St. Pete Women: A Powerful Force

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are taking a look back at the women’s volunteer organizations, or “clubs,” as they were often called, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lemonade Stands, Sidewalks, and Parks

Before St. Petersburg was incorporated as a city in 1903, local women organized influential infrastructure improvement campaigns. For example, they banded together in 1891 to push for the town’s first sidewalk, even raising money for the project by selling lemonade and ice cream. In 1893, these same women undertook the work to transform The Park (present-day Williams Park). They lobbied, raised money, and physically helped lay down walks, clear undergrowth, and build a fence. Over the next several decades, this female-centered energy produced a network of women’s clubs including a local branch of the nationally influential Women’s Christian Temperance Union. These organizations pursued a variety of reforms, but arguably the most powerful of these groups was the home-grown Women’s Town Improvement Association (WTIA). In 1913, it moved into its own building across from Williams Park on First Avenue N (now the Church of Scientology’s St. Petersburg Life Improvement Center).

The Lobby and the Legislature

WTIA members, many of whom had been part of the earlier park improvement efforts, wielded tremendous influence in St. Petersburg. As members of the city’s elite white families, the women had the connections and time to work for popular goals like the city’s beautification. They also tackled less popular issues like conservation, temperance, health care, prison reform, education, and voting rights for women. These progressive-minded women led the charge to protect birds and other wildlife, pushed for “blue laws,” and established a “poor-sick” fund to provide the indigent with medicine. The WTIA lobby led to the appointment of St. Petersburg’s first parole officer as well as passage of the state’s first mandatory schoolattendance legislation. Not surprisingly, the first woman to run for the Florida Legislature, Katherine Bell Tippetts, came from the ranks of these reforming women. (Read more about Tippetts in this month’s People of St. Pete.)

Working Women & the YWCA

The early 20th century also marked the rapid rise of wage-earning women. Many upper- and middle-class female “club” reformers feared for the health and safety of the women thrust into the working world. As a response, they initiated a variety of campaigns to provide support. One such effort is the YWCA. First organized in the 19th century, the YWCA movement expanded rapidly in the early 20th century. Its facilities offered health classes and employment advice as well as providing women safe places to take breaks (pioneering the idea of a “rest room”), eat an inexpensive meal, or spend the night. Local women financially supported the national efforts of the YWCA until 1919, when St. Petersburg’s size and working population supported the need for its own branch. Soon after, the YWCA moved into its own downtown facility on Second Avenue S (present-day home of Rococo Steak), where volunteers began to hold “Circle Groups” to help women secure safe employment.

Working Mothers and Day Nurseries

Willie Lee McAdams c. 1930. Photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.
Willie Lee McAdams c. 1930. Photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

As the number of working women increased, so did the number of working mothers, prompting reformers also to champion the idea of “day nurseries” (early versions of day-care centers). Regional segregation and national discrimination practices often that meant people of color were ignored or denied access to reform organizations and programs. In St. Petersburg, local black women addressed the needs of the African American community through separate organizations like the City Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and various religious institutions. For example, Willie Lee McAdams (wife of the Rev. Oscar McAdams, minister, math teacher and future president of the local NAACP) founded the city’s first Day Nursery for African American children at the couple’s Trinity Presbyterian Church (at 902 19th St S). For 25 cents per week, black families could go to work secure in the knowledge that their young children were safe at the Happy Worker’s Day Nursery.

Reforming Women Changed St. Pete and America

Power can come in many forms. For years, women lacked access to the ballot box, but that didn’t keep them from advocating for causes they believed in. Using their influence and their numbers, female reformers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries proved to be powerful forces for change.

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Tina Stewart Brakebill
Tina and her husband Brian visited St Pete for the first time in January of 2017. Four months later, they waved goodbye to Illinois and moved to their new forever home in the Sunshine City! They both believe it’s the best snap decision they ever made. Leaving her job as a university history professor was the toughest part of the relocation, but she is thoroughly enjoying having more time to write. Currently, in addition to her work with Green Bench Monthly, she is working on her third book (and first novel) and loving life in DTSP.