History of our Club and Places to Visit in Our Community

The Rotary Club of Manhattan was chartered on 25 November 1966 and formally welcomed on 23 February 1967, Rotary's 62nd birthday with a gala banquet sponsored by our parent, the Rotary Club of New York, number 6 in Rotary history.


Many of our founding members where the New York and National leaders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. Our Club members had long fought many battles for civil rights and liberties. In fact, they were instumental in ending all discrimination including gender discrimination even within Rotary International. This is because even in the 1970's membership was only availlable only to men. In September 1970, our club decided to seek the removal of all gender restrictions from membership in Rotary International. In 1972, we submitted a proper and legal Proposal Enactment to change the Constitution and Bylaws of Rotary International to admit women into Rotary. We did so at each Council of Legislation until it passed in 1989. Finally, the Supreme Court ordered Rotary International to permit women to be permitted in the United States. As of July, 1989, women are important members in many Rotary club in the world. Hundreds of thousands of women worldwide are now Rotarians.


Places To Visit In Our Historic Community

• Grant's Tomb


• Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (Largest Gothic Cathedral in the U.S.) W. 110 St.


• L'Eglise de Norte Dame at 114th St. and Morningside Drive., with the grotto of Lourdes.


• Columbia University stretches to 120th St.


• Barnard College is across Broadway.


• Interchurch Center.


• The Riverside Church,


• Jewish and Union Theological Seminaries,


• The Manhattan School of Music.


• Sakura Park a statue of General Butterfield by Gutzon Borglum who designed Mt. Rushmore Memorial.


• Old Village of Nieuw Harlem, established in 1658.


• Morningside Park Preserves designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.


• St. Thomas the Apostle Church at 262 W. 119th St.


• The Watchtower in Mt. Morris Park.


• Victorian Row in Lenox Avenue between 120th and 121st Sts.


• St. Martin's Church at 230 Lenox Avenue,


• Theresa Towers at 2090 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.


• Salem Methodist Church at 129th St.


• St. Philip's Church at 134th St. which moved up from the notorious lower East Side in 1809.


• The Schaumburg Collection of black historical materials is at Countee Cullen Library, 104 West 135th St. It has the James Weldon Johnson Collection of children's books.


• The Abyssinian Baptist Church at 132 W. 138th St. has the largest Protestant congregation in the nation.


• Wyatt Tee Walker's Canaan Baptist Church


• Aunt Len's Doll House.


• Hamilton Heights


• City College of New York, 133rd St and Convent Ave;


• Hamilton Grange


• Historic shrine of Alexander Hamilton's home


• The Cloister's;


• The Little Red Lighthouse


• The Morris-Jumel Mansion , 160th St.