Address 125 S. Seventh St. Built 1917 Opened 1917 Renovated 1987 | Type Community theatre Built by Hudson,William A. Area 5,300 m² Added to NRHP 20 July 1989 | |
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Former names Ebell Club of Santa Paula Location Santa Paula, California People also search for Women's Improvement Club of Hueneme, Union Oil Company Building, Ebell of Los Angeles | ||
The Ebell Club of Santa Paula, at 125 S. Seventh St. in Santa Paula, California, is a historic mansion that was built in 1917. It was designed by Hunt & Burns and built by contractor William A. Hudson. The clubhouse is in Bungalow/Craftsman style. It is currently the home of the Santa Paula Theater Center. It is surrounded by a landscaped park in English landscape garden style that was part of the original design for the club.
The Santa Paula chapter, formed in 1913, was the ninth in the state of the women's club first established in Oakland by Dr. Adrian Ebell in 1876. Its aim was the advancement of culture. Alice Stowell McKevett donated land for Ebell Park and contracted the first half of the building in memory of her husband. The dining room and kitchen were added in 1928 by Harriet McKevett Teague and the McKevett Corporation.
In 1987 the McKevett Corporation deeded the building to the Santa Paula Community Fund, who in turn deeded it to the Santa Paula Theater Center. For several years the club and the thespians shared the space but the ladies have since parted to a space rented by the First United Methodist Church.
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Its NRHP nomination asserted it is "an outstanding example of the shingled Craftsman style", and the "only example of its type in Santa Paula where a Craftsman era institutional building was designed with a complementary landscape plan." It is also one of few preserved historic clubhouses in Ventura County and is the only women's clubhouse in Santa Paula.