November Club

• The November Club was the first women's club in Andover. It was formed in November 1889, after Miss Elizabeth Handy called a meeting of 15 "well-educated, enterprising, and socially elite women" in November 1888 to discuss her idea to start a women's club.

• The club first met at 126 Main St., but, after 20 more women joined, moved to Abbot Hall (then known as Academy Hall) on the campus of Abbot Academy.

• In February 1892 they dedicated a new clubhouse on Love Lane, now called Locke Street.

• According to a November 1908 New England Magazine article, The November Club clubhouse, was the first clubhouse built for women in New England.

• The November Club raised money for local charities, the war efforts, and to build their Locke Street clubhouse. They give dance lessons to young people, and had guest speakers.

• By 1985 membership had fallen and the clubhouse was sold to the Unitarian Universalist Church. The money was given to Memorial Hall Library to furnish a November Club reading room.
• Susan McIntosh Lloyd's history of Abbot Academy, A Singular School, mentions the November Club and it's connection to Abbot extensively.

• The November Club Yearbooks from 1908 - 1966 are held in Memorial Hall Library's Andover Roomlocal history collections. They are digitized and viewable in full-text online.

See

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• Town Had First Clubhouse "for Ladies Wholly" by Karen Wakeling, Andover Historical Society. Andover Townsman January 19, 2012. p.8.
• "Andover's Innovators Lead the Way", The Townsman, May 30, 2013, page 13.
• Church Buys a Bit of History by Susan K. O'Neill Andover Townsman December 5, 1985, p.55

• November Club Yearbooks, 1907-1967, in Andover Room at Memorial Hall Library.Digital Copies of the November Club Yearbooks may be accessed online: https://mvlc.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/andover/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:925486/one
• Six Locke Street, Andover Historic Preservation Comission Database
• Lloyd, Susan McIntosh A Singular School: Abbot Academy, 1828-1973
• Winslow, Helen M. The Story of the Women's Club Movement New England Magazine November, 1908, p. 300

--Stephanie (talk) 11:07, 6 November 2021 (EDT) back to Main Page