I got an email from Kerrie Taylor in Payette, about the 5th annual “Portia Club Pansy Sale” to benefit the Portia Club Restoration Project. The sale is from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday, May 15, at the Portia Club, 225 N. 9th Street, in Payette.

I love pansies, which I think of as old-fashioned, story book flowers, but I think I may love the Portia Club, too.

According to the club’s website, the Portia Club started in Payette in 1895, because a group of “far-sighted” women wanted to improve the cultural life of their town. Over the years, they created the city’s library, free health clinics for children, and the Payette Apple Blossom Festival.

Ahead of their time, they sponsored lectures on laws that affected women and children, held debates on women's issues and “spread the virtues of art and literature throughout the city.”

In 1919, Portia members decided to build their own club house. They raised more than $4,000 to build the Spanish-style structure. The building opened to the public for the first time in 1927.

Unfortunately, in the following decades, many of the club’s members passed away, and the building fell into ruin.

Now a new group of Payette residents, The Friends of the Portia Club, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is trying to bring the old building back to life, and restore it as a community center for non-profit clubs, arts events, school and community-based programs.

Proceeds from the pansy sale will benefit the project — apt, since the pansy has been the official Portia Club flower since the 1800s.
Need more information? Call Cleo at 642-3272. Learn more about the building, see photographs and keep up to date on preservation activities on the website.