As one of 20 historic sites participating in the 2019 Partners in Preservation: Main Streets campaign, Salt Lake City’s own Ladies’ Literary Clubhouse is competing for a share of $2 million in grants awarded through public voting. The public can vote online every day through October 29 to support the Clubhouse. Click here to vote!
Clubhouse has partnered with community leaders, accessibility advocates, and Better Days 2020, a nonprofit dedicated to Utah women’s history, to enter this competition. Grant funding will be used to restore the century-old sinking front porch with uneven stairs and will include the addition of an ADA wheelchair ramp and service lift, making the 1913 Clubhouse truly accessible to all communities for the first time in history. Accessibility is our responsibility!
The 106-year-old Clubhouse on South Temple served as the home of the Ladies Literary Club — the first women’s club west of the Mississippi River — for 100 years. As the first social group for non-Mormon women in Utah, the Ladies Literary Club played a critical role in pushing for women’s right to vote, saved the Salt Lake City Public Library, sponsored arts education programs, and more throughout the Club’s rich history.
The former home of the Ladies Literary Club remains inaccessible to many users. Starting Sept. 24, the group is asking Utahns to vote online every day at VoteYourMainStreet.org/SLC to help the Clubhouse win critical preservation funding and make the historic venue accessible to all for the first time in its history.
Partners in Preservation is a community-based partnership in which American Express, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awards preservation grants to historic places across the country. This competition seeks to increase the public's awareness of the importance of historic preservation in the United States and to preserve America's historic and cultural places. The program also hopes to inspire long-term support from local citizens for the historic places at the heart of their communities.
This year’s program has a special emphasis on historic buildings and sites that celebrate the contributions of women in Main Street communities across America to honor the upcoming 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment.