Woman’s Club of Mequon by Fay Walker - Mequon-Thiensville Historical Society

The 1952 Woman’s Club of Mequon Charter Members: Back Row: Mmes. Carl Wilbert, Edwin Lucht, Hannah Knepel, Carl Gruenwald and Walter Hesse. Front Row: Mmes. “unidentified”, Louis Ernst, N.J. Hoffman, Oscar Sommer and Al Duehring

Since September of 2016, I have had the pleasure of helping to coordinate and preserve the documentation and history of this local service organization that will be celebrating their 80th year.

The Woman’s Club of Mequon started on November 12, 1937. It initially consisted of 15 women from the Township of Mequon and Village of Thiensville. Mrs. N. J. Hoffman was elected as President on December 7, 1937. Its motto, “Together for Service”, continues to ring true.

The Woman’s Club of Mequon helps local individuals with scholarships, supports local schools andcontributes broadly to community projects. All this help is provided without any fanfare or publicannouncements. It is a group of outstanding and benevolent ladies with an amazingly strong commitment to our community.

How do these women continue to raise money for everyone they help? Throughout the years they have thought of creative ways to fund these endeavors. Some of these were special events to help sponsor fund raising for a Mequon-Thiensville Public Library; while others were bazaars, dinner dances, card parties, luncheons, style shows, craft fairs and cookbooks.

The group worked long and hard to purchase and maintain a permanent site for the club. By November of 1963 it had raised $6,000.00, however, another $10,000.00 was needed to purchase a building. The father of club member Marion Hatzinger generously offered a low interest loan giving the club the ability to purchase a vacant church building on Mequon Road that stood at the location of the present BMO Harris Bank.

The Woman’s Club met in the Mequon Town Hall, known as the Mequon City Hall after 1957, from their founding in 1936-37. In early 1964, the club, then in their 28th year, purchased the former Mequon Community Methodist Church building at 1425 W. Mequon Road as seen above. The building had been vacant for several years. The growing congregation moved to their new location on Oriole Lane in 1961 following a large donation made in 1959. TheWomen’s Club bought the property on January 15, 1964 and held their first meeting in the new building on February 10th of that year.

With a building of its own, the club was able to host many events and rent out the space to various groups. By 1990 it was time for the group to move on and it sold the Club House. Today the group meets in various locations such as the F.L. Weyenberg Library and Grace Lutheran Church. Seventy-nine years after its founding, the Mequon Woman’s Club continues to maintain its original commitment as a positive and caring force for our community with service and financial assistance.

Throughout the years, the MWC has maintained wonderful scrapbooks of its yearly activities. Photos in the scrapbooks are often missing names and places. We would like to be able to identify these marvelous women, and hear stories that bring these pictures to life. If you have any information or family or friends have been involved with the organization over the years, please stop by. We are open on Thursdays from 1:00 – 5:00 PM.