Site of the New England Woman's Club Office

Several women's suffrage organizations once occupied 3 Tremont Place at this location.

NPS Photo/Woods

Quick Facts

Location:

3 Tremont Place

Significance:

Site of NEWC Offices

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Private Building

Organized in 1868, the New England Woman’s Club (NEWC) dedicated itself to engaging the women of New England in learning and discussion. The Club held debates, classes on specific topics, lectures, activities, and informal gatherings for members. Committees on different subjects led activities as well as charitable and social reform efforts. According to its organizational history, "The New England Woman's Club may justly claim to be the parent of many other clubs which during the past few years have been formed in various parts of the country."¹

Although the address of its offices changed over the years, the NEWC first rented space at 3 Tremont Place for meetings and gatherings.² The Club often shared spaces with the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, the New England Woman's Suffrage Association, and the American Woman Suffrage Association. This likely occurred because many early Boston suffrage leaders participated in this club, including Julia Ward Howe, Harriot K. Hunt, Mary Livermore, and Lucy Stone.

The NEWC's efforts to obtain representation for women in Boston school leadership significantly contributed to the local suffrage movement. Members mobilized support to put the first women on the Boston school committee (ca. 1874) and to grant women the right to vote in school committee elections in 1879.³

Members of the New England Woman's Club, ca. 1870-1880. (Credit: Notman Photographic Co., Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University)

Footnotes:

1. While membership primarily consisted of women, some men attended lectures. “Historical Sketch of the New England Women’s Club,” Disassembled scrapbook, 1857-1919, Records of the New England Women's Club, 1843-1970, MC 178; M-145, Folio box 2, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/c/sch00102c00012/catalog.
2. Ibid.
3. “Historical Sketch of the New England Women’s Club,” Disassembled scrapbook, 1857-1919, Records of the New England Women's Club, 1843-1970, MC 178; M-145, Folio box 2, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/c/sch00102c00012/catalog; New England Women's Club Records, 1843-1970; MC 178. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/sch00102/catalog.