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HOW & WHEN ROTARY STARTED

Since we have a few new prospective members, and some other members that may not be familiar with the story…. I want to go over the beginnings of our organization.

The beginning was Feb 23, 1905 almost exactly 109 years ago. Our founder Paul Harris, a lawyer, met for dinner with his friend Silvester Shiele. After dinner, they walked to Room 711 of the Unity Building, in Chicago, where they met 2 others. The office belonged to Gus Loehr.

Harris proposed that they form a club. No name was proposed, at that time.

The second meeting was March 9^th when a few others joined them. One of them, a printer, created the name badge. As you see, we hold on to these traditions.

Soon after that the tradition of singing started. The club initially met erratically and a different places. Eventually they came upon the name ROTARY as they were rotating among the early members offices.

However, that first location ROOM 711 is still revered.

As I noted it was in the Unity building  which was constructed in 1892 and had 17 floors.

In honor of that first club, Rotarians have preserved the original meeting place. For many years, the Chicago Rotary club maintained the room.  

 In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators.

In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 on the 16th floor of RI World Headquarters in  Evanston, Ill

If you visit RI Headquarters, you can see the original meeting place.

This Club started on May 23,1923 so we recently had our 90^th anniversary. I’ve got some copies of our booklet to honor that date.

Gus, one of the original group,  only attended three meetings. His business was erratic and demanded his full time attention. He died soon after that while running to catch a train