Paul & Jean Harris Home

10/01/2026

Great to have our California Rotarians visit, bringing ideal weather!

08/12/2026

Nice coverage of recent cleanup work done by local Rotarians and Interactors at the Paul & Jean Harris Home.

07/25/2026

Do you know? Early on, Paul Harris realized that Rotary needed a greater purpose. While Harris served as President of the Chicago Rotary Club in 1907, the club initiated its first public service project, the construction of public toilets in Chicago. This step transformed Rotary into the world’s first Service Club. The club calls a meeting of civic organizations to establish a committee for installing city comfort stations, or public toilets, to improve sanitation.

It was this same concept of promoting business which led to the first community service project of the original Chicago Rotary Club. In their effort to promote more business, the members decided to construct these toilets because of the great need.

Over a 100 years has passed since that initial installation and you can still see on my below picture that I took in 2017 the faint outline on the side of the building of where the comfort station once stood.

07/22/2026

On a visit to Rotary Headquarters in Evanston, we saw an exhibition of the guest book that Paul and Jean had at the Home while they lived there. Visitors from around the world visited Paul and Jean from 1912-1947, and they would sign and leave a note to their hosts. So cool to see a piece of the Home preserved and shared this way.
Rotary International

06/30/2026

Danke to Sabine Meinert, Rotary Magazin for Germany and Austria, on her article sharing her visit to the Paul and Jean Harris Home.

Rotary is truly International!

Der Name Paul Harris ist jedem Rotarier geläufig. Dass er aus Chicago kam auch, aber wie lebte der Mann mit der zündenden Idee für die Rotary Clubs?

06/27/2026

06/19/2026

06/14/2026

If you are in Taipei for the Rotary Convention this week, come visit us in Booth 839 in the House of Friendship.