Call It a Day

Elma Inge remembers gathering blankets in 1941, readying the city for a possible Japanese attack shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Bombs never dropped on Central Avenue, but it was one of the many times the Tuesday Afternoon Club, a century-old social organization, was called on to help in the city’s greatest times of need.

The women’s club closed its doors Tuesday, bringing a quiet end to one of Glendale’s oldest and most charitable civic groups.

The club survived two World Wars and countless earthquakes, but couldn’t overcome the generational shift that has allowed more women to join the work force over the years.

“Many women today don’t have much time to spare because they have two jobs--their work and their family. That’s just the way it is today,” said Inge, a club member for 57 years.

With few younger women wanting to join, the club’s membership grew older and its numbers began to decline, from a bustling roster that topped 900 in the 1940s to just over 70 today.

Club President Ruth Moore said it just became too difficult to hold the club together, plan functions, and run its spacious facility at Central Avenue and Myrtle Street. Members said the facility is for sale for $2 million.

Saying goodbye has been difficult.

“It’s something I will grieve for as long as I will live,” said a teary-eyed Moore.

The organization was born out of a birthday party in 1898 thrown by the wives of some of Glendale’s most elite businessmen. The gatherings quickly became a regular event, and in 1904 it became an official women’s club, which met the second Tuesday of every month.

Local historians and members said the Tuesday Afternoon Club founded Glendale’s first library with 80 books, and helped form the city’s symphony orchestra. In 1911, club members pieced together the city’s float in the Rose Parade and later provided scores of Red Cross volunteers during World War II.

Since that time, the club settled into a more philanthropic role, holding fund-raisers to benefit cancer research, a home for single mothers and the city’s libraries. Through the years, the women also aided the Girl Scouts, the YMCA, YWCA and donated money to more than 30 local charities.

“You read any history about Glendale and you know what name you always see? The Tuesday Afternoon Club,” said Ellen Perry, who writes a column for the Glendale News-Press and serves as Glendale’s unofficial historian. “It’s sad to realize that clubs like this are dying out, because there really is nothing to replace them.”

In the early 1990s, when its waning membership became starkly apparent, the club changed its bylaws to allow husbands to join. Few did.

Tuesday’s final afternoon gathering brought the largest turnout in years, with former members coming from as far away as Arizona. Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles and other American-made cars dominated the club’s ample parking lot as, inside, the women dined on filet mignon, baked potatoes and green beans.

Theresa Sprunk, who has been a club member 38 years, said one of the thrills of her life came in 1963, when the club honored her as its “Junior Citizen of the Year” for her work to raise money for cancer research and other charitable causes.

“I just can’t accept it. It’s thrived for so long and has done so many things for Glendale,” Sprunk said. “The club has always attracted the elite ladies of Glendale--they just have a special way about them.”