Council Founded

The Bellarmine Women’s Council was formed in 1963 at the invitation of Msgr. Alfred F. Horrigan, then President of Bellarmine College (now Bellarmine University). 

In the invitation Msgr. Horrigan noted that the college must be prepared to provide leadership for the quality of civic, cultural and professional life which Louisville will have in the next generation.  He also observed that Bellarmine, which at the time was an all men’s college, needed sustained contact with women who are leaders in educational and cultural affairs of the community.  He felt that a women’s council would meet this need and serve as a liaison between the college and the community which it serves.

Seventy-five women became charter members of the Council on April 23, 1963, with the first formal meeting on October 8, 1963.  Purposes of the Council were a) to serve as a liaison between the college and the community; b) to advise and assist the college in promotion of its program of cultural activities; c) to advise and assist the college in developing the programs and resources of its library; d) in general, to advise and assist the college in its various activities as requested by the President of the College.

Volunteer Work Begins

Council members began volunteering to plan and promote various cultural events.  Their major event was known as Town and Gown Week, which featured public events such as art and science exhibits, lectures, panel discussions, films, open classes, and campus tours.  Annual Town and Gown Week would bring over 1,000 guests to Bellarmine’s campus.

Other volunteer activities included assisting at college lectures and in the library.  In 1965 the Council added campus development as an additional project in response to the pressing need for landscaping around the new buildings on campus.  Members participated by donating the funds for purchasing the plantings.

Haunted House

In 1969 the Women’s Council began work on its most ambitious program thus far which also helped the college in fund raising.  Using an old barn on an estate opposite the Louisville Zoo, husbands of the Council members used their expertise in designing and constructing to develop a Haunted House – a first in Louisville.  Newspaper articles and a morning TV show publicized the nine-day event.  The Haunted House required a large number of volunteers.  Friends, faculty spouses, students, college staff and administrators, council members and their husbands were pressed into service to handle what a television reporter called an “instant success.”  With admission at 50 cents, an estimated 26,000 people went through the Haunted House, netting approximately $10,000.  Profit was donated to the college to be used for student financial aid, Town and Gown Week expenses, and additional landscaping.  Because the Council’s first fund-raising venture was such a financial success, as well as a successful entertainment project for the college and community, the Haunted House was made annual event.

The Haunted House continued to be held in the old barn until it burned in June 1973.  Since other haunted houses began operating in the community, loss of the barn and modest profits, the Council came to the reluctant decision that the Haunted House no longer justified the tremendous amount of time, talent and effort that went into the event. In the five years of operation, the Haunted House raised nearly $82,000 for student financial aid.

Book Fair

In 1972 the Women’s Council introduced their Book Fair.  They netted over $300 for the library from the sale of donated books.  Because of the enthusiastic support, particularly from students who delighted in purchasing books at 10 and 25 cents, it was made an annual event which has continued.

Designers’ Show House

The Council introduced in November 1973 a refreshing and new fund raising project which had been successful in other cities but had never been tried in Louisville – a Decorators’ Show House, now known as the Designers’ Show House.  When Mr. and Mrs. Louis Arru, a College trustee and a Women’s Council charter member respectively, agreed to allow the Women’s Council to use their historic home, the executive committee proceeded with plans for the first Decorators’ Show House to be held in the spring of 1974.  The Arru home, formerly known as the Brainard Lemon Estate, opened for visitor tours from April 27 through May 12, 1974, and netted nearly $9,000 for student financial aid.

The Council continued working and refining procedures for the Show House project, selecting homes in the Louisville area with historic significance to restore and decorate for the public to view and enjoy.  This project became their major fund raiser.  Annually, an average of almost 6,000 guests tour the Show House.  Designers and businesses in the region generously donate their time, talent and resources to make each Show House a success.  The Show House averages the involvement of 30 designers each year.  In addition to interior designers donating services, many of the homes have lawns and gardens that have been beautified by local landscaping and exterior design companies.  Other community businesses donate materials and services as well as purchase advertising in the programs for each Show House.

Media Coverage of Show House

Designers’ Show Houses have been featured in Forbes, Southern Living, Traditional Home and Better Homes and Gardens national magazines.  Feature articles appear annually in local newspapers.  The Show House is featured on television through on-site broadcasts.  The Show House Chairman is often invited to be a guest on several morning television shows.  Radio hosts interview the Show House Chairman in live drive-time broadcasts.  In 2002 the Women’s Council launched their own Web site.

Council Donates Nearly $1.5 Million

With stable procedures developed, perfected over the 31 years of the Designers’ Show House, the devout commitment of Council members, designers, businesses and homeowners of historic homes, as well as the community expectations for each “new” historic home to be opened, the Bellarmine Women’s Council members have donated over $1.4 million to the Bellarmine Student Financial Aid Fund.

The Council continues to donate to the Library Fund through the Annual Book Fair.  They donated to the W.L. Lyons Brown Library where they have their own conference room.  Sketches of every Designers’ Show House hang on the walls of the room. They have donated two crosses for the roof of Our Lady of the Woods Chapel on Bellarmine’s campus, and they continue to contribute to the landscaping fund and the Petrik Endowed Scholarship fund on a yearly basis.  Many Council members participate in other Bellarmine programs and projects.  Since the founding in 1963, the Women’s Council has donated nearly $1.5 million to the University.