Providence Womens Club Community House
(ca. 1939)
Since 1939, the Rustic Revival-styled log Community House has hosted the activities of the Providence Women’s Club and numerous other local groups.
9735 Community House Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277
The single-story log Community House was constructed in 1939 as a meeting place for the home demonstration club of the Providence Women's Club. Such clubs emerged in the early 1900s as groups of farm women began to meet on a regular basis to socialize and share practical knowledge. By 1919, enough of these home demonstration clubs had formed that the groups decided to create a county-wide federation to support the individual clubs’ initiatives. The Mecklenburg Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs was originally comprised of 13 member clubs and continued in operation at least until the 1950s.
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The Providence Women's Club (later known as the Extension Homemakers Club) began informally in 1934 when several women of the once rural Lower Providence community in southern Mecklenburg County entered the Mecklenburg County Fair. The booths they sponsored for the fair, one for the community and one for the club, both won first prizes. With the proceeds from their awards, the club members started a building fund. In the following years, the club members continued to sponsor booths at the county fair. Club membership grew quickly as a result of their continued success, but most of the members’ homes were too small to host club meetings. The members of the Providence Women's Club decided to build a central meeting house using the funds generated from their fair awards earnings.
W. M. and Sarah Ross provided the club a small portion of their farm for the clubhouse site. William Patterson, Zebulon Rea, and James Ardrey served as trustees of the club and executed the deed in March 1937. According to the deed, the property could be used for the “community club house . . . [of] a social, charitable, and/or benevolent association for the promotion and upbuilding of the welfare of the persons living in the community.” That land grant came with certain restrictions, including prohibitions against the use of alcohol and profane language and a requirement of orderly conduct within a one mile radius of the clubhouse. Any violation of those restrictions would cause the property to revert back to the original owners.
Designed in the Rustic Revival architectural style made popular by federal relief projects like the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s, the Community House was constructed by local farmers using logs donated by local farmers. As a result of those contributions, the building was debt-free by the time of its 1939 completion. The Community House has been owned and used primarily by the Providence Women's Club, but it has also served wider civic functions over the years ranging from wartime community activities to Boy Scouts meetings. All building maintenance since the Community House’s opening has been performed by local families and funded by proceeds from craft and bakery sales held by the Providence Women's Club.