George Washington Carver Community Center grew from the work of black women committed to the motto "lifting as we climb." The Colored Women's Aid Club, part of a broad network of women active in social reform and social welfare statewide and nationally, was founded in 1899 in Peoria to provide "charity in aid of colored people." On October 9, 1922, the club opened the Negro Community Center in a house at 108 S. Globe, then moved it by 1937 to a larger house at 1010 Sanford. Through a community-wide effort, it officially became George Washington Community Center and opened on this site in 1944. It thrived in the heart of a growing black neighborhood of people who had left the South searching for a better life, and though the neighborhood changed, Carver remained a significant landmark of their joys, struggles, and achievements. Its hallways were known to a comedy icon, civil rights leaders, Olympians, and local figures in education, sports, the arts, politics, business, medicine, and human rights. Generations have honored Carver as a beacon of hope and opportunity where little was available elsewhere, reflecting the collective work and responsibility of the women who laid the groundwork for a lasting community institution.