Almost 60 ladies, dressed in their best, came out last month to usher in Spring weather at the Santa Clara Woman’s Club Royal Tea. Held in the club’s historic Adobe, caterer Tea Traditions brought out the best china and silver service to serve a “royal” tea fit for a Queen — in fact, the late Queen Elizabeth II was there in effigy to look on approvingly.
Several kinds of tea, finger sandwiches, savories, sweets and scones were all enjoyed by the guests, as well as a raffle for handmade gift baskets stocked with wine and other goodies.
Prosecco, from the wine cellar of late club member and former Santa Clara mayor Pat Mahan, was a special treat and tribute to Mahan, known for her warm hospitality and generosity to the club. At a similar tea several years ago, every guest took home a fine china teacup from Pat’s extensive collection.
“The weather was beautiful, the table settings lovely, the food was tasty and the tea nicely brewed,” said club historian Mary Hanel. “Those lucky enough to win raffle baskets got some great gifts to take home.”
The Tea was accompanied by a raffle that will go to the 120-year-old service club’s philanthropic activities and maintaining its historic clubhouse.
“The raffle was a huge success and was one of our main fundraisers,” said Jeannie Mahan, co-chair with Jackie Stafford of the event.
“Maintaining the historic Adobe as our primary mission,” said Jeannie. “But we also take part in many community activities for veterans and the elderly and cancer patients, and youth programs, and we give nursing scholarships.”
The Club’s home is a 1784 structure and a California Historic Structure — possibly the oldest surviving adobe in Northern California — dating back to the time of the third Mission Santa Clara. The structure is one of the only adobes to survive the 1906 earthquake, according to local historian Bea Lichtensten. The club bought the adobe in 1913 for $350 from the estate of Thomas Brother, a relative of the Pena family that received the original land grant in the 1830s.
Founded in 1904, the club had already made a difference by the time it celebrated its first birthday by initiating what eventually became the city’s annual clean-up campaign. From the 1940s into the 1980s, the club held an annual tea for teachers, according to historian Hanel.
The Santa Clara Woman’s Club meets for lunch the first Friday of every month from September through June. For more information, visit www.santaclarawomansclub.org, email scwcprez@gmail.com, mail P.O. Box 1199, Santa Clara, CA 95052. You can read and download a 1906 pamphlet about the club’s from the San José Public Library’s California Room Collections, under Ephemera.
More about the Woman’s Club
SCU Prof Unearths More Woman’s Club Adobe History
Santa Clara Woman’s Club Played Key Role In Getting Vote For Women In 1911
0 comments