Woman’s Club of Catonsville Collection

Woman’s Club of Catonsville Collection

The society accepted and accessioned a collection consisting primarily of documentary materials related to the operations of the Woman’s Club of Catonsville (WCC). The club operated from 1932 to 2012. At the height of its popularity the club had over 300 members and provided creative, philanthropic and civic opportunities to Catonsville women.

The WCC’s activities and successes were numerous.  The WCC’s efforts and planning were instrumental in Catonsville’s urban revival efforts of both the 1960s and today.  In the 1950s and ‘60s the WCC partnered with community groups to start a library, an arts festival and senior citizen center in Catonsville. In 1959, the WCC constructed an impressive clubhouse at 10 St. Timothy Lane from proceeds of The Swap Shop thrift store, once located on Frederick Road.  The WCC recently donated the same building to the Catonsville Community Foundation in 2013, immediately following the club’s 2012 dissolution.

We welcome the prospect of students making use of these records for research. The collection was extensively inventoried by University of Maryland, College Park, history graduate student Tyler S. Stump.  The material could prove extremely valuable to planners or scholars interested in urban revival, women’s history locally or nationally, and the history of Catonsville.

Click here for a WBAL news segment on the WCC and their dissolution.