Port Arthur Federated Women's Clubhouse - Port Arthur, TX - Woman's Clubs on Waymarking.com

Clubwomen have contributed substantially to Port Arthur's social, cultural and political life throughout its history. The building was constructed in 1924 and has been used ever since as headquarters for clubwomen. Designed by Charles L. Wignall, a respected Port Arthur architect, it is one of the most pretentiously designed Bungaloid structures in town. The building's design and location in Lakeshore Park in what was once the most fashionable part of town are conspicuous reminders of the club's prominence in the community.

Port Arthur's origins coincide with the decade when the clubwoman movement came of age in America. Between 1868 and 1890, women's culture, self-improvement, and civic clubs proliferated throughout the nation, but they lacked organization. With the founding of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1890, culture clubs gained an organizational structure, official status, and the potential to make themselves heard as a united voice. Their emphasis on personal, cultural and civic improvement appealed to vast numbers of women, and that fact enabled them to play a significant role within the progressive feminist movement around the turn of the century and later. Soon after the founding of the General Federation, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in 1897.