Matinee Musical Club

Rockdale's musicians organized before the state did. The Matinee Musical Club began in January 1909. The Texas Federation of Music Clubs was formed on November 12, 1915, at Brownwood, with twenty-two clubs as its core, and it joined the National Federation of Music Clubs, founded in Chicago in 1893. Its first committees covered community music, public school music, contests, scholarships and an artist bureau that scheduled recitals. By 1920 it had seventy-seven member clubs, and it chose Texas bluebonnet blue as its color.

What the plaque says

Matinee Musical Club In January 1909, Mary Ann (Coffield) Perry organized the Matinee Musical Club on the front porch of her home at this site. Pearl Cauthon served as the first president of the club, which met regularly to study and perform music. Yearbooks document annual themes, including classical music, and Texas women and American composers. The 1916 yearbook shows the club mascot, George Sessions Perry, who became a noted Texas writer. The group, active in both the Texas and National Federations of Music Clubs, continues to share and study musix, bringing culture and art to its members and to Rockdale through annual programs and regular meetings. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 13 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Calvert — 29 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.

More markers nearby

• St. Thomas Episcopal Church — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Rockdale — steps away
• George Sessions Perry — steps away
• City of Rockdale — 0.2 mi