San Francisco Girls' Union Hotel

Woman standing in the rubble
of the San Francisco earthquake
(1906)

San Francisco Girls' Union Hotel

Location: San Francisco, California, USA

Opened: 1902

Closed: Apparently destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

I haven't been able to find out anything about this hotel apart from a 1902 article in the Clinton Morning Age announcing its opening. I think it is safe to assume that this structure was destroyed by the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, as I have seen elsewhere that only one hotel survived that disaster...and this one was not it.



HOTEL FOR WOMEN ONLY

San Franciso Has One Recently

Erected by the Girls' Union

of that City.


Under the auspices of the San Francisco Girls' union a hotel exclusively for women has been erected and the members of the organization are congratulating themselves upon their new possession. The union has been in existence since 1884 and was formed for the purpose of aiding self-dependent, self-respecting girls to live in nice surroundings at a cost in accordance with their needs. The society has had a house for some time, but it is not to be compared with the new hotel. The home is self-supporting and an average of 40 wage-earning women call it home. In the hotel 80 rooms are to be rented, the price per month ranging from four dollars to six dollars. The board is $12 per month. The rooms are well furnished and commodious and each has a stationary washstand. The house is exceedingly well planned and provisions have been made for classrooms, as the union proposes to conduct classes in literature, music, sewing, typewriting and other subjects.

There is not a lot of readily available information on the San Francisco Girls' Union. For those interested in finding out more, this is a good place to start.

Junior League House for Working Women

Junior League House visible at far right

Junior League House for Working Women

Location: East 78th Street, New York New York, USA

Opened: May 1911

Closed: Became "model low-income housing" in 1931

From the New York Junior League website:

During the New York Junior League's first decade, the organization grew to more than 700 members. Its eight committees included Settlements, Hospitals and Direct Nursing, Visiting Teachers, and the Junior League's most ambitious project to date, the construction of a residential hotel at 78th Street and East End Avenue known as the Junior League House.

In an effort led by the tirelessly dedicated Dorothy Payne Whitney, the Housing Committee raised over $250,000 to build the Junior League House, created to provide safe housing, job training, and an enriching environment for working women. Construction was completed by the City and Suburban Homes Company, and the hotel opened its doors in May 1911. In 1912, women living at the hotel paid from $4 to $7 per week, which included the use of laundry and pressing rooms, sewing machines, typewriters, a library, a gymnasium, and a large ballroom, as well as the use of small private parlors, or "courting rooms."

The Bureau of Social Hygiene noted that ". . . of the 58 organizations in Manhattan providing housing accommodations solely for women, the Junior League hotel is the largest, and one of the few in which there is no discrimination against nationality or religion."

NYJL participated in the management of the hotel until 1931, when it became one of the buildings in a 1,300 apartment complex as model low-income housing. The structure is now a landmarked moderately priced apartment building, but when it was the Junior League House, it had 210 single rooms and 64 double rooms, with accommodations for 338 women.

Photo from the New York State Archives

Berkeley Women's City Club

Berkeley Women's City Club (1930s)

                                                                                                     

Berkeley Women's City Club

Location: 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, California, USA

Opened: Building completed in 1930

Closed: Has been the coed Berkeley City Club since 1962

From the Berkeley City Club website:

In 1929, Julia Morgan designed the Berkeley Women's City Club, the collective vision of its 4000 female members: Lush gardens and courtyards provided sanctuary. A library and roaring fireplace brought great friends and conversation together. An invigorating pool enlivened body and spirit. More than a building, the Women's City Club fulfilled dreams.

Today, the Berkeley City Club is a private club for both men and women, and a meeting place for Berkeley's arts and culture community. Morgan's "little castle" has been renovated and is an exciting destination hotel for architecture-lovers and a favorite venue for weddings and special occasions.
More than a building, the Berkeley City Club continues to inspire friendships, celebrate beauty and nourish dreams.

In reading further, we find out that the Berkeley Women's City Club was not just a social club, but also served as a residence for women.

If you look at some of the interior photos, you quickly realize why the boys wanted access. It's just too damn beautiful....And we can't let the womenfolk keep such inspiring space all to themselves, can we? Even though it is exceedingly rare to have such a gorgeous facility designed by a woman for women.

Berkeley Women's City Club dining room (1930s)

Berkeley Women's City Club board

Berkeley Women's City Club pool (1930s)

Open loggia off east court (1930s)

For additional information about the building, see Daniela Thompson's article at the Berkeley heritage site here.

Julia Morgan (1872-1957)

Of course, some of our more progressive Lost readers will point out that this was a space that was reserved for upper-crust women only. Needless to say, they are absolutely correct. However, when we see that even well-heeled women seemed incapable of maintaining and defending a women-only space for more than a generation or so, it certainly illustrates the limits of money and class privilege when it comes to the control of space for women and by women.

There is a fair amount of information available on Julia Morgan, who was a magnificent architect and real trailblazer for women entering the professions. Here is one place to start.

Mother Tongue Books/Femme de Paroles

Mother Tongue Books interior

Mother Tongue Books/Femme de Paroles

Location: 1067 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opened: December 3, 1994

Closed: July 21, 2012

From the Quill & Quire, June 12, 2012:

Ottawa’s Mother Tongue Books to celebrate 18 years of bookselling before closing shop

By Natalie Samson

Ottawa’s Mother Tongue Books will close its doors for good next month. While the shuttering of any bookshop is sad news indeed, owners Evelyn Huer, Laura Rayner, and Julie Gagnon are looking at the closure as an opportunity to celebrate what they’ve achieved in 18 years as an independent bookstore and community hub.

“One way or another, it’s going to close,” Huer says. “All we can control is how we feel about it … [so] let’s send this thing off in celebration.”

The feminist community bookstore opened in 1994 and since then textbook sales have been what “buttered the bread,” Huer says. While professors placed the usual textbook orders for the 2012 academic year, sell-through with students was at an all-time low last fall, causing significant cash flow issues. The trio of women decided that closing the shop would be preferable to taking on any more debt. (They’re re-directing coursebook orders to nearby Octopus Books.)

Starting with in-store appearances by Elizabeth Hay and singer-songwriter Jill Zmud on June 22, Mother Tongue will host a commemorative event every Friday night until its last day of business on July 21. Huer says the series is meant to “close the store with some grace” and “honour our customers,” adding that community events are the “things that sustain us in bad times.”

In the meantime, the owners have posted to their blog five ways community members may support the shop through its transition, including making a cash donation towards the store’s closing costs, contacting the store with a note of encouragement, and — no surprise — buying their remaining books.

Mother Tongue Books (2012)

Mother Tongue co-owner Evelyn Huer

Here is a portion of an interview that writer rob mclennan did with Mother Tongue co-owner Evelyn Huer in December 2011:

Owned and operated by former staff of the Ottawa Women’s Bookstore, Mother Tongue is committed to books by and for women, but as a healthy focus that doesn’t exclude any other groups, including prominent gay and lesbian selections of works, a section of critical theory and a well-stocked selection of children’s books, as well as limited-edition chapbooks and trade books by local writers, male and female alike. Given that another couple of independent booksellers in the city that have closed their recent doors, Mother Tongue Books currently makes up a strong part of a very short list of Ottawa bookstores (Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeebar on Wellington Street West is another). Co-owner/operator Evelyn Huer recently answered a few questions concerning the bookstore, and their history.

rob mclennan:

How did the bookstore first get started, and what were the challenges?

Evelyn Huer:

We all worked at OWB. Peggy Harriszz expressed an interest in selling the shop, but for various reasons that deal fell through. She closed her shop about a year after we opened. Peggy is a critical/ palliative care RN and returned to nursing full-time at Elizabeth Bruyere. We chose our location to be close to the university and a branch of the library. We wanted to have a meeting space and we accomplished that. Over the years we have had several established groups meet in the shop. The question of accomplishing what we set out to do is a tricky one. Several things shifted in the first few years of business. Chapters opened. Mike Harris invaded Ontario and many agencies that we had supplied could no longer afford to purchase resources for clients or libraries. Luckily, professors from both universities ordered course books through us. In the beginning we identified ourselves (and still do) as a feminist, queer positive space. We became community booksellers and began to take on the character of the community. Special orders are a large part of our business. We also act as booksellers for many professional conferences and stock materials for several professional groups.

Sweet Violets Feminist Bookstore

Sweet Violets Feminist Bookstore

Sweet Violets Feminist Bookstore

Location: 413 North Third Street, Marquette, Michigan, USA 

Opened: ?

Closed: February 2006

I know that Sweet Violets existed at least as early as 2005, since it's mentioned on a map of feminist bookstores from that year. See here. But according to More Books for Women, it closed in February 2006.

And that's about all I know. Other than the fact that a site called bundle gave it very high customer satisfaction ratings (95/100).

Unfortunately, it is often the case that womyn's spaces not located in New York or San Francisco have been pretty much ignored when it comes to documentation. That's why we midwesterners have got to get busy....We got some catching up to do.

Old Wives Tale Bookstore

Interior  of Old Wives Tale Bookstore (1980s)

Old Wives Tale Bookstore

Location: 532 Valencia Street, San Francisco, California, USA--later at 1009 Valencia Street

Opened: 1976

Closed: 1995

From "Carol Seajay, Old Wives Tales and the Feminist Bookstore Network" by Elizabeth Sullivan:

"I came to San Francisco with a ray of hope about living life as a lesbian woman."

Starting from the early 1970s, Carol Seajay knows intimately the history of women's bookstores in San Francisco. In addition to her work with Full Moon in San Francisco and A Woman's Place in Oakland, she is a co-founder of Old Wives Tales, the women's bookstore on Valencia Street that closed in 1995. She is also a founder of the Feminist Bookstore Network and Newsletter, which is going stronger than ever in 1997.

Carol Seajay arrived in San Francisco from school in Michigan in December of 1973. The first connection she made with the women's and lesbian culture that she was seeking here was through a flyer in a women's bathroom in the Main Library. It advertised a Women's Coffeehouse and Bookstore, at a place called the Full Moon. The early seventies saw a concerted effort on the part of feminists to cultivate an alternative culture--a world based on feminist values and the celebration of the power of women. Posting announcements in women's bathrooms was a favorite technique, the perfect expression of solidarity between women.

Read the rest here.

Judith's Room

681 Washington Street today

Judith's Room

Location: 681 Washington Street, New York, New York, USA

Opened: 1989

Closed: January 1995

Judith's Room was a women's bookstore in the West Village. It was started by Carol Levin and Sally Owen. Here's how the owners described their store to the New York Times back in January 1994:

"We provide books whose primary purpose is to cater to women's needs and interests -- history, art, photography, philosophy, literature -- where women are not an afterthought but are the prime focus of the books," Ms. Levin said. Specifically, she said, Judith's Room specializes in books published by small independent publishers, like Naiad Press, Firebrand Books and Cleis.

This is what Radical Walking Tours of New York City said about Judith's Room after its demise:  

I used to take my tours to 681 Washington Street, the home of Judith's Room bookstore from 1989 to 1995. Unfortunately Judith's Room, one of the last women's bookstores in NYC, closed. It had great books, t-shirts, magazines and readings, but was in a poor location. Also, thanks to the women's movement of the 1960s, most bookstores now have a women's section. But the sections are usually not as good as in an independent bookstore. Through the years, I was always saddened when, upon talking about this bookstore, I was asked by a woman, "What's a women's bookstore?" Were the 1960s that long ago?

In 1991, the poet Hettie Jones gave a reading there. The poet Audre Lorde also gave a number of readings at Judith's Room as well.