Shakespeare Century : Pasadena Women’s Club Marks 100 Years of Service

When society deemed that women should not smoke, drink nor vote, there was at least one thing they could do--read Shakespeare.

And so on a hot April morning in 1888, Lydia Nash and Claribel Thompson asked a few friends to come by and do exactly that.

No one showed up because of the hot weather, but the following Friday they did meet, and so began one of the longest-running traditions in Pasadena.

This year, the city’s Shakespeare Club, one of the oldest women’s clubs west of the Mississippi, celebrated its 100th anniversary.

What started out as a small reading group soon became an influential club focusing on charity and civic activities. Its century of community service has left an indelible mark on Pasadena’s history.

The club has awarded scholarships, donated thousands of dollars to charity and knitted hundreds of booties and afghans for the needy.

It built the city’s first public restrooms for women, lobbied for the passage of the city’s first food sanitation and truancy ordinances and started the city’s first kindergarten.

The group has far less influence today and is no longer the elite social club it once was. Its numbers have dropped from a peak of 1,500 in 1927 to just 260.

But Krystyna Yokaitis, a board member and past president, said that despite its shrinking size, the club is still a vibrant group.

“We’re alive and vital,” she said. “It’s amazing we’ve survived. It’s a great bunch of women.”

The Shakespeare Club was founded just as Pasadena was changing from a sleepy agricultural village to a booming resort community for the rich and famous.

A few years before, the city had only 392 residents. The center of town, at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue, consisted of just two hotels, a store, a school and a community hall.

But by the mid-1880s, the town began to boom, sparked by the completion of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad in 1885 and the 200-room Raymond Hotel in 1886.

Thompson and Nash decided that it was time to start a cultural club for the women of the city. “It gave women a chance to put their feelings forward and get out to see others,” said Evelyn Chambers, the club’s historian.

Initials Confused

The group was first named the Women’s Reading Club, but that was quickly changed because its initials were confused with those of the Women’s Relief Corps. Members settled on calling it the Shakespeare Club in honor of the first author they read.

Their motto, “Gently to hear, kindly to judge,” was the first quotation read at an early meeting. It was taken from the prologue of Shakespeare’s play “Henry V.”

Club members came from the city’s elite and wielded enormous influence. “It was the first lobbying group,” Yokaitis said.

“You have to remember, their husbands were all the most prominent people in town,” Chambers said.

One of the first projects they tackled was building a public restroom near the intersection of Raymond Avenue and Walnut Street for working women who came to town each day.

Promoted Sanitary Laws

Around the turn of the century, the club attacked the problem of unsanitary conditions in restaurants, dairies and bakeries. The women inspected facilities throughout the city and were instrumental in getting a law passed that regulated food preparation.

The club donated time and money to help victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and veterans of both world wars. The club founded Rosemary Cottage in 1920 as a home for orphaned girls. Today, the cottage, still partially funded by the club, is a residential treatment facility for emotionally troubled teen-age girls and an emergency shelter for runaways.

By the end of World War II, membership began to dwindle as more women went to work. Most of the members today are in their 60s and 70s.

“When I came in, everyone called me the baby,” said Jeanette Parker, 51, a board member and past president.

Betty Hamilton, the current president of the club, said the membership has remained stable for the past decade and she has no worries about it dropping further.

Many working women become members after they retire.

Must Be Sponsored

Members are generally added by invitation only. But those who want to join and aren’t asked can apply. All new members must be sponsored by three current members. The board of directors then must approve the membership request.

Hamilton said she joined after she retired in 1978 and has been paying her $75-a-year membership fee ever since.

“When you stop working, there is a void in your life, but you still want to do some good and meet people,” she said. “This is the place to do it.”

The club raises $15,000 to $20,000 each year through bake sales, an annual musical production, a fashion show and other events. The money is donated to groups such as the Cerebral Palsy Center and the Pasadena Red Cross.

It supplies a hefty number of booties and bibs for needy families and afghans for patients at veterans hospitals in the area.

Lunch, Socializing

Weekly meetings at the club’s Italian-style villa on South Grand Avenue attract about 90 members for a full day of lunch, socializing and a speech or musical program.

And although the club is no longer a major force in civic affairs, it still draws its share of attention. On its 100th anniversary this April, the group received letters of congratulations from around the country including messages from Gov. George Deukmejian and President Reagan.

One thing that has not changed is the all-female membership.

No man has ever asked or been asked to join. Yokaitis said she doesn’t know why a man would want to join, but a male member “wouldn’t change the club one iota anyway.”

Parker added: “They’d have to learn to knit first.”

Few Requests

Board members say the club has few members who are minorities because they have received few requests, but that applications from minorities are welcome.

And as for Shakespeare?

Well, the Bard has actually played only a minor role in the club’s history.

“There are plenty who haven’t read Shakespeare,” Yokaitis said. “I am not a total fan.”

But it has an active Shakespeare study group and celebrates the Bard’s birthday each year in April with a special program of dramatic readings or music.

“It’s part of our tradition so we try to keep Shakespeare alive,” she said.