Elsie Allen, a former art instructor at Wellesley College, founded the Carmel Club of Arts and Crafts in 1905. After the 1906 earthquake the village filled with creative newcomers, and the club grew with them. In 1907 the Carmel Development Company gave it a first building on Casanova Street, and a clubhouse costing $2,500 on Monte Verde Street was finished that July.
The club held exhibitions, lessons, dances, plays and recitals. Mary Austin and George Sterling performed there, and Sinclair Lewis once acted as master of ceremonies at a fundraising market. By 1914 it had national recognition.
It also staged plays at the Forest Theater. By 1927 the Carmel Art Association had replaced it as the center of art in town.