ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Members and volunteers are working hard to restore the St. Petersburg Woman’s Club building, which is nearly 100 years old.

Water and wind from hurricanes Helene and Milton damaged the historic landmark. It’s home to the club, known for community service since 1913.

What You Need To Know

  • Volunteers work to restore the historic St. Petersburg Woman's Club building, which was damaged in hurricanes

  • The building is almost 100 years old

  • Vice President of Daily Operations Cathy Allen said the building's landmark is on the national, state, and local historic register

  • A fundraiser is being held to assist with the restoration process

“We were very instrumental in a lot of the things that happened in downtown St. Petersburg as women, and back then, you didn’t do that, that’s not what you did. We were very involved in the suffrage movement,” said Cathy Allen, vice president of Daily Operations.

Allen previously served as club president and is proud to help restore the future for the group that puts in 16,000 to 20,000 hours of volunteer service each year.

“They come and they make quilts for hospice, and they crochet caps for newborns, and they do so much here and they do it as a group. The idea of not being able to meet here to do that is sad,” said Allen.

Generations of families also gather at the venue for weddings, birthdays, celebrations of life and corporate conferences for businesses.

“So, in order to be able to keep up this club — which by the way is on the National Historic Registry, State Historic Registry and the St. Petersburg Historic Register — it costs a lot of money to keep this up, so we get that money by having events. We’ve been returning money,” Allen said of having to cancel events since the storms.

The club is now working to raise that money back, and community members are helping with the restoration.

“We were like a big bathtub in here, filled with sea water and sewage water, because the sewage plants had shut down,” Allen explained. “We literally had to gut the entire building.”

A building the community is coming together to rebuild.

“This building means so much, not only to us, the members, but to the entire community because we do so much for the community,” she expressed.

A fundraising campaign has been set up for those in a position to help. And money raised from the club’s “A Night of Jazz in St. Pete” event will go toward the restoration.

Members and volunteers are working together to preserve history, while making sure future generations can serve their community and create new memories in the beloved space.

“We’re trying to restore it to its former glory, but better,” said Allen.

A Night of Jazz in St. Pete will be held at the club on Saturday, Nov. 2, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

A GoFundMe page has been started to help with the restoration process.

GoFundMe.com, or any other third-party online fundraiser, is not managed by Spectrum Bay News 9 or Spectrum News 13. For more information on how GoFundMe works and its rules, visit http://www.gofundme.com/safety.