Our History
Our dental clinic, iconic clubhouse and the city library are all part of our legacy.
A Century of Service and Sisterhood
We are all threads in an invisible tapestry. If we wish to serve the past, we must provide for the future. By restoring and preserving our heritage, we are performing a service for the generations to come. The Coral Gables Woman’s Club members, with pride and dignity appeal for the generous support of caring individuals in our efforts to restore and preserve one of the few remaining historic landmarks in the City of Coral Gables. Unless we receive the assistance that is imperative for success, our “Work of Art” will be lost. The CGWC has maintained the building since we received the keys on January 9, 1937.
For more than a century, the Coral Gables Woman’s Club and the city of Coral Gables have been inextricably linked. In 1923, as developer George Merrick sold lots for the new city he envisioned, 49 women from the Coral Gables Congregational Church began organizing a social and philanthropic organization dedicated to community well-being. By the time Coral Gables incorporated on April 29, 1925, the women’s club had affiliated with the Florida General Federation of Women’s Clubs and counted more than $300 in its treasury and 83 members. Merrick’s wife Eunice was a founding director.
In 1927, club members organized the city’s first lending library in what is now the city’s Douglas Entrance and, at George Merrick’s invitation, held their meetings at the Country Club of Coral Gables. The fledgling library consisted of 300 books donated by authors who answered the call to provide copies. Other donations included 100 volumes from the private collection of renowned statesman William Jennings Bryan.
In 1929, the club created a junior department, which formally become the Coral Gables Junior Woman’s Club in 1936. By then, the junior women had inaugurated Cabaret, a choreographed show in which members not only performed song and dance routines but built the sets and sewed the costumes.
The annual fundraisers, which continued for more than seven decades, were so successful that, in 1939, the juniors used the proceeds to establish a dental clinic for poor children in the office of the mayor of Coral Gables. Except for a two-year hiatus during World War II, the club has operated the Coral Gables Children’s Dental Clinic ever since, providing millions of dollars’ worth of life-enhancing dental care to thousands of children who otherwise might never see a dentist.
Club members also raised $10,000 toward the cost of their now-iconic coral rock clubhouse at 1001 and 1009 E. Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Built on four city-owned lots from oolitic limestone mined from a local quarry, the building was the first Depression-era Works Progress Administration project in the city of Coral Gables.
