Documenting Black Women’s History at the Wilfandel Clubhouse
Cindy Olnick 00:00
Today on Save As…
Eliza Jane Franklin 00:01
This is really a hidden gem. So many of these places and spaces that will uplift the Black community are often hidden, or they’re unacknowledged within our community.
Cindy Olnick 00:20
Welcome to Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation, an award-winning podcast that glimpses the future of the field with graduate students at the University of Southern California. I’m Cindy Olnick.
Trudi Sandmeier 00:33
And I’m Trudi Sandmeier. So Cindy.
Cindy Olnick 00:36
Yes, Trudi. How are you?
Trudi Sandmeier 00:39
I’m doing well, thank you. You?
Cindy Olnick 00:40
Yeah, good. Living the dream, loving it.
Trudi Sandmeier 00:43
Excellent.
Cindy Olnick 00:44
Bringing our friends another new episode, corralled and conducted and produced by our amazing producer Willa Seidenberg. So this is the season of Willa. So thank you.
Trudi Sandmeier 00:56
So today, we’re gonna go visit the Wilfandel Club, which is a women’s club that’s just adjacent to USC in West Adams. And it’s really great to be able to do this now during Women’s History Month. But honestly, I would say that every month should be Women’s History Month. But that’s a different episode
Cindy Olnick 01:17
We know the truth.
Trudi Sandmeier 01:17
Yeah, that’s right. The Wilfandel is special for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s this really formative Women’s Club in early L.A. history, has lots of roots in the community. But it’s also an African American Women’s Club, which makes it even more special. As we know, the National Register of Historic Places, only has something like less than 5% of the things on the National Register are related to the African American community. That’s ridiculous. And a place like the Wilfandel Club, it’s a place that started as a house, but then later became this women’s club. And so it’s an early adaptive reuse, which is kind of interesting. But it’s become this really important landmark and anchor of the community. And so it’s exciting to be able to talk about it a little bit today.
Cindy Olnick 02:12
So we probably at this point, all know about the great Paul Revere Williams, the pioneering architect in Los Angeles. But how many of us know about Della, his amazing wife, who was a cofounder of the Wilfandel Club, and in fact, she’s got her name in it, because she cofounded it with another Williams, Fannie Williams and so they created the name for Wil being Williams, fan for Fannie and Del for Della. So fun fact.
Trudi Sandmeier 02:43
We’re always learning here on Save As.
Cindy Olnick 02:45
Always! Yeah. So the house, yeah, dates back from 1912. And it’s Mediterranean Revival style.
Trudi Sandmeier 02:52
Red tile roof, stucco, walls, arched doorways, you know, very much part of the Southern California architectural vibe. So the Wilfandel Club actually started its life as a house, and eventually was transformed into this women’s club in the middle of a residential neighborhood. And so you might not know what it is when you drive by it on the street, but it’s really what’s within where the story gets interesting. So our students are working with the club to do a project. And so this is field-based work that they’re doing, this is completely at their own initiative to go out and work with the club to do this project.
Cindy Olnick 03:39
They are working as a team to document this place in all of its aspects. And you know, these students have their eyes on the prize. This is part of a measured drawing competition. So Willa visited the club one day when the students were there doing their work, and she spoke with some students as well as some members of the club. Take it away Willa
Willa Seidenberg 04:02
Okay, so I’m here with Jan, who is a member of the club. Jan, introduce yourself.
Jan Morrow Bell 04:06
Well, my name is Jan Morrow Bell. I’ve been a member of the Wilfandel since 2008. And had several offices over the years. But right now I’m kind of taking a break and I have one office. I’m the assistant treasurer.
Willa Seidenberg 04:22
When did you first learn about the Wilfandel House?
Jan Morrow Bell 04:25
The youngest I remember, as I was five or six, when my grandmother who used to come to events would dress me up and make me come with her. And so I was one of those little kids that was running around the house as a small child. And it was always assumed that I would eventually be a member. I was coming to events and active with the club but not a member until after my husband passed. And then I had a lot of extra time all of a sudden, and decided, Okay, I think I can do this.
Willa Seidenberg 04:59
So give us a little history of the club.
Jan Morrow Bell 05:02
First idea of the club was formed by two women, Della Williams and Fannie Williams. They weren’t related, but they had the same last name. And Della Williams was the wife of the architect Paul Revere Williams. She had gone to an event downtown in one of the hotels, because you could go to an event to which you were invited, but people of color could not rent a room or have an event in those hotels. And so she had gone to an event and as they were milling around and talking, one of the white ladies came up to her, and they were talking and she said, By the way, where do you people have their events? And that started her thinking, You know what, it was time for people of color to have their own location. She talked to a few of her close friends, including Fannie Williams, who jumped right on it with her. Fannie Williams had a background in education, and they decided, let’s see what we can do. They talked to a bigger group of friends, they got together 50 women with means that agreed that this is what they wanted to do. They did fundraising, they did babysitting and chicken dinners and got donations from the people in their social groups, until they got enough money. And when this house went on the market in 1944, they bought it. Now our actual original mortgage says on the back that you cannot sell to people of color. It w as in a redline district. But with Paul Revere Williams behind them, no one seemed to mention or remember that. And they got the mortgage. The house cost $25,000. They put down $10,000. And then within 10 years they had paid the house off. It has not had a mortgage since.
Willa Seidenberg 06:59
Wow. So since the mid 50s.
Jan Morrow Bell 07:02
That’s right. And Paul Williams came in and helped to transition the house to an event space because it was a single-family dwelling. And we don’t have those documents. I’m hoping actually that these young people are going to help us know exactly what they look like originally.
Willa Seidenberg 07:18
So you don’t have the original drawings that he might have made.
Jan Morrow Bell 07:22
No we don’t. It works as an event space. I mean, people come in and they go, Wow, this is the biggest living room I’ve ever seen. It’s huge.
Willa Seidenberg 07:30
And so still today, you can rent this and I noticed that you have weddings here and…
Jan Morrow Bell 07:36
Showers, baby showers and wedding showers. We have birthday parties, we had a 101 year birthday party here last year. It’s phenomenal. The one thing that COVID did is now we are also doing a lot of memorials and celebrations of life. The funeral homes in the area couldn’t take the volume and asked us to take the small ones. And so we’re still taking them.
Willa Seidenberg 08:17
So now we’re going to turn to heritage conservation student Sam Malnati., who is the brainchild behind this project. Sam, tell us what’s going on in the clubhouse right now and who’s involved.
Sam Malnati 08:30
So, me and a group of 10 friends are documenting the clubhouse and hand-measuring most of the walls so that we can make architectural drawings and submit them to the Library of Congress through the National Park Service Peterson Prize.
Willa Seidenberg 08:46
And what is the Peterson Prize?
Sam Malnati 08:47
So the Peterson Prize is a student-led documentation competition to produce a set of drawings according to the standard set for the Historic American Building Survey at the Park Service. I think first place is $10,000, second place is like $5,000 and third place is $3,000. But we’re not in it for the money. We’re in it for the love of the house and submitting the drawings to the Library of Congress.
Willa Seidenberg 09:12
And what attracted you to working on this project?
Sam Malnati 09:16
We really wanted to get some hands on documentation experience and really help out a house in the community, especially since this is down the street from USC and they need these drawings to compile their Historic Structures Report that they’re working on.
Willa Seidenberg 09:31
What did you think the first time you saw the house?
Sam Malnati 09:33
You know, it’s a beautiful house and there’s a lot of intricate detail and you can tell that a lot of really loved craftsmanship went into some of the unique elements of the house. So it’s a fun challenge to draw.
Willa Seidenberg 09:48
So how did you organize yourselves to do the work in the house?
Sam Malnati 09:54
So we’ve been as teams of three hand measuring each wall with measuring tapes and, you know, putting in the dimensions and then we’re going to convert those into CAD drawings. So right now, I’m laser scanning so that we can create a point cloud and base the CAD drawings slightly off the point cloud and mostly off of our hand measurements to get extremely accurate dimensions.
Willa Seidenberg 10:19
Can you sort of sum up the equipment you’re using and what it does.
Sam Malnati 10:24
So this is a Lidar scan, which uses the light from a laser. It’s an eye-safe laser, so there’s no concern with that, and you can’t visibly see it. But it’s using that light to detect the distance reflecting off solid objects and points in space. The laser scanner that we’re using is a RTC 360. And it basically sends out four million lasers per second. And those bounce off surfaces and come back to the machines so that they can be geo-located and create like a cloud of spaces, hence the point cloud name.
Willa Seidenberg 11:05
Should we go over and look at what you’re doing there. You have this device on a tripod. And it’s bigger than a camera. It’s kind of like one of those old four-by-five cameras, but double, right. And so show us what you do.
Sam Malnati 11:26
The center is where the lasers come out of. Here’s this like glass sheet and the lasers come out of that. Camera’s on the side so that it can geo-locate where it is in space. And when you move the tripod, it can tell where it’s moved to, so that it can base the point cloud around them. And you can set it to different levels of detail. So right now we have it on the lowest level because it’s still picking up like an insane amount of detail. It takes about a minute. And when you turn it on, it’ll spin around and figure out where it is. So right now it’s figuring it out.
Willa Seidenberg 12:06
It’s spinning.
Sam Malnati 12:07
And then the whirring that you hear is the laser scanner spinning around. So it’s getting everything above and below within a circle. So normally, when we do it, we’ll walk around with it so that we’re not in the scan. Because if you’re walking on the side, then the lasers aren’t getting you. But since we’re going to be writing the scan right now I can go in once the point cloud is processed, and we can go in and delete the points that are us because it’ll fill that gap from information gathered from other scans. So now it’s taking photos, like in a 360. So it makes like a panorama, this like kind of low-res color photos. So that kind of can supplement the point cloud information. It’s a little bit like a Google Earth street view type of thing. It informs where it is based on other scan locations. So it sees like, Oh, these stairs are in a different scan. And then it’s like, Oh, those are the same stairs and then each additional position provides it with more information to be able to make a more complete model. You want to get within doorways that you can link two rooms together or, you know, halfway up staircases, inside closets, things like that. So it makes a highly accurate, three-dimensional model of every element within the house.
Willa Seidenberg 13:33
It gets very detailed.
Sam Malnati 13:34
Yeah, there are some limitations like it can’t see what’s behind the curtain or behind this couch. So some elements still need to be hand-measured. But for the most part, it’s pretty good.
Willa Seidenberg 13:46
And it saves a lot of time I would imagine.
Sam Malnati 13:48
Yeah, we’ve spent the past maybe two months hand-measuring two or three rooms. And last week we laser scanned half the house and it’s already done. So.
Willa Seidenberg 14:00
Wow. And now that you’ve been working in the house for a couple months, do you have a different feeling about it than when you first walked in?
Sam Malnati 14:09
We definitely are appreciating certain nooks and crannies more than others. And it’s been fun to kind of understand how the house works together, especially certain places in the back near the kitchen, where we were like, Where does this door lead? And then over time, we’re like, oh, that leads to this space. And so it’s like a little maze that we’re uncovering, which is fun.
Willa Seidenberg 14:30
That’s really fun.
Students talking 14:31
Points that 29.7. Yeah, so that’s a difference of five-eighths.
Ryan Holcomb 14:39
My name is Ryan and we are doing field notes to make into measure drawings. So we can get all the dimensions of the property down to an eighth of an inch as we’re finding out right now. Lots of these old properties, historic properties have really minuscule details that are represented. More importantly than representing those miniscule details is having a standard across all the drawings. So that’s our drawings, drawings other people are doing, all converging at the Library of Congress for the Historic American Building Survey.
Willa Seidenberg 15:11
And you’re, right now you’re working on a window here,
Ryan Holcomb 15:14
Correct, yes.
Willa Seidenberg 15:15
And you’re measuring, and…
Ryan Holcomb 15:18
Yeah, I’m reading out the measurements, and we have the drawing and…
Zoe Detweiler 15:24
Hello, I’m Zoe. I am noting down the measurements that Ryan reads me to the best of my ability, what measurement corresponds to what.
Willa Seidenberg 15:34
So this is really picky, picky, picky work.
Zoe Detweiler 15:37
Yes. Yes. It is more particular than anything I’ve ever done, I think.
Willa Seidenberg 15:42
Does it give you any kind of perspective about what goes into actually having a building?
Zoe Detweiler 15:48
Absolutely. These small details, while I’ve never thought about the slant of the window jamb, all of these things are yeah, what makes a historic building the way that it is, and give it the character that I think we absorb without realizing it.
Willa Seidenberg 16:06
Does it make you look at buildings differently?
Zoe Detweiler 16:08
Yeah, I think I’ve been paying attention definitely to smaller details when I’m in a building or like noticed, oh, my house doesn’t have these because it’s, you know, much newer, and not as extravagant.
Willa Seidenberg 16:21
Okay, good. Thanks.
Zoe Detweiler 16:23
Thank you.
Willa Seidenberg 16:25
I’m here with Eliza Jane Franklin, who is a heritage conservation student. How did you find your way to this project?
Eliza Jane Franklin 16:33
Well, I think this was built into my destiny. I think that histories are important. As a lynching descendant hailing from the South, I had newly purchased antebellum home that was built in 1837, by enslaved hands.
Willa Seidenberg 16:47
Where?
Eliza Jane Franklin 16:48
In Eufaula, Alabama. And my goal is to turn that into a home museum. And I found my way to this project, just understanding as I engaged in research on my great grandfather and him being lynched. And as a descendant, the way it impacted me, and there being no mention of it when I toured the home museums in our town. And so just these rich histories that haven’t been acknowledged, I felt like there was a need, we had to go to an HPOZ meeting for Jay’s class. And the one that I ended up going to was the Adams Park Terrace HPOZ meeting. And they were actually discussing the Wilfandel. And so it turns out when Sam approached me about it, I already was aware of this place, and had actually wondered like, how could I get involved in working with it in some manner.
Willa Seidenberg 17:39
What was your first impression of the house when you saw it?
Eliza Jane Franklin 17:43
Am I in Los Angeles when I walked up to it? Right? This is really a hidden gem. I mean, the massive green line, the off-white facade. So many of these places and spaces that will uplift, right, the Black community are often hidden, right? Or they’re unacknowledged within our community, because it’s wonderful in history, because of Paul Williams, but also his counterpart of his wife, both of the Williams women who founded this place, and what it meant to Black women who are in the Black community at that time, and even today, to purchase this building and to have it and to keep it all these years.
Willa Seidenberg 18:18
So you were saying before we started talking that you’ve been doing some research about the history of the house? Is there something surprising that you found that set off bells in your head?
Eliza Jane Franklin 18:30
I think what was surprising is the the multitude of events that they held here, like they had one where they had a speaker from Nigeria, a student, it was in the 50s. And she came and talked about her experiences. It wasn’t just some social club, they were making an impact in the community beyond themselves. And that’s why they founded this club, which existed before this building, right? This building was something that they worked hard and acquired, and just added to their ability to be able to engage and host.
Willa Seidenberg 19:06
Do you have a favorite room in the house?
Eliza Jane Franklin 19:09
I think when I walk in, I think that’s just my favorite vantage point. Just taking it in, you just feel the sheer elegance. It’s like you step back in time.
Willa Seidenberg 19:18
And you see this staircase right as you walk in, which is a beautiful, beautiful wood staircase that is very grand.
Eliza Jane Franklin 19:27
And I think to top it all off, I know that this is like purposed and weird for me, and you’re getting this hot off the press, because I got an email two days ago, an internship with the Getty to curate the Paul Williams archive. So I’m like…
Willa Seidenberg 19:46
Congratulations!
Eliza Jane Franklin 19:47
Thank you. So I feel like all of this is intertwined because I read an article with the Getty, where he talked about Paul Williams really was a stickler for discipline and hard work, but above all, family was quintessential to him. Right. And I feel that although I’m not his blood family, like he’s an extension of my work ethic, and well, you know, me being in an architectural program, and I also have a planning background, right? So him being the first Black person on the planning commission of Los Angeles. So just all of these things, and I feel that when I walk into this home, just, you know, this is great that we’re able to be here and engage in this. We’re, it really literally a part of history now.
Willa Seidenberg 20:30
Right, right. So what have you been working on in documenting the house?
Eliza Jane Franklin 20:36
Right now, I’ve been garnering all the historical articles that I could find. And many of the historical articles did have photographs, documenting the history of the home, not just the Williams, but also the architect. And then also the real estate developer for this property was one of the founders of Beverly Hills. So, it’s just very, very interesting and rich history behind this home and how the ladies who were in the Wilfandel Club did so much for their community.
Willa Seidenberg 21:08
And are you finding articles that are in mainstream press?
Eliza Jane Franklin 21:12
No, no.
Willa Seidenberg 21:13
Mostly Black press?
Eliza Jane Franklin 21:15
Yes, most of it is in the [California] Eagle. Also the Los Angeles Tribune. So many articles about Della Williams, I mean, just who they were to Black society, like 1946 this was like, the ladies of the town they were talking about and it was just a whole spread on this building and also Della Williams, right. And so they were like the who’s who.
Willa Seidenberg 21:41
Yeah, they were the society ladies.
Eliza Jane Franklin 21:43
They were the ladies of the society. Yes. The question is, where do we go from now? Besides, you know, renting the space out? How can we actually have more people know about this place and the contribution that it made to Black society and other spaces like this.
Willa Seidenberg 22:01
And when you drive by you would have no idea.
Eliza Jane Franklin 22:03
You would have no idea, blends into the landscape right? You’re just like Oh, it’s another pretty building right on Adams which we know that West Adams district is full of you know, a lot of homes where we would never know that is this building is owned by some important Black people.
Willa Seidenberg 22:35
Okay, so here in the entryway, there is a wall of plaques that have all of the original members of the club from 1945. So we have names like Coral G. Johnson, and Georgina Timoney. And then it’s updated with new members and the years that they joined.
Jan Morrow Bell 23:06
This is my aunt Faye Griffith. She was one of the original 50 members. This is my mother Glynnis Ann Morrow. There. This is me, Jan Morrow Bell.
Willa Seidenberg 23:24
2000. Okay, all right. This is a great tradition.
Jan Morrow Bell 23:28
So many people come and they’re looking at the last names and they go well, I think I know them. We just found out that Bessie Brewington Burke, also one of the original 50 members, was the first Black teacher in LAUSD and the first Black principal in LAUSD. And we didn’t know and this was her sister-in-law Ethel Brewington. So we learn things about the members, like she didn’t have children so her legacy didn’t get passed on. But we found that out through articles in the paper when they did, LAUSD did an event in order to honor her. Della Williams’ granddaughter is still a member. Her name is Gayle Beavers. Where is Gayle? I’m not exactly sure when she joined, but her mother’s name was Anne Shaw, and she’s on here too.
Willa Seidenberg 24:30
And here’s Frieda Shaw Johnson, that’s a Shaw.
Jan Morrow Bell 24:34
I think Frieda Shaw was also a member of their family.
Willa Seidenberg 24:37
Great, thank you.
Willa Seidenberg 24:50
So now we turn back to Sam Malnati. Sam, when is this application for the Peterson Prize due?
Sam Malnati 24:59
So our drawings are due at the end of June. But we won’t hear back about who’s won the prize until November when they announced it at the Philadelphia ceremony.
Willa Seidenberg 25:09
So whether you win or not, what do you think you all have gotten out of this process?
Sam Malnati 25:17
Yeah, it’s been really exciting, especially having people from different departments like Urban Planning and Landscape. And we’ve all come together to like, really learn from the building and learn the history of the Wilfandel Club. And even if we don’t win, we still get to work with the National Park Service historic architects and submit our drawings to the Library of Congress.
Willa Seidenberg 25:38
So it’s a win win all the way around.
Sam Malnati 25:41
Exactly. And it’s especially cool because it’s within the USC neighborhoods. So we’re really like, learning about the history of the neighborhood and things that are right in our backyard, kind of.
Willa Seidenberg 25:53
How will this benefit the Wilfandel Club having these detailed drawings.
Sam Malnati 25:58
So the Wilfandel is in the process of compiling a Historic Structures Report, which will help them with their historic understanding of the existing conditions of the buildings. And these drawings of the existing conditions will be helpful if they decide to pursue a nomination for historic status, either like locally or state, nationally.
Willa Seidenberg 26:22
Congratulations on the great work you’re doing and good luck in the competition. But as we said, You’re a winner no matter what. And thank you for joining us today on Save As.
Sam Malnati 26:33
Thanks for having me.
Cindy Olnick 26:38
Well, another great story about another great place. Thank you, Willa, for capturing that, thank you to the members of the Wilfandel Club for your hospitality. And thank you to the students who are doing this amazing work, which will live on for many, many years.
Trudi Sandmeier 26:53
Yes, you can go visit the Library of Congress and look at all the different measured drawings done by students all around the country, as submissions for the Peterson Prize, but also just incredible resources in the HABS, HAER and HALS documentation at the Library of Congress website, which is like taking an arm chair tour of some of the amazing places around the United States. And we’re really excited that they’re going to add the Wilfandel Club to that list.
Cindy Olnick 27:22
And, if you’re not familiar with the Library of Congress site, you can use all that stuff for, as my mom would say, free nothing. Run, don’t walk.
Trudi Sandmeier 27:31
That’s right. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of Save As. As always, for photos and show notes, visit our website at SaveAs.place. You can also connect with us on Instagram at Saveas next gen. Please subscribe, tell a friend, give us a review.
Cindy Olnick 27:58
This episode was produced by Willa Seidenberg. Our original theme music is by Steven Conley. Additional music in the episode is by the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Thanks very much to Evan McAvenia for her help with social media.
Trudi Sandmeier 28:14
Save As is a production of the Heritage Conservation program in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California.
