CalPoly

The Monday Club, San Luis Obispo, California

Six determined women, headed by civic leader Grace Barneberg, formed the Monday Club in 1925 to promote the cultural and social welfare in San Luis Obispo. Having outgrown their borrowed meeting locations, within three years the group began contemplating their own building. Impressed by the YWCAs and women’s clubhouses Julia Morgan had designed in the Bay Area, Barneberg recommended that the board contact the San Francisco architect. Steve Zegar, who regularly drove Morgan back and forth from the train station in San Luis Obispo to San Simeon, introduced the two women.

Morgan inspected the lot on Monterey Street that the board had purchased and agreed to design the clubhouse. The result is an accomplished building in the Arts and Crafts style, with the attention to detail typical of Morgan’s work. The interior was designed to suggest a garden gazebo, with an awning over the stage area and light fixtures resembling Chinese lanterns. Fond of the loquat trees that grew near the site, Morgan retained San Francisco painter Doris Day to include them in her murals for the main hall.

The clubhouse was dedicated on May 11, 1934. Monday Club members continue to advance the goals of the founders, socializing in their historic clubhouse and awarding scholarships to local young people studying the humanities.