Lodi Arts Foundation proposes walking trail of women's history
Jun. 10—The Lodi Arts Foundation had planned a large celebration marking the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt.
The celebration included a parade, a walking tour of historical sites in Lodi significant to women, speeches, entertainment and a reception at the Lodi Women's Club.
The pandemic didn't completely stop the foundation from commemorating the right to vote for women, as the "Cycles of Suffrage" mural in Downtown Lodi was recently completed.
Now, the foundation would like to complete other elements of the celebration that still might be possible.
Board member Carolyn Ross told the Lodi Arts Commission on Wednesday that one of those elements is the walking tour.
"This is not going to be a walking trail," she said. "The sites that have been considered for this trail are not close enough to be a 'walk-through-it' kind of thing, such as we do for the Art Hop. We're actually calling it the 'Women's History Trail', and the idea was to find local sites that have historical significance to women, and to identify these and mark them somehow."
Ross said the foundation wants to identify about a dozen sites in Lodi for the trail and possibly mark them electronically with a detailed explanation of their significance, as well as why they are important to women.
Some sites under consideration include the Lodi Women's Club at 325 W. Pine St., or the Thornton House furniture emporium in Downtown Lodi.
The Women's Club was originally called the Lodi Improvement Club, Ross said, and the name was changed sometime afterward.
The Thornton House, she said, was originally the Lodi Opera House, and Lodi resident Lillian Pleas Cunningham performed there on several occasions with her husband Arthur Cunningham.
The trail would also make note of famous local women including Rebecca Ivory, who opened the city's first grocery store on the northeast corner of Sacramento and Pine streets with her husband, as well as Laura DeForce Gordon, Lodi's first suffragette who is buried at the Harmony Grove Cemetery.
"Placing markers on some of the places the women lived and work is a challenge because a lot of them no longer exist," Ross said. "An alternative would be to create a large map in a permanent location, and on the map you'd have QR codes for where sites are, then people could go there if they wanted to."
Ross said she hoped the foundation and commission could come up with ideas to fund the trail, and asked if an Art in Public Places grant would be possible.
"I love the whole idea, I think it's fabulous," commissioner Cathy Metcalf said. "But I don't think it fits the definition of art in public places. Probably have to go to private sources (for funding)."
Metcalf suggested Ross and the foundation return to a future meeting with a more developed plan with cost estimates.
