The Woman's Club of San Antonio

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, 1898 is a year worth remembering in San Antonio, because that's when two women decided the city needed something it didn't yet have. Eleanor Brackenridge, a philanthropist born in 1837, and a journalist by the name of Marin B.

Fenwick sat down with sixteen others, eighteen charter members in all, and formed the Woman's Club of San Antonio. Eighteen people. And what they built from that modest beginning turned out to be the first departmental club in all of Texas.

The first. In the whole state. That's not nothing.

That's something you put on a marker. Eleanor Brackenridge didn't just show up and sign the papers, either. She served as the group's first president for seven years, steering a charitable organization that took on causes that mattered: voting rights and education for women, social reforms, and the arts.

The kind of agenda that makes certain people nervous and certain other people very, very determined. By 1908, the club had done well enough to purchase its first clubhouse. That's a milestone right there, a home of their own.

But the story of where they eventually landed is worth a moment of your time. There was a structure built in 1907 and 1908, constructed as the private residence of David J. Woodward, a business and civic leader.

Woodward's house. Fine address, no doubt. And in 1926, the Woman's Club of San Antonio acquired it.

So what started as eighteen women in 1898 with a vision ended up, by 1926, moving into a building that had been raised for one of the city's leading men. I'd call that a chapter with a satisfying last line.

What the marker says

Formed in 1898 by Philanthropist Eleanor Brackenridge (1837-1924) and journalist Marin B. Fenwick with eighteen charter members, the Woman's Club of San Antonio was the first departmental club in Texas. Miss Brackenridge served for seven years as the group's first president. The activities of this charitable organization have advanced voting and education for women, social reforms, and the arts. The group purchased its first clubhouse in 1908. This structure, built-in 1907-08 as the residence of business and civic leader David J. Woodward, was acquired by the Woman's Club in 1926. (1975)