After using it for meetings since 1945, the Women’s City Club of Pasadena transferred ownership of the historic Edmund Blinn House to Pasadena Heritage, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the city’s architectural delights. The group will use it as its new headquarters.
The Women’s City Club was dissolved in May 2020 and, per its founding mission bylaws, club members chose to transfer the house to Pasadena Heritage for safekeeping, according to a joint press release last week.
“We are, of course, very sorry to see the Women’s City Club end its operations and longstanding presence here in the Pasadena community, Brian Alan Baker, Pasadena Heritage Board Chair, said in a statement. “Pasadena Heritage is truly honored to be the next steward of this historic house.”
The Blinn House Foundation, a separate nonprofit that’s dedicated to overseeing and maintaining the historic integrity of the Blinn House will continue operating and raising funds to keep the house in working order.
The Women’s City Club had been headquartered in the Blinn House since the club was founded in 1945. Philanthropist and heiress Gloria Crane Gartz, who inherited a fortune from her grandfather’s Crane Plumbing Co. in Chicago, helped found the club. She bought the house and donated it to them.
The house was designed in 1905 by Chicago architect George Washington Maher, who also designed the Blinn’s home in Chicago, according to the news release. Alongside Frank Lloyd Wright, he was cited as a leading architect of the Prairie School design aesthetic.
The Blinn House is the only known Maher home built west of the Mississippi River.
The Blinn House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it’s also a Pasadena Cultural Landmark.
Suzanne Burger, the last president of the Women’s City Club, said it was a “difficult decision for us to dissolve the club after so many years, and it was with much thought and careful consideration that we decided Pasadena Heritage should take over the historic house.
“We feel confident they will take the best care of it and be able to continue many of its fine traditions as well as bring the resources to maintain the restoration and preservation of the building.”
