Twentieth Century Club
Borger, Hutchinson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Borger, the oil-boom town that sprang to life here in 1926, had among its otherwise transient and rowdy early citizenry, a social and professional group of people accustomed to a more refined cultural and literary environment. Such a person was Sadie McBride, society editor for the "Borger Daily Herald" newspaper. In early 1927 McBride arranged a meeting of several of her women friends to consider an offer by a sales representative of Berle's Twentieth Century Self-Culture Company to subscribe to a monthly book plan. McBride and her friends accepted and later that year organized the Twentieth Century Club of Borger. The club became a Federated Woman's Club and opened a subscription library on Borger's main street in 1928. The club sponsored fundraising activities, such as the exchange of books for movie tickets and women's basketball contests to augment their library collection. Club members' efforts to establish a county library in nearby Stinnett in 1937 resulted in the building of a highly praised native adobe brick branch library here by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. The Twentieth Century Club helped open another branch library in nearby Fritch in 1967 and continues to be a positive influence in the county's library system. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Borger erupted as a rowdy oil-boom town in 1926, society editor Sadie McBride gathered a circle of women who craved something more cultured than the boomtown offered. In 1927 they organized the Twentieth Century Club around a monthly book plan, and by 1928 they had opened a subscription library on Borger's main street. Their fundraising and advocacy led to a WPA-built adobe branch library in 1938 and helped shape Hutchinson County's library system for decades.
Why it matters
It captures how women's clubs quietly built the civic infrastructure — libraries, literacy, and learning — that turned raw boomtowns into lasting communities.
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Related people
- · Sadie McBride
Themes & tags
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