Centennial Minute's by Bob Weir
Rotary Club 13 was organized May 15, 1910 and will be celebrating its Centennial through the calendar year 2010. Club 13 has a rich and long tradition of community leadership and service as well as outreach into Rotary International projects and in order to recognize the many people, events and projects, the Centennial Celebration will be a series of activities throughout the year.
An Early Crisis
An early crisis to Rotary in Kansas City had to be met by Club 13’s second president, Russell Greiner. The founding principle of Rotary was friendship and doing business with each other. This was stressed to the point that the club’s secretary reported each week how much business had taken place among members. The concept of only one member from each business classification and the reciprocity of trade among members upset the local chapter of the American Institute Architects. They had their members post notices that Rotarians could not bid on projects they were handling. They took their grievance to the Commercial Club, the predecessor of the Chamber of Commerce, with the idea, as President Greiner reported, “of putting us off the map”.
After conferring with Rotarians that had an interest in the conflict, he defended Rotary before the Commercial Club and according to him “The defense worked out practically and never thereafter was the Rotary Club of Kansas City subjected to attack”.
Ladies’ Night Dinner
From the very first year of Kansas City Rotary Club, there was a concern for the ladies (not enough for membership, but still a concern.)
The big event of the year was the Ladies’ Night Dinner.
The notice in the Buzz Saw stated that if was only for Rotarians and their wives and presumed that no one had more than one wife; the wife doesn’t include the daughter. Unmarried members are entitled to one lady friend. If wife is unable to attend, she may send a trusty friend with you. In any event, not more than one lady per member.
It was a dress-up affair, held at the Baltimore Hotel where Club 13 had its noon luncheons, and the main event besides the entertaining program was each member company was encouraged to donate a gift for the lady guests. Considering the businesses in the 1916s, some of the gifts were “very interesting” such as: A new 1916 dime for each year of lady’s age from Wright Investment Co. Frank Jahr, dentist – gold crown, value $15.00; A farm wagon from John Deere Row Co.; some good advice from J.A. Folger Co.; one box of “big hang up” matches from Pitkin-Comer Co. and the C.R. Cook Paint Co. gave a Co-Pa-Co putty knife to each lady present. And the Kendig Brokerage Co. got authorization from the Kellogg Food Company to give every lady present that evening a 25 cent package of Kelloggs cooked bran.
The Hab Hounds
1910, the first year of the Kansas City Rotary Club, was a year of fantastic growth from the meeting of four men in April, who by the way, elected themselves President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. The club grew to over 100 members by the end of the year. (I think this calculates to 250 % growth?) Maybe dues of ONLY $4 per year contributed to this growth. Anyhow, the club quickly outgrew the Elks Club and several other locations before settling at the Baltimore Hotel, even though lunch was going to cost 75 cents. Several older members expressed doubt that most would not stand for the more expensive meal (it was only 50 cents at the previous locations) but the exact opposite effect was apparent. New interest was aroused. The men liked to go to The Baltimore, as many had not before had much occasion to do so. This move helped bring the club into a position of prominence in Kansas City and it was the location for the club’s lunches and special evening meetings until 1927.
One of the places tried for meetings, prior to The Baltimore was in the basement of the Sexton Hotel. The only access to the room was thru the bar. Several members complained of this as undignified for the prestige of the club. Some traits seem to be inborn –
During the 1980’s when the Muehlebach was our home before moves to the Kansas City Club and Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, there was an interesting bar right inside the Baltimore Street entrance called “The Haberdashery”. It was named in reference to the clothing store that Harry Truman ran before entering politics. Anyhow, this was a favorite stopping place for a group of members prior to going upstairs for the weekly luncheon, sometimes entering in a slightly disruptive manner. Evidently there was still some club resentment about entering thru a bar, and this group was designated in the Buzz Saw as “The Hab Hounds.” My guess is they were bowlers.
