The Horatio and Ella Foss Mansion, completed in 1917, is one of Auburn's architectural grand dames, blending Georgian Revival and Spanish influences. Horatio Foss owned Dingley, Foss & Company, shoe manufacturers. Ella Foss willed the home to the Woman's Literary Union in 1941. Founded in 1892 when twenty-eight clubs joined together for the intellectual, cultural, and educational advancement of their members and the community, the Woman's Literary Union supported the settlement movement and advocated for education reform and public libraries. Like many women's organizations formed in the late 1800s, it provided women with political training and public influence decades before they gained the right to vote, and it remains active today.