The Herndon Fortnightly Club is the oldest women’s club in Virginia’s General Federation of Women’s Clubs. It started in the summer of 1889, with a small group of eleven women who met at the Herndon Seminary on Grace Street. They formed a study club “for the mutual improvement of its members in literature, art, science and the vital interests of the day.” They decided to meet every two weeks and, thus, they called their group The Fortnightly Club.

It was the club’s passion for education and reading that ultimately led them to form Fairfax County’s first lending library. In addition, the club members participated in many philanthropic, patriotic and community events over the decades, through two World Wars, the Depression and the Town of Herndon’s growth. The club’s 128 year history is recounted in the booklet, “The Herndon Fortnightly Club, A History, 1889-2014.”

The eleven charter members of The Fortnightly Club were Mrs. John Barker, Miss Maria Bready, Miss Ida Castleman, Miss Lulu Castleman, Miss Virginia Castleman, Mrs. Florence Duffy, Mrs. J.W. McKeene, Miss Lillie Shear, Miss Ann Thornton, Miss Catherine Thornton and Miss Ellen Thornton. Forty books were initially collected and by the year 1900 they had collected more than a thousand books. The club ran a lending library on a voluntary basis up until the 1970s.

Today the club continues to meet every month at the Herndon Fortnightly Library. Some of the philanthropic activities the club does includes awarding annual education scholarships, donating books to youth to promote literacy, supporting homes for the disadvantaged, and sponsoring activities at the Herndon schools and with other community groups.

Excerpt from Remembering Herndon’s History: The Herndon Fortnightly Club and Library Association by Barbara Glakas