The Beginning

Our Community House was initiated and organized in 1933 by the Morganton Women’s Club then led by Miss Catharine Ervin, president. The force behind the vision was Miss Ervin, Mrs. T.G Cobb and Miss Sue Tate. They wanted to build a banquet Hall or meeting space for their group to organize. However, after being told that the private women’s club could not benefit from federal grants under the program in which they had applied, these very determined women joined forces with the City of Morganton. The concept of a civic center or the Morganton Community House was born.

In partnership with the City, the Morganton Women’s Club began establishing a plan of their envisioned community meeting space. They had blueprints designed with the colonial brick building for community activities, a dance hall and parlors for the women’s club. Education about the proposed community house was printed often due to Mrs. T.G. Cobb owning the Morganton News Herald. And daughter Beatrice Cobb not only ran the family newspaper, she was also elected secretary-treasurer of the NC Press association and a member of the Morganton Women’s Club. Needless to say, they had some influence and persuasion with this newly proposed plan that was quickly endorsed by the town, county officials and leading citizens. These women gave tirelessly including three trips to Raleigh, NC and a complete rewrite of the grant, when the initial forms were lost in the state office. Their collective efforts finalized the finished project plan that was then granted to the city.  A grand banquet for 250 people with high-ranking officials attended the formal opening of the building in November 1935. The honorable Judge Wilson Warlick spoke that night and praised these three women saying that they were “The moving spirits in pressing the project through to completion”.