For more than 120 years, the Woman’s Club of Hollywood has contributed to and helped build Hollywood. The original 14 women who founded the club in 1905 built the first Hollywood library on Ivar. We created The Hollywood Studio Club so young girls coming to Hollywood seeking work in the new motion picture business had somewhere safe to live, we raised the money for The Hollywood Bowl and we were the Red Cross center during both World Wars.
Our building is located in the heart of Hollywood, at Hollywood and LaBrea. We have owned our historic building without debt since it was constructed, where we have held meetings, weddings, concerts, classes, workshops and community events.
In 2010, the Club became the victim of a fraud, where a realtor overtook the organization.
The locks were changed, operating documents re-written and membership was dismissed.
Original members regained access in 2012 via a receivership, but not before the realtor encumbered the building with a $700K loan.
On December 1, 2012 we received a phone call that our building was going to be auctioned off the next day due to its foreclosure on the $700K loan …a loan that membership knew nothing about.
This forced us to immediately file bankruptcy to prevent the sale of our building.
Without legal guidance through this process, a bankruptcy trustee was assigned who kept us in bankruptcy for 6 years, incurring millions of dollars in legal fees.
The trustee also agreed to pay off the $700K loan – which the Club never received benefit from – which had then ballooned to $1.6M.
Though we had found a traditional lender, the trustee engaged a hard money lender to provide loans to pay off the original debt and all the debt incurred during the bankruptcy.
The Club lost all rental income during the pandemic.
June 1, 2026, the Club received a notice of default for our loans which now equal $5.75M.
Throughout this, we continue to offer classes, concerts and community events. With your help, we are determined to continue our legacy and contributions to our community!