Woman’s Club offers borough a special gift
Organization’s longtime home could be made available for wider use
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Members of the Little Silver Woman’s Club have donated their building (above) on Church Street and Rumson Road to the borough for use as a community center. At right, the officers of the Woman’s Club include (l-r) Beatrice Bird, Red Bank, first vice president; Doris Woolfenden, Monmouth Beach, president; and Anne Danowitz, recording secretary.
LITTLE SILVER — The low-slung, one-story, red brick building with white trim between Church Street and Rumson Road, home for more than 40 years of the Woman’s Club of Little Silver, is being offered to the borough by the club for use as a community center.
The gift is coming complete with an antique McPhail grand piano, which was given to the club in 1970 by Mrs. Max Simonson, who donated it in memory of her father, Sen. J. Macadoo.
As part of the arrangements now being developed for the donation, the club is expected to be allowed to continue to meet in the building, and the borough will look after the piano, which is housed in a beautiful rosewood cabinet.
Doris M. Woolfenden of Monmouth Beach, club president, said the club was making the donation of the building for the good of the community so that borough residents could enjoy it.
Woolfenden said care of the piano entails putting water in it three times a week — there’s a receptacle with a hose inside the cabinet — so that the wood doesn’t dry out and crack.
She said the club completely restored the piano in 1982.
The Borough Council introduced an ordinance Tuesday night authorizing the borough to take over the clubhouse. A public hearing and vote on the measure are scheduled for March 18.
Mayor Suzanne S. Castleman said if the deal goes through, she expected the building will be used for all sorts of organization meetings, plus other activities that have yet to be determined. She noted the clubhouse has a stage which makes it possible to put plays on there.
But, she cautioned, there still is much to do, and the borough will be easing into the acquisition. For instance, she said, the borough will need a structural survey to be done.
"We have to know what we’re getting into as a borough," she said. "We have to see what repairs need to be made."
In the meantime, the mayor said, the borough will be exploring how to best use the club’s building.
"It’s in an ideal location for us," she said. "It’s across the street from the park. It’s across the street from the Parker homestead. And it has lots of parking."
"The ladies of the Woman’s Club are very generous in giving this to the borough," she added. "We would like to accommodate their needs [in wanting to continue to meet there]. Of course, I’m absolutely delighted about the whole deal. It’s a wonderful building with great potential."
Over the years, the Woman’s Club of Little Silver has contributed to many civic and charitable organizations, including the Little Silver Fire Department, Little Silver First Aid Squad, Little Silver Police Benevolent Association, Little Silver Youth Athletic Fund, Little Silver Library, Little Silver Food Bank, Family and Children’s Service, Riverview Hospital, MCOSS (now the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey), Salvation Army, Shrewsbury Manor Nursing Home, FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean counties, Ronald McDonald House, and many more.
In addition, two $1,200 scholarships were awarded to two students from Red Bank Regional High School in 2001, one for academic achievement and one for performing arts.
The club has its beginnings in a small group of women known as the Little Silver Sewing Society that met before World War I, but temporarily disbanded during the war.
In 1919, Mrs. J. E. Harvey called the ladies together for a meeting in her home, and the club was organized. It became affiliated — as the Woman’s Club of Little Silver — with the State Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1920, and was incorporated in 1926. It joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1937.
Anne Danowitz of Little Silver, current recording secretary of the club and former president in 1994-95, said the club has been housed in two different buildings after initially meeting in 1920 on the second floor of Mechanic’s Hall, now Edy’s Luncheonette, on Rumson Road.
Danowitz, who also is the club historian, said the first clubhouse was built at the corner of Prospect Avenue and Willow Drive, on land purchased in 1925 from the Lovett’s tract for $750. Following vigorous fund-raising activities, the clubhouse was built and dedicated in 1927.
In 1956, she said, that clubhouse was deemed too small, and the club purchased two lots at the corner of Church Street and Rumson Road where it built a new clubhouse — the one being donated to the borough — which was dedicated in 1960. Nine years later, a storeroom was added. She said that on April 11, 1979, the 60th anniversary of the organization, a mortgage-burning ceremony took place.
"The Woman’s Club sincerely hopes that by establishing a community center, more town residents will utilize the facilities offered in this magnificent building," Danowitz said.