September 2024 - History Corner

Once Upon a Hillside: 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago

September 1899

The Hillside Club was founded on 5 October 1898. No newspaper articles about the young Hillside Club could be found for this month.

September 1924

The New Club House

With the opening of our new club year we take up our work in the new Club House, which replaces the one destroyed in the fire of September 17th, 1923. May we bring to this new home all the loyalty of the past and in it renew our life and add lustre to the name of the Hillside Club.

Business Meeting, August 25

Regular business meeting for members only. Announcements of chairmen of the various committees for the year. Report of the building committee and sub-committees on furnishings. The lighting of the first fire on the new hearthstone.

Picnic, September 9

Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Swett have again invited the club members and their families to be their guests at the hospitable ranch in Alhambra Valley [in Martinez]. Fill your lunch baskets and your autos and if you have an empty seat think of those who have no way of going. Coffee and ice cream will be provided.

Card Party, September 27

On this date there will be, both afternoon and evening, a benefit card and mah jongg party with Mrs. A. D. Lockwood as chairman. Tickets will be $2 for a table.

News Notes

Mr. and Mrs. Wells Drury are soon to occupy their new home, 1520 Euclid. [Eighty-one Club members lost their homes in the 1923 fire. The Drurys, as did many members, rebuilt a new house on the burned lot.]

September 1949

Fireside Meeting, August 29

Hillside Club will bid farewell to vacations and greet the new year of fellowship and friendship with its traditional fireside meeting August 29. Carl Fox will be chairman of the evening. Pictures from his visits to various western wonderlands will provide the theme for this “Farewell Summer, Hello Hillside” gathering. There will be traditional refreshments and traditional renewal of friendships at this meeting for members only.

Civic Affairs Section, September 12

Dr. Sherrall Hall chairman, and his fellow members of the Civic Affairs Section will present a study of your city’s asset and liability list and the problems faced along various lines.

Hawaiian Motif Selected for Annual Dinner, September 19

Hillside goes Hawaiian for its annual dinner, is the announcement of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Dempster, chairmen. Selection of the Islands as the theme means leis and music and a special program. Dress will be formal as usual, however, those members having Hawaiian costumes are urged to wear them. Hawaii’s allure and Hillside membership’s large representation of visitors to the Islands assure added charm for this ever-happy evening formally launching the Club’s fall season.

Hillside Club Picnic, September 24

Old Man Calendar spread his 1949 Saturdays and holidays in a manner to upset the customary earlier date of the Club’s annual out-of-doors activity, but Mr. and Mrs. George Clark assure a picnic program of customary top rank. The setting will be Tilden Park, and the fun will start before lunch and continue into the traditional firelight sing. Members may join in the event at times according to their best convenience. Only requisites are informal attire and basic food supplies for individuals, families or groups. The Committee will serve coffee and ice cream for both lunch and dinner.

September 1974

President’s Message

A wise mixture of tradition and change makes for a healthy organization. Hillside traditions go back to the founders, but not without change. Hillside has always adjusted its programs to changing times and has thus kept its pristine vigor. Essentially our program for the new year is like those of previous years, but with a few changes worth noting. Your Board of Directors has revived the annual fall picnic, restored the annual fall formal dinner (keeping the now traditional spring farewell dinner), and authorized a new club interest group: the Literature Section. The Board has also approved shifting two evening programs—the Garden Festival and the Evening of Art—to Sunday afternoons. Because of insufficient interest, we have not scheduled an Extravaganza this year.

Fireside Meeting, September 16

Photographic Arts Section is happy to open the club season with “North to Norway,” a travel movie filmed by Dorothy and Bayard Rucker this summer. We will see rural areas, lakes, boat trips through canals and locks, and will cross the North Sea from Oslo to Newcastle. We will examine new oil derricks: a boom town at sea.

President’s Reception, September 22

This is the traditional Sunday afternoon social event, scheduled soon after the start of a new club year, when the new president and first lady are honored together with the Board of Directors.

Picnic, September 28

Our first outing of the year will be a picnic on Angel Island. Please also note these upcoming dates on your calendar: October 24-25, Sutter Creek; February 22, River Boat Trip; April 24-26, Solvang. Our tours are a great way for new members, prospective members, as well as the rest of us, to enjoy ourselves and get acquainted at the same time.

September 1999

The Club’s archive of printed monthly newsletters ended with the May 1994 issue. If you know of a source for any newsletters between 1994 and the Club’s renaissance in the early 2000s, your historian would love to hear about it!