Falcon Bicycle Club

Place

San Francisco, CA

Founded

April, 1896

Members

• Margaret "Minnie" Le Long
• Frances Viola Wells, treasurer
• Ida F. Wells, president
• Mrs. Dr. Edson, vice president
• Mrs. William Leonard, secretary
• Mrs. William Miller
• Mrs. F. Lisinski
• Mrs. Gilman
• Mabel Gilman
• Cox
• Rice
• Orpin
• Sutton

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A novel cycling club, the members of which are ladies, was recently organized in this city. Its name is the G. G. C. C., and its clubroom is in a discarded Valencia-street car, located on the Ocean boulevard. It has been artistically decorated in Japanese style. The officers of the club are: Mrs. F. Fitzgerald, President; Mrs. W. Rice, Vice-President; Mrs. W. Leonard, Captain and Treasurer; Mrs. C. Lelong, Secretary and Mrs. Dr. Edson, Surgeon. The club gave its first party last Friday evening...

The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California, Wed, Apr 8, 1896, Page 7

Mrs. Viola Rice and Mrs. Minie Le Long of the Falcon Bicycle Club are on a trip to Santa Cruz..

The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, Sun, Jul 19, 1896, Page 12

Pages which link here:

• Ida F. Wells ‎ (← links)
• Frances Viola Wells ‎ (← links)
• Margaret Le Long ‎ (← links)

A banquet was given last Saturday evening by the Falcon Bicycle Club at their club rooms on the ocean boulevard in honor of Mrs. Robert Fitzgerald, the President of the club. It was long past midnight when the merry party dispersed.

The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California, Wed, Jul 29, 1896, Page 7

These people were funny, and they had fun:

A most delightful banquet was given last Saturday evening by the Falcon Bicycle Club at their clubrooms on the Ocean boulevard in honor of Mrs. Robert Fitzgerald, the popular and charming president of the club. It was long past midnight when the merry party dispersed and all voted it a thoroughly delightful affair. The following was the very unique menu:

MENU.

Soups - Whalebone, Lampwick, Corncob and Lozenges.
Fish - Carp, Octopus, Catfish and Cartridges.
Game - Pedro, Oldmaid, Smut and Cribbage.
Entrees - Brown Beans, Baked Beans, Barnacles, Spider-toes, Froglegs and Frangipanni.
Vegetables - Bunions, Soft Corns and Halpruner.
Relishes and Booze - Mother-in-law Fried, Roast and Deviled; Icecream, Doorjamb, Coldslau and Vaseline, Sponge Pies and Leather Pies, with or without Buckles: Cream Coffee, Chocolate and a la Arthur; Cafe au Lait, Rouge et Noir and Penucle: Good-night Kiss and Dream of Grand mother.

The San Francisco Call and Post, San Francisco, California, Sun, Aug 2, 1896, Page 20

The ladies of the Falcon Bicycle Club gave a very enjoyable banquet last Thursday evening in honor of their captain, Mrs. William A. Leonard. The clubhouse and grounds on the Ocean Boulevard were beautifully decorated and illuminated with Japanese lanterns.

The guests were: C. E. Miller, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Leonard, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Rice, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Fitzgerald, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Watts, Judge Frank G. Toenis, Mr. and Mrs. Douglass White, Miss Edythe J. Moss, T. K. Bickford, Arthur R. Bickoff, Mr. and Mrs. George Crum, Mrs. Lena Marburg, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Orpin, Mr. and Mrs. C. Rhodes, Dr. and Mrs. Edson, Albert E. Rice and James Gruffe.

San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California, Sun, Aug 23, 1896, Page 33

The first one is the wayside Inn of the Falcon Club - a company of bicyclists composed of seven married ladies. The windows are curtained with blue and white denim in delft designs. Inside the long seats are upholstered and covered with Japanese matting with a valence of blue and white cloth, like your grandmother's bed. There are pictures of the sea and of the wheel between each window, blue and white matting on the floor, lamps fixed to the walls and a little porch with a sea view in front.

At the back is a kitchen, with a lean-to for a wheelhouse. In the kitchen are three coal oil stoves, sufficient to boll and brew and bake for twenty-five. Turkeys have been roasted there, and the savory smells, blown to Colonel Dailey's parrot, plunges that emotional bird into thoughts too deep for tears.

Every Sunday morning the club and the seven husbands appertaining thereto breakfast in "Our Car." Last week they gave a whist party there, and last Thursday a New England dinner was preparing in the kitchen. For menu there was the good old boiled dish, succotash, a delicious salad and a dessert of apple pie, sharp cheese and black coffee.

The car is admirably adapted for entertaining. There is not much room down the sides, but there is a front door and a back door, and you can reach anything by a little run around the house.

Sometimes the club women, after a run, take siestas on the soft, long seats. Sometimes they use the car for a bathing machine, and, choosing a moment when the beach is deserted, watch their chance for a delightful wade.

Quaint Village of Condemned Street Railway Cars on the Ocean Beach. - San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, California · Sunday, October 04, 1896

There were bicycle enthusiasts in those days, the bike serving as the auto now does as the means for pleasurable transportation, women being much interested in bicycle riding. They had their bicycle clubs, and weekly runs. They must have a clubhouse, and so it was.

The chief shrine of these many devotees of the bicycle was an old street car from the discarded stock of the old North Beach and Mission road. This car had been placed as an "improvement," one of those legal fictions beloved for the services they perform in holding occupancy of the premises when clients go to war and lawyers wrangle over disputed titles. After serving its purpose this car was obtained and the right secured from former Mayor Sutro, in 1895, for the "Falcon Bicycle Club," formed by the women enthusiasts, to establish a home at Oceanside. This club was officered as follows; Mrs. Ida Fitzgerald, president, Mrs. William Leonard, secretary, Mrs. Viola Rice, treasurer, Mrs. Dr. Edson, vice president with Mrs. William Miller and Mrs. F. Lisinski of the Mission, Mrs. Gilman, mother of Mabel Gilman, now Mrs. Corey, wife of the Steel King manufacturer, and Mesdames Cox, Le Long, Rice, Orpin and Sutton as active and enthusiastic members.

The club sprang at once into such prominence that it became necessary to restrict its membership; a second car was secured and added to the first, so that the accommodations could meet the demands of the increased membership. These cars were modeled and furnished in a manner so unique and attractive that it may well he doubted if any other feature of this City's life at that time gave rise to wider comment and publicity.

They were wrought into queer-shaped rooms, nooks and alcoves connected by a curiously constructed veinous system of entrances and exits, fitted with lockers and every convenience imaginable. The dining-room was so arranged as to comfortably seat at one time twenty-eight persons, the table so built as to be swung to the ceiling when not in use, the whole of the car being surrounded by a sheltered porch, upon which has been held many a notable gathering of famous people.

Each "week-end" found gathered here a merry convocation of the fairest of San Francisco's brilliant women, to which was added a large number of the leading professional men, artists, writers and travelers, many of whom were and many of whom have since become famous the world over in their various lines of activities.

Burn the Car Out of "Carville" - San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, California · Sunday, July 06, 1913