History

The story of the Indianapolis Woman's Club (IWC) begins on February 18, 1875, with the gathering of seven women who yearned for an intellectual outlet.

Those women braved below-zero temperatures to meet at the McKay home on Ash St. (today the 1100 block of Carrollton Ave.). They discussed objectives of the club, selected the pansy as its emblem, drafted five articles for a Constitution, and appointed three to confer on the choice of additional members. The group then adjourned to meet again the following week.

By that time, the club's membership had increased to 12. They met to “perfect the organization,” noting that “the Association shall encourage a liberal interchange of thought by papers and discussions upon all subjects pertaining to its objects.” The group selected officers and signed the Constitution they had drafted a week earlier. They also chose the subject to be discussed at their next meeting: “To be a good housekeeper, is it needful to devote one’s entire time to the work?”

The original membership was drawn largely from the College Corner area around Northwestern Christian University (parent of Butler University), north of 13th Street and east of College Avenue. Before long, however, women from other parts of the city were invited to join. When meeting at the homes of members became unwieldy, the group met at various locations, including the Sunday School rooms of the Plymouth Church at New York and Meridian streets and Tabernacle Church at 11th and Meridian.

In 1891, a Propylaeum building was built on North Street in downtown Indianapolis to give the IWC and other women’s organizations a permanent home. May Wright Sewall organized and named the building, one of the first in the nation to be financed by women stockholders. This building was demolished in the early 1920s to make way for the Indiana War Memorial, and in 1923, the club moved to what became the new Propylaeum at 1410 North Delaware. In 1973, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, the more than 120 members of the Indianapolis Woman’s Club carry on the tradition of intellectual discussion initiated by its founders, in the same room where the group has met for more than 100 years. Its membership includes women from Marion and surrounding counties and from diverse age groups and social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.