Club has helped put city on the map

The Woman’s Club of Huntington Beach celebrated its hundred-year anniversary Tuesday with an open house and luncheon.

The luncheon filled the club’s historic facilities on 10th Street, which have also sheltered many other Huntington Beach organizations over the years.

Many community members attended along with a large turnout of Woman’s Club faithful. Mayor Debbie Cook dined with the club, as did City Council members Kathy Green, Keith Bohr and Joe Carchio.

The Woman’s Club was founded in the emergent Huntington Beach oil boomtown.

The club grew up with the fledgling city. The original club was founded at the home of Florence Blodgett in 1908.

“I wanted to say how lucky we are to be here for 100 years,” member Elaine Craft said before she jokingly added “though none of us were charter members.”

Shirlee Earley, a two-time club president, said the Woman’s Club was the group of choice for many prominent Surf City residents past.

The club took part in founding Huntington’s first schoolhouse and library.

But it wasn’t until the 1970s when the club began to take an active role in politics. Earley’s first presidency was from 1978 to 1980.

The club took stances on abuse in nursing homes and gun control.

“Make it happen, that was my thing,” Earley said. “I wanted to put Huntington Beach on the map.”

In its first hundred years, the Woman’s Club helped do just that.