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Editor's note:This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com's Historic section.
SALT LAKE CITY — Three years ago, as Photo Collective Studios co-owners Jessie Jude Gilmore and Dave Brewer sought a new office space for their work, they came across what once was a meeting place for The Ladies’ Literary Club in Utah.
The building’s grand Prairie-style design completed in 1913 had an aura unlike many other buildings they had visited.
“The best way to describe it is we got handcuffed to the building. The building chose us,” Gilmore said Tuesday, standing in the building’s ballroom floor as a piano played on a nearby stage. “We knew as soon as we came in, that this was our home and we are responsible for this building.”
Clubhouse has since become a place where artists collaborate and where public events can be held. This year, Gilmore and Brewer partnered with Better Days 2020, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about Utah women’s history, to enter in the National Geographic’s “Vote Your Main Street" contest. The competition allows people to vote on 10 historic sites in the U.S. that will receive a share of $2 million in preservation grants. After all the nominations were looked over, Clubhouse was named one of 20 finalists for a grant — and the only one from Utah.
An online vote for the 10 winners began on Tuesday. If Clubhouse wins a grant, its owners hope to renovate the building further to return it to pristine shape. They also plan to add a ramp and bathroom that would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act code.
So, what made Clubhouse a finalist for this grant? All of the 20 locations up for a grant are buildings that have some sort of importance in women’s history, and the building certainly played a role in women’s history in Utah.
It was completed 106 years ago for The Ladies’ Literary Club. The club, which was founded in 1877, was a place for women interested in literature, as well as “the development of mental culture.” It grew until it opened its first official meeting spot in 1898 in a place on 300 East between 100 South and South Temple. The women used proceeds from selling that clubhouse location to purchase a lot at 850 E. South Temple for $7,500.
The club then issued bonds to help raise the $25,000 — which equates to nearly $650,000 today — needed to build the new venue. The Clubhouse building officially opened on April 25, 1913.
It became a place where women could study art, literature, music, history and current events of the day, said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski during an event kicking off the voting campaign.
“They were women with a vision of a society where equality was a given, not the exception,” she added. “The foundation laid by the Ladies’ Literary Club is, in part, the reason that I can stand here today as Salt Lake City’s mayor. This building is also a testament to that vision.”
Clubhouse was also a central place where women came together to bring about the first free public library in the city and to help get a nationwide right to vote, said Katherine Kitterman, historical director for Better Days 2020. During World War II, members sewed hospital clothes for soldiers. The club established free kindergartens and also sponsored art/music contests.
Needless to say, the building had great importance to the city.
“It’s really rare for a historic site to tell the stories of women, and that’s one of the things that makes this building so special,” Kitterman said. “You can think of all the stories this building has seen. It’s seen women gathering to educate each other (and) to socialize together. This was the oldest literary club west of the Mississippi (River).”
In 1977, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was later donated to Preservation Utah in 2013 after the club disbanded. In 2016, it was sold to Photo Collective Studios. Gilmore said they had no plan to tear the building down, close it off to the public, or use it for anything other than arts and education, which met Preservation Utah officials’ conditions when selling the property.
Gilmore said she feels “blessed” and filled with a sense of purpose to be a caretaker of a property with a rich history. It’s a feeling that’s even stronger as the country nears the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.
“There were so many women who came before me who did not have these opportunities to use their voice and their influence to change the city, so I’m humbled by the responsibility of it,” she said. “Really, I just feel a lot of gratitude and I owe a lifetime of work to pay off that debt toward the women who got us here.”
When it came to renovation, Gilmore and Brewer first learned of a grant contest in 2017, when Salt Lake City won a similar grant for the Utah Pickle Company building.
You can think of all the stories this building has seen. It’s seen women gathering to educate each other (and) to socialize together. This was the oldest literary club west of the Mississippi (River).
–Katherine Kitterman, historical director for Better Days 2020
Preservation Utah officials then told the owners about this year’s contest that centered around women’s history. That’s when the owners were put in contact with Better Days 2020, which would receive the grant and donate it to renovations toward the building.
Aside from renovation plans to preserve the building, Gilmore said there are plans to renovate the basement to make it a possible recording studio and a print lab. In the next few years, they also hope to turn the front parlor into a public coffee shop with an outdoor patio.
Voting for the competition wraps up on Oct. 29. Anyone can cast a vote daily by texting “MainStreet” to 52886 or by visiting VoteYourMainStreet.org/SLC.
