The Thursday Afternoon Club was organized on October 11, 1894 as a literary club. A committee from The Thursday Club (Greenville, S.C.), organized in 1889, aided in the formation of the club. The purpose of the new club was for “mutual instruction and improvement by acquiring a more thorough acquaintance with general history and literature and topics of the day.”

The Thursday Afternoon Club joined other clubs in the Greenville area to federate as charter clubs of South Carolina Federated Women’s Club (SCFWC) in Seneca, SC, on June 16, 1898. SCFWC was admitted to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) on July 29, 1899.