Programs

Our Organization

Our Organization

The College Club of Cincinnati (CCC) is a group of college-educated women whose mission is 

"to promote a continuing interest and participation in philanthropy, the arts, education, social welfare, and civic improvement."

Meeting Location

College Club of Cincinnati
330 Lafayette Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220

Email

Admin@CollegeClubOfCincinnati.org 

125th Anniversary Celebration

Directed by Carol Parsons

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The College Club of Cincinnati will celebrate its 125th anniversary this year.  It is appropriate to reflect on the club’s accomplishments in education and philanthropy in the past as we anticipate the expansion of these efforts in the  future.  Gathering information from an historical summary written by Carole Rauf and the talents of Carol Parsons, a skit depicting major events and achievement of The College Club will be presented for the membership at this initial meeting in the new year.      Carol Parsons                         Chairman of the Day

Queen City Chamber Opera

Directed by Dr. Isaac Selya

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Queen City Chamber Opera was founded by Dr. Isaac Selya in 2012 to advance the careers of emerging opera artists by giving them valuable professional engagements in fully staged productions with a full orchestra.  QCCO performers have been able to continue their careers with many famous opera companies around the country.  You will be happily entertained by Isaac and several of his performers.

Menu:  Soup, salad, and casserole.

Mrs. Cora Hillman                                                                  Chairman of the Day

The 75th Anniversary and Beyond

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Within our archives are letters written to members of the club in 1968, at which time College Club would celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary. The allusion to the cook stove was reminiscent of the “nomadic” years when members carried a cook stove from place to place to prepare a luncheon. Libby Curtis, President in 1982, recalled that when she joined in 1959 lunches were seventy five cents (.75) and were prepared by the members. The average attendance was one hundred and ten members (110) at two meetings per month. Libby commented that she had never cleaned so much lettuce or buttered so many buns from Busken Bakery in her life!

Throughout our one-hundred and twenty-five-year history, the meetings of College Club have remained stable and have preserved their own individual pattern. We continue to enjoy not only the camaraderie of our members over lunch but thrive on interesting, informative and entertaining programs as did those women of long ago. One of the great blessings of this organization is the willingness of members to serve in many capacities. This cooperative spirit is essential to the well-being of College Club and one upon which we all depend.

In 1892, College Club members promoted an ongoing interest in the arts, education, social welfare, civic improvement and philanthropic endeavors among college alumnae. We follow in the footsteps of our founders as we continue those efforts today. The secret of accomplishing any task and engaging in new endeavors is as simple as getting started. It would seem appropriate as we complete this abbreviated history of College Club to remember the words of Longfellow, when he stated in his Psalm of Life:

Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor, and to wait.

The 50th Anniversary

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The fiftieth anniversary in 1942 of College Club’s founding enjoyed wide spread coverage in The Cincinnati Post. At this time, membership had increased to as much as four hundred members with long waiting lists to join.

(Below Photo #3 Invite, Cincinnati Post 4-13-43) The College Club of Cincinnati will meet at 12:15 on Saturday in the Hall of Mirrors of the Hotel Netherland Plaza to celebrate the completion of 50 years of service to the community and the country. Due to the troubled times, the committee debated the advisability of proceeding with plans for a celebration. But, as it is admittedly a time of peril for the universities of the world, it seemed to be a fitting time for the friends of those institutions to rally to their support. The club will make its fiftieth anniversary occasion a demonstration of faith.

(Below Photo #2 Mrs. Lawrence B. Murphy, President)  (Photo #4 Mrs. Ellsworth Ireland, Program Chair)The speaker, Dr. Raymond Walters, President of the University of Cincinnati, has chosen the role of liberal education in the coming era as his theme. Mrs. Lawrence B. Murphy, President of the club, will call the meeting to order. Miss Frieda Lotz will be tribune. Invocation will be given by Bishop Henry W. Hobson. Mrs. Ellsworth F. Ireland is General Chairman of the Quinquagesima Committee. Mrs. Orville W. Crane is director of the celebration, which will be reminiscent of the past history of the organization.

A narrated pageant was presented which was an allegory of the club’s history. A baby was presented with gifts from its seven godmothers: “a cook stove, laughter, continuance, imagination, adaptability, the ability to live anywhere, and finally an uncontrollable urge to give a play.”

 (Below Photo #3 Invite, Cincinnati Post 4-13-43)  The College Club turned back the clock, at its Golden Anniversary celebration Saturday at the Netherland Plaza to review its stage successes from 1895 to 1941.

(Below Photo #1 Cast)  Mrs. Lewis Earle Lee, extreme left, author of the script for the Pageant of Plays, represents the Old Woman of “Pot of Broth,” production of 1900.

Tyltyl, Sugar, and Mytil, standing next in line, are the disguises of Miss Inez Richard, Mrs. Henry Arnold, and Mrs. Norman C. Lucas, cast of the 1928 production of “The Bluebird.”

The pageant closed with a melodramatic death, which represented the one-thousand-dollar debt the responsibility for which had been fulfilled years prior to 1943.

(photo of chorus above) Mr. Sherwood Kains, director of the University of Cincinnati Glee Club and Oratorio Society and a member of the faculty of the University, is directing the chorus of members which will sing at the fiftieth anniversary of the College Club of Cincinnati on Saturday, April 10 at 12:15 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Hotel Netherland Plaza. Prominently identified with musical life in Cincinnati, Mr. Kains was graduated cum laude from the Conservatory of Music and received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Cincinnati. He has also studied in New York, England, and Germany, and has also sung as soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He is a director of the Baker Hunt Foundation.

THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES and HOBBY FAIR TO RAISE FUNDS

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In order to keep the settlement house afloat financially, College Club presented an imported production of Hansel and Gretel and gathered pledges, and also held children’s parties, lectures, art exhibits, rummage sales, and plays to promote their work. Many of these were organized and presided over by Sarah Hickenlooper (Mrs. John Withrow). College Club published one issue of its own magazine, The Bauble. This publication was available at Mr. James’ Book Store and Mr. Mullane’s Candy Store. One copy, which belonged to foundress Miss Elizabeth Kellogg, remains in our archives.

A debt of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) was incurred during the operation of the settlement house. Funds were raised by “The Plays” to defray this indebtedness and support its endeavor.

(Below Photos Plays #1, 2, 5, 6) Among these productions was a memorable English comedy, “Ralph Roister Doister,” as well as “The Way of the World” and “Twelfth Night.”

(Below Photos Twelfth Night #3 and #4) This photo portrays the drinking scene from the College Club’s presentation of “Twelfth Night” tomorrow afternoon and evening at the auditorium. The club is already assured of $1,000 clear profits, and the Social Settlement House will consequently be freed from debt and will be started on a new basis. The “Twelfth Night” cast represents the following colleges: Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Cincinnati University, and Oberlin. The Manager of the play, Miss McFadden, was chairman of the Committee at Smith, when the seniors put on “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which generated such favorable comments that it was given in New York with equal success. A string quartet will play between acts.

There was also the annual Christmas Play and other productions created by College Club members to showcase the talents of our membership. Miss Mary Louise McMillan became College Club’s resident playwright. Many of her plays were originally performed by College Club members but went on to be performed by small drama and art groups across the country. Through the 1970’s, College Club had its own theater group and produced plays. Today, we typically enjoy a play by the CWC Players as part of our annual season of programs. 

(Below Photo Barbour 1939) Mrs. George B. Barbour is Chairman of the unique and highly anticipated Hobby Fair, which the College Club of Cincinnati is giving on Saturday, October 14, 1934 at the Cincinnati Woman’s Club. 

This event, which was originated by Mrs. Barbour, has evolved such widespread enthusiasm among this membership, that over 180 members are entering exhibits in this fascinating display. 

Members are reminded that they may bring only one guest, the regulation against guests having been altered by Mrs. Orville Crane, the President of the club, after she had received an unusually large number of requests.

Tea will be a delightful aftermath to the exhibit, this affair taking place in the spacious tea room of the Cincinnati Woman’s Club.

Following the fulfillment of the members’ involvement with the Settlement House, College Club began to organize its meeting for the “refreshment and enlightenment of its members since so many of them were involved with other civic activities,” according to a reference in College Club archives on March 16, 1930. At this time, the club developed a format similar to that which we enjoy today with a luncheon followed by a program reflecting the arts as well as civic concerns and historical programs.

SOCIAL SETTLEMENT HOUSE

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(Photo of house)

As an emerging organization, College Club grew slowly, rarely numbering more than fifty members. Girls who went to college in those days, except to prepare for the teaching profession, were the exception, and teachers were allergic to club life at that time. In the beginning it was a sublimated culture club, standardized in the rigid framework of Robert’s “Rules of Order.” Our founders were eager to maintain a fraternal and collegial spirit. Their efforts to keep the intellectual fires burning led them to read and write scholarly dissertations on such topics as “Aristotle and Pestalozzi: Their Theories of Education Compared and Contrasted.”

Within two years, however, their research into social problems led them to teachers, writers and social workers who were developing the city’s first Social Settlement. For the settlement house, the members devoted their energies to develop clubs, classes, and choruses for both young and old. This Social Settlement House occupied the energies of these dedicated women for seven years until other social agencies such as the University Settlement House absorbed this effort. In its day, the settlement house initiated many social and educational experiments which are commonplace today. The location of this house moved three times to various locations on East Third Street until it finally faded out in a tiny house on Eastbourne Terrace.

Meeting Locations

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(Below Photos Building Oak Street #1 and #2)  Originally, College Club was nomadic, meeting in various locations. Ample quarters were found at the historic Burnet House on Third and Vine Streets. Members were amenable to focusing on homemaking and hospitality as opposed to another strenuous organized work effort. Other quarters were found in a large room at the YMCA at the corner of Seventh and Elm Streets. This became the site of the Schubert Theater. When the Burnet House was razed, members found rooms on Arch Street below the Queen City Club. Arrangements were made in the Fall of 1934 to meet at the building at Oak and May Street. We have enjoyed a long relationship with that organization and appreciate their enduring hospitality. College Club moved to its present location in Clifton.

 

(Below Photo Fuller #3)  The earliest photo of a president in the archives is of Mrs. William Fuller in 1930. “Mrs. Fuller is the President of the College Club of Cincinnati, whose theater party at the Shubert on March 31, 1930, has created widespread interest, for this is the first time that this organization has appealed to the public to aid its philanthropies for many years. Mrs. Fuller is the elder of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Draper’s two charming daughters, and has hosts of friends. She was finished at the National Park Seminary in Washington, where she took her B.A., returning home to enter the University of Cincinnati (to take her master’s degree). Like her parents, she is a devotee of the arts as well as a favorite in society. She is a member of the Junior League, to which her younger sister, Miss Isabelle Draper, likewise belongs.”


The First 50 Years

EARLY HISTORY AND FOUNDING

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The College Club of Cincinnati was founded in 1892 by eight young women in their twenties. Miss Susan Peabody and seven of her friends initially met in her parents’ home on McGregor Avenue near Auburn. Susan Peabody and three others had graduated from Wellesley College, and membership was limited to Eastern colleges and state universities in Ohio. 

In establishing their own collegiate club, these young women had already demonstrated a streak of independence and sidestepped organizational hurdles. After graduating from Wellesley in 1886, Susan Peabody had been appointed Director for Ohio by the then-new Association of Collegiate Alumnae (now the Association of University Women). A survey of college graduates in Ohio found that the majority lived in the northern part of the state: therefore, the headquarters for this territory was established in Cleveland. A small group appealed to Miss Peabody to organize a branch in Cincinnati. Because the Association of Collegiate Alumnae required that its members be graduates of accredited four-year colleges and some of the Cincinnati group had attended college only two years, however, they decided to form an independent organization.

In the spring of 1892, Miss Peabody returned to Cincinnati from Chicago, where she was teaching, to give her blessing and be hostess to the club at its first meeting. In attendance were Elizabeth R. Kellogg, Sarah Hickenlooper, who later became Mrs. John M. Withrow; Mary L. McMillan; Helen Sage, later Mrs. Fran W. Cottle; Adelaide Miller (Mrs. William Henry Walker); Ada Bremfoerder (Mrs. George Bassett); and Jessie Clinton (Mrs. Lelan Banning), who became the first President. 

Currently, our history reflects graduates from Smith, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke as well as The Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati as well as many other academic institutions.


Roundabout Opera for Kids

Directed by Ms. Kelly Holterhoff

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You'll be charmed by the riveting voices and high energy antics of four talented opera singers from ROKCincy performing their twist on Mozart's beloved comic opera, The Magic Flute.  The free, fully staged performances are given to school and community groups who have limited access to arts programming.

Melissa Thiergartner                                             Chairman of the Day

Civil War Fashion Show

2/25/2017 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

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Presented by Mrs. Jackie Gardiner  Civil War reenactments can be found in Cincinnati!  What do they wear?  Find out what ladies had to wear during the Civil War days with a fashion demonstration from the inside out! Menu:  Turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cake with rum sauce    

Mrs. Carolyn Clodfelter                              Chairman of the Day

Collectively Speaking

Presented by Mrs. Kaye Browning

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Mrs. Kaye Browning is the curator and owner of the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center in Maysville, Kentucky.  It is one of the most extensive assemblages of one-twelfth-scale miniatures in the world.  Kaye will share her philosophy of collecting and also present special pieces from the gallery.

Menu:  Tortellini (veggie and cheese), bread and herbed butter, strawberry shortcake.

Ann Hanson                              Chairman of the Day 

Oak Hills High School Choral Department

Directed by Mrs. Maria Palassis

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Talented students from Oak Hills High School choirs/ensembles will present wonderful music selections to entertain us.  Mrs. Maria Palassis directs the many choral and performing groups.  Please attend and enjoy the beautiful Cincinnati Woman's Club holiday decorations through the club.

 Menu:  Sauerbraten roast, potato salad, cabbage slaw, black forest cake.

Ms. Nancy Cavanaugh.....................................Chairman of the Day

Covedale Theatre/Landmark Productions

Presented by Tim Perrino

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Mr. Tim Perrino, President/Director of Landmark Productions, will share information about the organization as well as current and upcoming  plays and musicals.  Several professional cast members will also entertain us with their outstanding talents!  We will learn more about the Covedale Theater and the “new” Incline Theater which are both located in Price Hill. 

Menu:  Lasagna, garlic bread, salad, tiramisu   

            

Miss Judythe Huston                                                     Chairman of the Day

The Cincinnati Woman's Club Players

Directed by Mrs. Carol Parsons

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 Do you remember those fabulous showgirls, the friendly nuns, and affable characters from the Old Folks Home?  The CWC Players will reintroduce these old friends at the College Club meeting  and it promises to be a delightful improvisation featuring our favorite College Club “Stars.”

Menu:  Squash soup, meat loaf, beans, mashed potatoes, trifle.

Mrs. Carol Parsons                                        Chairman of the Day

Politics and Elections--The Crazy Politics of 2016--Where Are We?

Presented by Albert Tuchfarber, PhD

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Words matter!  Debates, commentary, analysis, and commercials have bombarded us for nearly fifteen months.  However, the complexities of this election season remain.  In an analysis unlikely to be matched on CNN, Fox News – or even the Cincinnati Enquirer – University of Cincinnati Professor Emeritus of Political Science Albert Tuchfarber, PhD, shared insights and observations on the 2016 presidential race during a presentation. The forces behind the election have been decades in the making, according to Dr. Tuchfarber, the product of the end of the post World War II boom and the slowdown in economic and population growth and middle class prosperity that followed. He described the current state of national and global identity as a period of “transition” in which large majorities of the electorate are dissatisfied with the direction of the United States and traditional political party alliances have shifted. What does the future hold? Dr. Tuchfarber predicts a mixed bag, with one clear bright spot: The United States will remain dominant on the world stage at least until the 2050s. Menu:  Trio salads, fruit, fudge nut ball

Kathie Turin                                Chairman of the Day

Cincinnati Ballet

Directed by Victoria Morgan

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It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to welcome you to what promises to be an energetic and stimulating year.  The meeting on September 24 promises to be an unusually beautiful yet informative event as the Cincinnati Ballet will present the program following a sumptuous lunch. This is Victoria Morgan’s twentieth year as the Artistic Director of the ballet so it will be a year of celebration!  She will talk about her twenty seasons with Cincinnati Ballet, the impact Cincinnati Ballet is having on our community and her efforts in supporting and encouraging female choreographers and leadership in the ballet world.   The Cincinnati Ballet Second Company dancers provide an exciting peek into the typical day in the life of a professional ballet dancer and performs excerpts from the Cincinnati Ballet repertoire.  Julie Sunderland explains the Cincinnati Ballet's outreach program with its classes and scholarships and also introduces the dancers and their background. Menu;  Pork tenderloin, pea salad, roasted apples, green veggies, raspberry lovely.

Mrs. Diane Sakmyster     Chairman of the Day

SPRING BIRDS in YOUR GARDEN

PRESENTED BY BRETT GILMORE

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Did you know that we will be closing this year on International Migratory Bird Day?  Before we fly away to various locations and summer adventures, include College Club in your plans. Since May is the peak of the birding season in Cincinnati, birds will be the stars of the program. With over 30 years of experience dedicated to providing high quality bird feeding supplies, Mr. Gilmore, owner of Wild Birds, Unlimited, will discuss how to attract a variety of color and song to our yards.  Backyard birding is a relaxing, exciting and educational hobby.

Chairman of the Day          Carolyn Clodfelter

MYSTERY COMPOSER / FAMOUS SONGS

PRESENTED BY H. JANE GAVIN

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People may know lots of songs from today and yester-years, but often they don't know the composers.  Join Jane and learn about the "Mystery Composer."  Come, have fun, and sing along.  (A good singing voice is not mandatory!)

Chairman of the Day          Carol Parsons

WOODEN SHOE HOLLOW

PRESENTED BY JAY KATHMAN

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German immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century settled in the fertile Mill Creek Valley.  They wore wooden shoes in their gardens and present a fascinating story of hard work and musical Saturday Nights.  Wooden Shoe Hollow, a historical novel by Charlotte Pieper, describes their lives.  Learn more about these little known settlers and their story.

Chairman of the Day              Gretchen Thomas 

FRIENDS OF THE GROOM

DIRECTED BY TOM LONG

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Organized in 1980, FRIENDS OF THE GROOM is a traveling drama company that presents short vignettes with powerful messages that will touch your heart.  The vignettes are conversations between ordinary people who are in difficult situations or are at turning points in their lives.  This meaningful presentation will be entertaining while bringing comfort and inspiration to you.

Chairman of the Day                     Alice Robbins

 

 

 

 

 

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