Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event, People, Site

Location

37 N Orange Ave #500, Orlando, FL 32801, USA

Lat/Long

28.542825855399, -81.378976647485

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In November 1913, the Florida Equal Suffrage Assocation (FESA) was formed during a meeting of the Florida State Federation of Women’s Clubs being held in the rooms of the Rosalind Club on Orange Avenue in Orlando, Florida. Unitarian minister and suffragist, Reverend Mary Augusta Safford (1851-1927) served as chair and was elected president of the newly formed FESA. Safford served in this role until 1916 and then again from 1918 to 1919. Safford led the FESA in the fight for women’s right to vote, which included lobbying Florida legislators in the state capital to garner support for women’s suffrage.

On June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which stated that the right to vote could not be denied on account of sex. This was the culmination of a decades long fight for women’s right to vote. After it was passed by Congress, the amendment went to the states for ratification. Despite the efforts of the FESA, the state did not vote on the amendment. However, by August 1920, the necessary 36 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States, including in the state of Florida.

The Rosalind Club on Orange Avenue in Orlando was demolished and during the 1920s the Angebilt Hotel was constructed in its place. The hotel eventually closed, and as of 2022, the Angebilt Building was used as office, retail, and restaurant space.