OJAI : Landmark Status Urged for Club Hall

The Ojai Historical Preservation Commission has recommended its first landmark in several years.

The five-member advisory panel, formerly called the Cultural Heritage Board, has unanimously recommended that the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club meeting hall be declared a historical landmark.

The City Council has not set a date to consider the designation, but it could come before the end of the year, said Elaine Willman, assistant to the city manager.

The council adopted a new historical preservation ordinance last month that more clearly defines property owners’ rights and responsibilities. During the four years it took to revise the ordinance, the commission continued to survey potential city landmarks.

The Woman’s Club, a nonprofit social and service club claiming 100 members, owns the building itself. It has sought landmark status to recognize the center’s contributions to the community and to seek grants for repairs, spokeswoman Betty Metcalf said.

Located at 441 E. Ojai Ave., the one-story, redwood clubhouse was built in 1911 in an early Craftsman style used before the mission motif became popular in Ojai. It has changed little over the years.

The kitchen plumbing dates to 1911, the floors and other items need restoration and termite work will cost about $10,000, Metcalf said. The hall is rented out for weddings, concerts and community events.

Founded in 1899 as the Daughters of the Kings, the club changed its name in 1915. Its members, who welcomed valley newcomers and once bought a cow for a needy family, now help high school students with scholarships.

The clubhouse has lodged fire and flood victims and out-of-town nurses during a 1917 flu epidemic and even served as a classroom for students spilling out of the public schools. Six churches claimed sanctuary there before finding their own buildings, and 11 other service groups have regularly met in the hall over the years.

If designated, the clubhouse will join three other official city landmarks: the original Presbyterian Church building, Edward Drummond Libbey’s former home and the Theodore Woolsey House, a former stagecoach stop that is now a bed and breakfast.