Between 1938 in 1940 the Works Progress Administration awarded a marching grant to the City of Holland for a Municipal Builing and Community Center. Today, while City Hall has moved into a connercial building across the street, the Kuhlmann Civic Center in downtown Holland TX still serves the folks of this small town
A WPA plaque is affixed to the building just under the historic marker that reads as follows:
"WOMAN'S STUDY CLUB OF HOLLAND
On January 14, 1914, a small group of local women met to organize a study club for the cultural advancement of its members. In addition ot its primary focus, the club soon adopted a series of civic projects, including many that offered financial support for public school programs, that had a dramatic impact on the development of the community. Among the projects was a 1939 campaign that resulted in the preservation of Holland's Opera House for use as a civic center. Through its activities, the club continues to reflect the goals and ideals of its founders. (1988).
[2ND PLAQUE]
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION 1938-1940"
WE found more information on the project in an old local newspaper from 1940, as follows: (
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"THE HOLLAND PROGRESS
Holland Bell County Texas, Friday, September 27, 1940
Holland Proud Of Accomplishments
Our New Municipal Building Will Be A Lasting Monument To The Ladies Of Holland Who Made It Possible
God bless the ladies of Holland! Without their initiative and aggressive spirits we might still be burning oil lamps. We have them to thank for keeping alive the progressive spirit that has kept Holland in the forefront of cultural, spiritual, and material attainment that would do credit to a community many times the size of our own. They have a record of accomplishment here that is equaled by few, if any, and surpassed by none.
Some fine morning in the very near future we are going to see old glory waiving proudly over a new Municipal Building And Civic Center, and if you will examine a plaque embedded in the cornerstone you will find “graven in characters clear”, the word somewhat similar to the following:
Erected 1940, by the Woman’s Study Club, and dedicated to the perpetuation of the high cultural ideals that have characterized Holland since its founding.
Plans have been perfected and the money raised. Work will start in a very short time on the erection of this edifice that will lend grace and beauty to our Main Street from an architectural standpoint and afford not only quarters for our Municipal Government but a Community Center from which every person in this section will derive direct benefit.
Every penny of the money required to supplement a WPA grant for the building of the new municipal building has been raised by the ladies, and it will be a monument to their untiring energy and devotion to this fine old town.
Through the enterprise of The Woman’s Study Club, the old abandoned opera house building on the south side of Travis Street has been acquired and will be remodeled and reconstructed into a thing of beauty combined with practical utility that will be a source of pride to all our people, and give to Holland Municipal Building And Civic Center that will meet our needs for many years to come.
The Woman’s Study Club is the one active civic organization in Holland that gets things accomplished.
Holland is richly endowed with a cultural background that is the heritage of the people who founded this grand old community. Most of our early settlers came from fine old Southern families who were driven from their homes by the misfortunes of the Civil War to seek new homes and fresh fields in the great unsettled Southwest. They brought with them little and material goods but came rich and the priceless qualities that character and culture alone can produce, and The Woman’s Study Club is the instrument that carries on the fine traditions and high ideals that have been characteristic of Holland since its founding.
This new city building is but one of many accomplishments of these ladies. We quote here from an article written by Mrs. Ellen Cavett recently and published in connection with the recent Homecoming event, which was one of the greatest projects ever sponsored by the club:
“In 1913, Mrs. I. A. Stone and a number of other women of the town decided that Holland needed a Woman’s Club to strengthen its civic pride and support the school. The Woman’s Study Club was organized and Mrs. Stone was made the first president. Following her was the bride, who had taught some much older women how to paint, Mrs. Logan Mewhinney. The presidents there were: Mrs. NC Harmon, a charter member, Mrs. Will Barton, Mrs. Rex Williams, Mrs. Ben Ezell, Mrs. Olie Murphy, Mrs. Mary Barton, Mrs. C. R. Owen, Mrs. F.W. Futrell, Mrs. Munroe Moore, Mrs. L. B. Mewhinney, Mrs. J.C. Kuhlmann, Mrs. Bert Ezell, Mrs. S.D. Cavett, Mrs. H. L. Nunnally, Mrs. Houston Read, and Mrs. Bob Gray.
All through the 27 years of the life of the club, it has consistently done good works in the town. Primarily interested in establishing a good library at the school, the club has given hundreds of dollars for this purpose. The Holland Woman’s Club presented the school with their first handsome velvet curtain for the auditorium: established the preschool clinic for children: guaranteed Chautauqua courses for several years: instituted the annual cleanup campaign in Holland; beautified the streets, and planted the little park near the Katy station in the downtown section of town. As money raisers, the Holland club has few equals and no peers. Back in the first months of the First World War the club sponsored a two-day celebration to raise war funds. In the two days, more than 900 dollars was raised."