clubs

Mercer Island
Community Clubs

These files contain the records of the Keewaydin Club, the Mercer Island Club, and the South Mercer Island Club. From the early 1900s until the island’s incorporation, these clubs had important roles as centers of island social life, political activity, and community improvements.

The records of these clubs provide detailed information about Mercer Island history. Membership rosters, meeting attendance lists, or picnic tickets sales lists might aid a genealogist in tracing a person’s residence on the island. Someone interested in Mercer Island community history could learn from the club minutes that parents volunteered to install an electric light in the first schoolhouse, or could investigate the issues ferry commuters faced in the 1920s. The club records document the effect national events had on Mercer Island. For example, the clubs’ financial hardship in the 1930s reflects the impact of the depression and the formation of new club committees during World War II illustrates Islanders’response to the changes the War brought.

The Keewaydin Clubhouse (1922), now the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars Clubhouse, and the South Mercer Island Clubhouse, once a school, now Sunnybeam Nursery School, stand today as two of Mercer Island’s most significant historic public buildings. If any organization undertakes a substantial renovation of either structure, it will find this collection an invaluable source of information about the physical history of the buildings.

KEEWAYDIN CLUBHOUSE (NOW VFW HALL)

The following list describes the files that pertain to the property, the original building, and changes made over time.

CONSTRUCTION
FURNISHINGS (INCLUDING PIANOS)
INSURANCE
LOT, DEED AND DESCRIPTION
MECHANICAL SYSTEMS
MORTGAGE (WASHINGTON MUTUAL SAVINGS BANK)
PROPERTY TAX STATEMENTS
REPAIRS/REFURBISHMENTS
RENTAL POLICIES/PROBLEMS
SALE TO VFW
YARD AND LANDSCAPING

SOUTH MERCER ISLAND CLUB

The club records have been organized into the same categories as the Mercer Island and Keewaydin Club files. The subject files vary to reflect the particular concerns of the south end organization. The files are:

PARKS & RECREATION
PETITION FOR EXCLUSION FROM WATER DISTRICT
PLANNING/ZONING
PRESCHOOL ASSOCIATION
PROPERTY EXCHANGE WITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION
SADDLE CLUB
SCOUTING/CAMPFIRE
SOUTH MERCER ISLAND FIRE STATION

SOUTH MERCER ISLAND CLUBHOUSE (NOW SUNNYBEAM)

The following list describes the files that pertain to the property, the building, and to changes which occurred over time.

FURNISHINGS
CARETAKER’S COTTAGE
INSURANCE
PROPERTY TAXES
REPAIRS/REFURBISHMENTS
SEWER

These records contain a wide variety of documents that reflect the variety of club activities on the sland.

Documents range from membership lists and announcements of club activities to the detailed banking and financial records.

The records are presently grouped more or less chronologically.

Thoughtful organization of the records requires careful consideration of their utility to future users of the collection. The records will be of great interest to historians interested in early Mercer Island life and politics, and to people tracing genealogical records.

The Mercer Island Club and the South Mercer Island Improvement Club acted as the de facto political groups on the Island prior to incorporation. The Keewaydin Club functioned as a social organization. Consequently, the records of the club are important as documents of these early groups. However, since these groups were involved with many issues, such as land use planning, transportation lobbing, and education, they are also valuable as records of general island history.

Documents included with the MI Club boxes, which pertain primarily to other issues, are filed with the main collection.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COLLECTION

The records of the Mercer Island Club, Keewaydin Club, and the South Mercer, and the South Mercer Island Clubs remain separate. The records fall into the following categories:

KEEWAYDIN CLUB RECORDS (1921-33)
MERCER ISLAND COMMUNITY CLUB/MERCER ISLAND CLUB RECORDS (1918-64)
CLUBHOUSE (NOW VFS) RECORDS (1922-1964)
MERCER ISLAND CLUB SUBJECT FILES
SOUTH MERCER ISLAND CLUB RECORDS (194?-1960s)
SOUTH MERCER ISLAND CLUBHOUSE (NOW SUNNYBEAM)
SOUTH MERCER ISLAND SUBJECT FILES

DESCRIPTION OF THE FILES

To help a researcher locate information, the records of each club are organized, by decade, into several categories: activities, membership, minutes, and financial. The following descriptions identify the type of material which each contains.

Activities:	information pertaining to the events the clubs sponsored, clubhouse rentals, publicity announcements, expense records, correspondence related to events, and janitor’s work records. Major, well-documented events, such as the annual picnics, or a 1930 highway dedication ceremony have separate files.
Membership:	Rosters, dues billings, correspondence about membership, as well as letters regarding individual members, such as funeral announcements.
Minutes:	minutes from both regular and trustee meetings that often contain committee reports (such as Roads), as well as publicity announcements. Any meeting attendance records will be found with the minutes of the meeting.
Financial:	tax forms, annual financial summaries and audits, as well as banking records of any particular note.