About Us
In 1912, Mrs. Felix McWhirter, then president of the Indiana Federation of Clubs, conceived the idea of a large democratic club of women, which would centralize and unify club effort and offer greater opportunities to women. The time was one in which hundreds of service clubs came into being. The Woman’s Department Club was a unique and interesting manifestation of the movement in the Hoosier Capital: its purpose was not to offer solely social stimulation, intellectual diversion, or self-expression to the women of the city but instead to marshal them to have a direct impact on the city’s growth and character!
Elizabet B. Hitt, WDC’s First President
By 1917, the club had outgrown its meeting sites and purchased and remodeled a large frame house on N. Meridian Street. It was an extraordinary move for the times and took much convincing to sell Woman’s Department Club to the realtors and banks.
In 1936, Mrs. Walter Grow was responsible for bringing the Hoosier Salon, then located in Chicago, to Indianapolis. It remains an important site for Hoosier artists to display their works.
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During World War I, the Club offered themselves and their clubhouse to the government to serve in whatever capacity they would be needed. WDC equipped and maintained its own Red Cross shop. One member wrote a song encouraging people to “Buy A Bond.”
The Club was instrumental in the establishment of the Public Health Nursing Association, paying the salary of the first year’s public health nurse. The PHNA eventually became the Indianapolis Visiting Nurses Association, and the Club continued to work with them for more than eighty years. An auxiliary to the City Hospital, now Eskenazi, served the needs of the young student nurses and awarded scholarships to senior students. When the hospital no longer provided nurses training, the Club turned its efforts to Ivy Tech and its health professional training courses. Scholarships continue to be awarded to nursing students at Ivy Tech.
Recognizing the needs of children as being of first priority for the city’s future, the WDC created a Mother’s Roundtable for discussion of home and child problems. They provided the first school nurse until the school board assumed the responsibility and established school lunches for undernourished children. WDC also started the movement to place musical instruments in the schools and established an educational fund for high school students who wished to further their studies at various Indianapolis institutions.
This portrait of Mrs. S.E. Perkins by Wayman Adams was presented to the Woman’s Department Club in April 1922 at the end of her first term as president. She was a club founder.
In the 1920s, the WDC wanted to effect change in the Indianapolis City Government. A “Mock Senate” was established to discuss both local and national issues with resolutions sent to the appropriate authorities. This work had a considerable effect on the outcome of legislation in Indiana’s House and Senate. The first women elected to the Indiana Legislature were active WDC members, as well as the first woman to serve in a state office, being deputy attorney general.
Protests were made against city corruption. In 1920 in an effort to do something about the city’s growing rat problem, a bounty of five cents was offered for each rat tail turned in at the clubhouse. This problem was quickly taken over by the Board of Health! The Club also worked for many years calling attention to the need for smoke abatement to clean up the city air.
Promoting education, the WDC formed classes open to all women such as a Mothers’ Roundtable for family counseling and a citizenship class for aliens. Club members enjoyed classes in parliamentary law, French, contract bridge, current events, book of the month study group, applied psychology, and business including banking and law. These were in addition to the already established departments for the study of art, literature, and drama. Even during the Great Depression, quality programs featured such notable speakers as Carl Sandburg, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ida Tarbell.
WDC Clubhouse
During World War II, rooms were opened for Red Cross activities and sixty thousand garments were sewed and collected to send to civilian casualties of the war. During the fifties, the Community Service Department members worked at the Women’s Prison counseling and providing clothing for those about to be released. Wards at Coleman Hospital and Central State were adopted.
In the early sixties with more women joining the workforce and volunteerism declining, the Club sadly was forced to give up the clubhouse. The Club was fifty-two years old and had occupied the building for forty-seven years.
Various funds and contributions had been established as early as 1922 and continue to this day. Education scholarships are awarded to aspiring elementary school teachers, music education, and nursing. Numerous organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life in Indianapolis have received contributions from the Club. Wheeler Mission, Salvation Army Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Red Cross, and restoration of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. WDC is named on the Founders Plaque of the Indianapolis Zoo and was active in promoting the development of White River State Park.
The Woman’s Department Club is not a stationary group but one that evolves, changes, and grows. It was started as a service club, a cooperative organization for the mutual advancement of women, and that became inevitably a call to service to the larger community.
