North Chattanooga Book Club members in 2025
For several decades the North Chattanooga Book Club members have been faithfully reading and discussing books, as well as having monthly speakers and financially supporting Northside Neighborhood House.
The books read over the years have come and gone in popularity, with a few remaining as classics. But one book the group could write instead of read is a history of its 125 years of existence.
The organization this year is celebrating its landmark anniversary as one of the oldest continuous associations in town. To celebrate the occasion, the club is having a special program at its monthly meeting on May 7 looking back at its history with club historian Carolyn Cartledge.
According to current club president Leslie Heath, the club historian has an important job maintaining what she calls the club’s voluminous historical records. “125 years of photos, scrapbooks, newspapers, business documents and other incidentals can be quite challenging,” she said. “The items are safely stored until needed.”
Other officers during this anniversary year are Vice President Janice Groseclose, Secretary Kin Koos, and Treasurer Blythe Houser. The parliamentarian is Marcia Kling, also known in Chattanooga for her former on-air work with WTVC Channel 9.
While many book clubs typically just read and discuss books – and maybe also talk about the latest important and chatty news – the North Chattanooga Book Club has made books only part of its focus.
“It is a book club, but also a service organization,” said Ms. Heath. “It supports the Northside Neighborhood House with monetary donations throughout its yearly term. And Northside Neighborhood House supports many worthy causes throughout the entire Chattanooga area.”
She added that each year, a Northside Neighborhood House representative also presents a program at one of the club’s monthly meetings. “It’s impressive to hear about the work that it does throughout the entire Chattanooga community,” she said.
The Northside Neighborhood House, which last year celebrated its own landmark anniversary of being in operation 100 years, is a non-profit with outreach work ranging from making sure community neighbors have working utilities to trying to ensure academic success for students.
Of course, reading and discussing books are important components of the book club’s activities as well, Ms. Heath added.
“The club’s 24 members meet at the beginning of each new term,” she said. “Members choose a book that has been published within the past 18 months. The new books along with other books are rotated each month so that every member has two books to enjoy until the next meeting.”
One book recently discussed at a meeting was “Absolution” by Alice McDermott in a conversation led by my wife, Laura Shearer.
Many of these activities have been taking place since the club’s founding. According to a 1995 history of the club written by Betty Seepe, the club was started in October 1900 as the Hill City Book Club when 12 women and male Methodist minister the Rev. G.M. Moreland met.
“The object of the club was to buy a book, discuss the book and to have current events and contests,” wrote Ms. Seepe. “They were to meet every two weeks.”
In 1912 the name was changed to the North Chattanooga Book Club, and in 1931 the meetings were changed to monthly, a tradition that continues today except for a summer break in July and August. In recent months, the group has been meeting in a lobby room of the Continental condominiums off Hixson Pike.
Other club causes or activities over the years and highlighted in the history included learning French, sponsoring a French orphan overseas during World War I and aiding the Vine Street orphanage.
Quite a few women have also led the group over its 125 years. The first president was Mrs. George Bible, who served from 1900-1901. She was followed by Mrs. Jack Montgomery (1901-02), and Mrs. Y.L. Abernathy, who served for four years through 1906. Two-year terms eventually became the norm, including in recent years.
A sampling of other presidents over the years included Mrs. W.H. Sears (1917-1919), Mrs. J. Frank Boydston (1936-38), Mrs. C.B. Felts (1948-50), Mrs. Ernest D. Cushman (1961-63), Mrs. Stephen Eady Jr. (1970-72), Mrs. William P. Aiken (1980-82), Mrs. Alfred Fehn (1990-92) and Mrs. Stanley Lewis (1996-98).
Prior to Ms. Heath, the most recent presidents, who have all served two-year terms, have included Marcia Kling, Pat Poteralski, Gail Stewart, Ellie Turner, and Shirley Hixson. Ms. Hixson served two separate terms.
A 1972 article by longtime News-Free Press lifestyle editor Helen Exum said that the members were meeting in different houses for their monthly meetings, and that the rage that year was a good and clean murder mystery.
But while the tastes in books might have changed, Ms. Exum sensed that the club did have a quality as timeless as one of the classic books the group has enjoyed reading. “What hasn’t changed is the idea of a group of women getting together to choose the best of the year’s books and then to swap each month,” she said.
And that has continued until today.
All members also contribute throughout the term by serving as an officer, committee member or overseeing special duties as may be assigned, Ms. Heath added.
Like in a good book with character development, every member has a role to play!
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net