Over the following months
The inauguration festivities took place on January 25, 1913, Saturday, with a banquet of six courses, two desserts, cheese and fruit. The person in charge of the gastronomic section was Monsieur Caverivière. The celebrations continued on Monday, January 27, and Friday, January 31, with a dance and a concert respectively. On Thursday, January 30, the General Meeting of the Bilbaina Society was held, as was customary in the entity.
In 1913 the population of the town already amounted to 95,609 inhabitants and the municipal budget was 10 million pesetas. Athletic Club inaugurated its new San Mamés field in August, and Sociedad Bilbaina contributed to it.
The following year, the Bilbaina Society exceeded the figure of 1,000 members. The Great War, the bloodiest event of the century, brought more benefits than harm to the Bilbao Society due to Spanish neutrality.
The buoyant general economic situation allowed the Bilbaina Society to open a roulette gaming room with great success in 1918, which, while it survived, contributed strong profits to the entity's coffers.
The managers of the Bilbaina Society, led by Mr. Vicente Eulate, had the great success of investing the profits in cultural and charitable activities. This situation and the appointment as librarian of Mr. Álvaro Cortázar, an extremely cultured man and lover of books, caused the roulette profits to be transformed into some of the bibliographic treasures that the Bilbao entity possesses today. Among them, several incunabula, Bilbao princely editions and some masterpieces of 18th century cartography. In 1920 the library reached 14,616 volumes, with nearly 10,000 titles. In that year, the Bilbaina Society's workforce was 117 employees.
The euphoria, however, was short-lived. Thus, the 1921 Report gives a first warning when speaking of “these years of narrowness and sobriety.” The economic crisis reduced income and forced the workforce to be reduced, for the first time, by 16 employees.
In 1913, the Dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera was established in Spain, which would last until 1930. The decline in the number of members began, which would persist throughout that decade and the next.
The prohibition of gambling halls by decree of the Dictatorship in 1924 was a new blow to the economy of the Bilbao club.
The year 1931 is marked by the fall of the Spanish monarchy and the advent of the Second Republic. A period of social and political instability begins that leads to the Civil War (1936-1939).
The Bilbao Society was affected by the war situation at the time. Bilbao and its province were in the area that remained faithful to the constitutional government. The local representatives of the republic, whose government had a left-wing majority, viewed the entity with suspicion.
Only two days had passed (July 20, 1936) when it was ordered to cordon off the block of Station Street, place a machine gun in front of the club's gate and enter it to search all the premises and identify those present.
The building was seized and the Civil Government was installed there (from August 7 to September 12, 1936); the CNT (from September 26 to October 28, 1936); the Ministry of the Interior of the first Government of Euskadi (from October 28, 1936 to June 17, 1937); and finally the FET de las JONS (from June to July 1937).
Of all those occupants, the Bilbaina Society only received damage. Little by little each tenant began to give a good account of the cellar and the pantry. A group of militiamen, under whose custody the building was commissioned by the Government of Euskadi, looted the premises at will during the two days prior to their withdrawal. Furthermore, according to Basas, “the euphoric liberators of the town entered the premises of the Bilbao Society, committing plunder and causing destruction.”
The Report of the outgoing board, chaired by Mr. Luis Arana, refers to the “losses, thefts and damages suffered” and details the disappearance of the tableware, glassware, bedding and dining room linens, and dining room tables. , the furniture of the president's office and many other parts of his furniture and belongings.
Due to the intelligent and daring actions of the partner and architect, Mr. Tomás Bilbao, the club's library was completely saved (perhaps because of this, or perhaps because the looters were not literate people?).
On November 14, 1937, once normality had been restored, the Bilbaina Society opened its doors again. Only half of its employees remained and the partners were less than 900.
In this very precarious situation, the entity began to address the celebration of its centenary, which was in 1939. The program of events could not have been more discreet: on October 14, a mass was celebrated in San Nicolás, a tombstone was placed and D Sánchez Mazas offered a conference. The next day, a party was held, attended by about 600 people, without any report of it in the press.
In 1939 Bilbao already had 207,526 inhabitants and the City Council's budget amounted to 24 million pesetas.
Below is a summary of some of the internal events of interest that took place over the 26 years since the inauguration of the new headquarters.
