The Women’s Club of Vero Beach is embarking on the extensive restoration of its landmark property, which was completed in 1916. Now one of the oldest buildings in the county, it predates the incorporations of Vero in 1919 (it became Vero Beach in 1925) and Indian River County in 1925.
A group of progressive ladies formed the club in 1915 with the goal of establishing a library and reading room for the growing town of about 300 people. After raising the money to build and stock the library, they operated it for about 45 years, all while working on a whole list of other projects to benefit the community.
The county took over the library system in 1962 and built a larger facility, followed in 1991 by an even bigger one, this time right across the street from the Women’s Club.
“My goal is to restore this historic building so that we can get back to our original mission of providing charitable outreach to the community through philanthropic projects. We also want to engage our members in various social activities,” says Gail Alexander, current club president.
“It’s often called the oldest service club in Vero Beach. We were like the hub of the town. But a lot of people don’t even know this club is here. It is one of your oldest historic buildings in town, which is exciting. So I want to create awareness and educate the community on what this building is all about and how meaningful it is to Vero Beach,” she adds.
In a 70th anniversary commemorative piece in 1985 by Charlotte Lockwood titled “If These Walls Could Talk,” she wrote: “Vero was where the action was, and the Woman’s club [sic] was usually in the middle of it.”
Even then, Lockwood described it as the oldest public building under continuous ownership in downtown Vero.
An attractive brown-shingled structure with white trim, glass windows all around – a rarity in its day – two fireplaces and a kitchen, the building was added to the U. S. National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
After rejecting the offer of a houseboat, the industrious ladies had decided it would be less expensive to build their own facility on a corner lot offered by the Indian River Farms Company. The location happened to be near the home of its first president, Irene Young, wife of Vero’s first mayor, Anthony W. Young.
“They did a lot of fundraising where the proceeds went to the cause of building the Women’s Club early on. There was a fair that took place and they had dances too,” says Anna Brady, a historic preservation specialist on the restoration committee.
One of their creative fundraisers involved borrowing a patch of land to raise and sell cabbage.
“After that they started doing different projects for the community. It was the community building,” says Brady.
“Beautification during that time was so important because the land was still really rough. They laid out the town but the sidewalks didn’t come in till about 1924. So it was scrub; some of the lots weren’t cleared yet,” Brady adds.
Alexander notes that three female architects, led by Chris Baker of Moor, Baker and Associates Architects, have developed renderings of the proposed restoration. The committee is also working on obtaining the required permitting.
“The No. 1 thing is to preserve the building and keep the bones intact, and then bring the building up to code so it can survive another 100 years,” says Alexander.
A friend of Baker’s, a historic preservation architect and University of Kansas professor, flew in to vet the building, and helped Alexander obtain a grant through the State of Florida historic preservation matching grant program.
The structure has been modified and improved over the years, including a sprucing up before it served as the headquarters for the county’s 1976 Bicentennial celebrations. They were assisted then by celebrated architect James Gibson, who designed plans for Riverside Theatre, the Vero Beach Museum of Art and John’s Island.
Then, as now, the intent was to restore the character of the building while bringing it up to modern day use.
“We don’t know what we’re going to find until the inspection. We do want to keep all those floors; protect the windows, that glass. We want to keep everything that we possibly can to preserve the historic integrity of the building,” Alexander explains.
Among the top needs: the electrical wiring, plumbing and kitchen need updating; the building needs to be brought up to code, including ADA compliant bathrooms; and storage space is desperately needed.
Alexander envisions having a reading room on one side where members can work or relax, and a banquet room on the other for fundraisers and other activities.
Alexander says club membership is on the rebound, especially with new women moving into town who are seeking ways to meet other people and get involved.
“So they can join and they get to know and make friends, and then it kind of blossoms from there. But we need a building for those people to go to,” says Alexander.
“We want it to be a modern-day club members are proud to come to, and they’ll take care of it like it’s their own. We want it to be nice and historic, but with some modern amenities within,” she explains.
In the larger banquet room, which was added in 1929, the proscenium arch will remain but the raised stage will be removed, and the main entrance will shift so that it opens into that room.
In keeping with its character, a unique outside ‘door to nowhere’ at the front of the building will remain, as will its mini balcony, where people would stand to make announcements to the populace.
In the smaller room, paneling installed in the 1970s will be removed to keep it more in line with how it looked ‘back in the day.’
“We’re going to keep all of the history here, keep the original, as far as we can,” Alexander stresses.
Although the planned addition of a back porch and landscaping with native palms and trees will cut into parking, there is plenty of room at the courthouse lot across the street.
A Building Restoration Fund at the Indian River Community Foundation, which itself has contributed a grant, has already raised about $200,000. The campaign calls for $1.5 million, which includes an endowment to operate the facility rather than relying on rentals.
“We’ve had good experiences with rentals and we’ve had bad ones too,” says Alexander. “If we have an endowed fund, we can focus more on giving back to the community and having events here.”
For more information, visit VeroBeachWomensClub.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
