The hard-fought efforts of the Hollywood Women’s Club to save its historic clubhouse recently got an unexpected boost from a $20,000 matching-funds donation, and club leaders are hoping it will inspire others in the community to take up the challenge.
For several years, members of the Hollywood Women’s Club have tried to raise funds to preserve its wood-frame clubhouse – an important piece of the club’s history built in 1927 and a designated National Historic Site and Hollywood Landmark.
Restoring the 83-year-old house in the North Lake neighborhood at 501 N. 14th Ave. will require a new roof, new foundation and pilings, plumbing and electrical upgrades, and various aesthetic improvements, all expected to cost between $125,000 and $150,000.
Club president Shelly deMarco said fundraising efforts hit a speed bump when the economy took its downturn.
“Last year we really worked hard and barely saw $12,000,” she said.
With an unexpected phone call in January came renewed hope for the restoration project. DeMarco said a Hollywood resident, who cares deeply about historic restoration and has a special interest in the Hollywood Women’s Club and the charitable work it has done in the community since its establishment in 1922, made the charitable donation.
The $20,000 donation “was her way of saying, ‘Get the job done. Let me help you,’” deMarco said.
With the donor matching other contributions up to $20,000, the club’s fundraising effort is slowly beginning to take on new life.
“People are stepping up,” deMarco said. “We’re trying to get the word out.”
The club’s new donation challenge is part of a multi-prong approach that has included fundraising activities, clubhouse rentals and an online shopping program that donates a percentage of sales to the Hollywood Women’s Club.
DeMarco figures that with the matching-funds donations the club will have about $90,000 in its restoration budget – still tens of thousands of dollars short of its goal.
Phase 1 of the project – which included interior upgrades, beautification and the rebuilding of the clubhouse’s termite-damaged front wall, which was deflected inward during Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 – has been completed. In 2009, the City of Hollywood honored the Hollywood Women’s Club with the “Historical Preservation Project of the Year” award.
The next part of the restoration process begins this month with the replacement of the clubhouse’s leaking roof. But the biggest part of the restoration is yet to come. While the frame of the 1,700-square-foot, Classical Revival-style house is sound, it was built on sludge and is in need of a new foundation. The clubhouse will have to be raised in the air while 25-foot-deep pilings are erected and the entire foundation is replaced.
“That’s our big challenge, to make the money for that,” deMarco said.
A recent minor setback, in which vandals smashed four clubhouse windows, has only strengthened the resolve of members to preserve the charming meeting place that deMarco calls “our heart and soul,” a happy space where local women gather to do good for the community.
“It really is the spirit of the Women’s Club,” she said. “It’s a center for the community, actually – for charitable work, for socialization, for networking.”
The mission of the Hollywood Women’s Club is community improvement through volunteer service. The club, which helped establish Hollywood’s first public library, has raised money through club activities for numerous charities that include Kids in Distress, Women in Distress, Broward Outreach Shelter, the Salvation Army, Born to Read Program, Hacienda Girls Ranch, Canine Companions and college scholarships for teenage cancer survivors.
The Hollywood Women’s Club, part of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), boasts 92 members ranging in age from their early 20s to their 90s. Meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month and a day group meets one Thursday each month. Membership is open to all women, although the majority live in Hollywood. Annual dues are $40.
The Hollywood Women’s Club hosts a variety of fundraising activities, from twice-monthly ballroom dance classes to special events such as the Spring Market Place, which will feature antiques, “junktiques,” collectibles and new and used merchandise from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 27 on the clubhouse grounds. Vendor spaces are available for $20 for members and $30 for nonmembers.
DeMarco said members of the Hollywood Women’s Club know “what needs to be done” to preserve their beloved clubhouse.
“We have the players in place. We’re ready to go,” she said. “We just need the money.”
For more information on making a donation to the Hollywood Women’s Club, renting the clubhouse, club membership, upcoming events or a discounted online shopping program to benefit the club, call 954-925-9394 or visit www.HollywoodWomensClub.org.
