The following article is a reprinted from the 75th anniversary booklet of the Faribault Rotary Club in 1995 and covers the early years of our club starting in 1920. Part II will be in next weeks bulletin.
Murray Hanson
FARIBOTARIAN
By: Lyle Schreiber
Woodrow Wilson was president; the 18th Amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court; three Negroes were lynched in Duluth; the Faribault National Guard was sent to Duluth to control the rioting; Fourth Street west of Second Avenue was paved; lots in Southern Heights were selling for a dollar down and a dollar a week; the high school graduating class numbered 93. This was 1920.
On Thursday April 29, 1920 E.B. Johnson of Minneapolis, representing the district governor, met with 22 charter members of the Faribault Rotary Club. The charter was dated May 1, 1920. By the end of the first year, the membership had reached 35 and 21 members were added in the second year.
The first meetings were held at the episcopal Guild House. Mrs. Anna Kahn was the cook-hostess. Her lunches established a tradition of good food for the club. In 1926, the club moved its meeting place to the ELKS Club with the provision that the price of the lunch would not be more than sixty cents. In 1929, with the completion of the Harvey Hotel (Hotel Faribault) the club moves there for its meetings. Evidently the sixty cent limit still prevailed as, in 1933, the hotel was informed the cost must be reduced to fifty cents or the club would leave. The answer must have been negative, as in 1934 the meeting place was moved to the Blue Bird Inn located on Highway 3, about the present location of Larson Electric, Inc.
Mrs. C. N. Crossett and the Inn were famous for fine food. Some Rotarians made a point of arriving at the meetings early for chicken giblets and other appetizers. The club moved back to the hotel and continued to meet there until 1969 when it moved to the Evergreen Knoll. The food was good, but the space was too small, so the Country Club was tried. Again, the space arrangement was not satisfactory and it was decided to move to the Lavender Inn.