The Milton Woman’s Club celebrates 125 years

The Milton Woman’s Club (MWC) celebrated its 125th anniversary proving the can-do power of women. On October 23, Senator Walter Timilty marked the occasion with a commemorative Resolution made on the Massachusetts Senate floor. Two days earlier he presented the Resolution to co-presidents Deanna Seymourian and Carole Kussmann and to members at a brunch at the Neighborhood Club.

Co-president Kussmann gave a brief history MWC’s impact on Milton over the past 125 years. Founded in 1898, the MWC built its clubhouse on one acre at 90 Reedsdale Road in 1930, and the women paid off its mortgage in 1941. The clubhouse was sold in 2013.

Proceeds from the sale are set aside for a scholarship endowment for Milton students and to support of Milton organizations, such as The Milton Art Center, which received grants for programming, the purchase of sewing machines, and a kiln for firing pottery. The MWC has sponsored workshops and concerts at the Milton Public Library. Regular donations are made to dozens of organizations such as the Milton Food Pantry. Annually, holiday gift bags for veterans are distributed, an effort started by members Virginia Wells and Doris Green, and training for a new police dog for the Milton Police Department was part of MWC funding.

Over the decades, the club launched hot school lunches and a van with volunteer drivers to help seniors.  Both efforts later were adopted and taken over by the Town of Milton.

A portrait of Mary F. Webster, the 1898 founder of the Milton Woman’s Club, hangs in the Milton Library, and the MWC long has seeded major local institutions at their inception:  The Red Cross, the building of The Milton Public Library, and the then-Milton Hospital to which the MWC donated $8,000 for a “free bed” at Milton Hospital to help the indigent.

In 1930, then-president Mrs. Edward M. Cox (back when women used their husbands’ names) wrote a letter for support to build a MWC clubhouse and outlined the various works that the Club had accomplished since 1898. A few, among many items stand out:  “Agitation for a Public Library, “Agitation for playgrounds,” “Agitation against billboards.” The MWC’s long ago agitation still keeps Milton strong today, and the club continues its 125-year legacy for community good.

Typically, the MWC meets monthly, fall through spring, at the Milton Library.

For membership information, please contact Barbara Fitzgerald, 617 698-8758.

– Contributed by Suzette Martinez Standring