Fairfield Women’s Club holds fundraising sale this week

FAIRFIELD - The coronavirus pandemic has been hard on the Fairfield Women's Club, depriving it of the revenue necessary to maintain the historical McElhinny House on North Court Street in Fairfield.

Though the club has had to delay or cancel several fundraisers this year, it is planning a big one later this week when it will host an estate and garage sale from Thursday through Saturday.

Featured items at the sale will include more than 1,000 cookbooks bequeathed by a longtime supporter of the club, ImaGene Dieckmann.

The sale will be held outdoors on the west edge of the McElhinny property from 1-7 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

Fairfield Women's Club president Toni Griffith said Dieckmann died in August 2019 and in her will she bequeathed a large number of items to the club.

Dieckmann was not even a Fairfield resident, making her home in Ottumwa, but she came to many Fairfield Women's Club events and donated money to the group.

Jason Scott, house master of the McElhinny House, said Dieckmann taught home economics in Ottumwa beginning in the 1970s, and over the years developed a special attachment to the McElhinny House.

'She thought it was beautiful,” Scott said.

Griffith said the cookbooks she donated aren't just your run-of-the-mill cookbooks, either.

'These are upper-class, collector cookbooks,” Griffith said.

Griffith said the club is sorely in need of a fundraiser. Its usual sources of income have dried up, such as renting the McElhinny House to clubs such as Kiwanis, Tri-T, PTO and Questers. Those groups have not met at the house since the pandemic hit in March.

The club had to cancel a lasagna lunch fundraiser in March, and a soup and pie meal. Griffith said the club plans to hold fundraising dinners once again, but it won't offer a dine-in option. They will be carryout or delivery only.

The Fairfield Women's Club has owned the McElhinny House since 1933. Griffith said many people are unaware that the club is responsible for covering all the house's expenses. The McElhinny House is on both the state and national registers of historic homes.

It was built in 1854 with trees from the banks of the Skunk River. The home was commissioned by Robert McElhinny, who moved his family to town from Pennsylvania after purchasing land in Fairfield for $60 and hiring a carpenter to design a home of Greek revival architecture. The house is among the oldest buildings in Fairfield.

'It perfectly fits the general picture of a two-story clapboard house-type found throughout much of the country from 1830 to 1850,” according to a brochure from the women's club.