A comprehensive article on the history and restoration of the "Rotary House" at 10856 S. Longwood Drive will be in this week's annual "Good News" supplement to the Beverly Review. Watch for it tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug. 12) on-line and Wednesday (Aug. 13) in print when the newspaper comes out. The story will also be more detailed eventually on the RHS website, which is undergoing a major overhaul.
This house was the home of the founder of Rotary International, Paul Harris, and his wife Jean, from 1912 until Paul's death in 1947. Paul and Jean Harris may well be the most historically significant people from a global perspective to ever call the Ridge home.
Harris founded Rotary in 1905 when he got together with three friends for friendship and business interests. They named their club "Rotary" because the meeting locations rotated among the members.
Today Rotary International has over 1.2 million members in over 200 countries. It is the world's first recognized service club.
The mission and values of Rotary stem from the inspirational vision of Paul Harris and much of the Rotary planning went on at the Longwood Drive house. The house is a very important part of both Rotary and Ridge history.
The house was built in 1905 for Luther S. Dickey, Jr., a grain merchant and prominent Morgan Park citizen. The architect was George Bannister, from Beverly. The accurate name of the house would be the Dickey-Harris House, but it is popularly known as the Rotary House or as the Harris Home, as the Rotary calls it. The original address was 10810 Longwood Drive but this changed to 10856 when Morgan Park annexed to Chicago in 1914.
Paul Harris fell in love with the Ridge when he came here to hike with the Prairie Club. He married Jean in 1910 and they bought the house in 1912 and called it "Comely Bank." They entertained thousands of guests from around the world at that house. The house became a place of pilgrimage for Rotary members.
Around the corner at 2028 W. 110th Street lived another Rotary founder, Silvester Schiele. A path was worn between their back doors. Upon their deaths in the 1940s, Harris and Schiele were both buried at the Rotary grave site in Mt. Hope Cemetery on 115th Street.
Rotary International formed the Paul and Jean Harris Home Foundation to buy the house in 2005. They have been raising funds to restore it. Two years ago they started the restoration and hope to finish this year.
The house is being restored to its 1940s status as a museum. A new meeting facility has been added to the back of the house. The grounds will be restored next.
The Ridge owes a big thank you to Rotary for preserving this historically important property. It is expected the house will be open for the Chicago Architecture Foundation's Open House Chicago on Oct. 19-20.