Alice Guenther, the Sarasota Woman's Club's first president, gave a short speech at the ground-breaking of this Tudor Revival clubhouse at 1241 North Palm Avenue. This building began with a meeting of 63 charter members on April 14, 1913, and within a year Sarasota itself incorporated as a city. On January 1, 1915, after two years of activity, the club laid the cornerstone for this Tudor Revival clubhouse at the corner of Cocoanut and Palm; the first club president, Alice Guenther, gave a short speech at the ground-breaking.
By the club’s second anniversary the membership had grown to 200, they owned a lot, and they had moved into the newly built $4,500 clubhouse created by architect H.N. Hall and contractor George Lysat. Part of this building was set aside to house Sarasota’s library, which the Woman’s Club kept operating with fundraisers until 1940 when it became public. Decades later the clubhouse was recognized on the national level: on January 18, 1985, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Today the clubhouse houses the Keating Theater, the mainstage of Florida Studio Theatre. Notice the Tudor details at the corner where Cocoanut meets Palm.