in community affairs to this day.

Thirty-three women on Valentine's Day with thread in their hands and a whole library in their heads.

What the marker says

Formed by a group of thirty three women of Valentine's Day, 1921, the Chat Work Club derived its name from the members practice of working on sewing projects while conversing with each other. In 1925, they began raising funds for a portland public library, and by 1933 a building was completed. Beginning with 291 books, the library grew over the years and has occupied a number of structures. The original library building was moved to this site in 1983. The members of the Chat Work Club remain active in community affairs.