Today, I have a guest post from Tom Packer, President-Elect Rotary Club of Raleigh – Downtown. Tom reached out to me, we chatted a bit, and I wanted to get this post up about the club that has been meeting regularly in downtown for years. Enjoy and do check them out! – Leo

It’s easy to miss while walking past the ABC studios and SONO on Fayetteville Street, but on the brick wall of their building is an historical plaque commemorating North Carolina’s oldest charitable civic organization, the Rotary Club of Raleigh, which was founded at the site in 1914.

This site originally was the Yarborough House Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 1928. Hudson Belk subsequently built a department store at the site which was converted to condominiums and the ground floor retail space in 2005.

Throughout this time, Raleigh’s Rotary Club has held its weekly meetings without fail at the Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel, then the Convention Center and in more recent years at the City Club atop the Wells Fargo Building. While this blog tends to highlight the buildings and structures, new and old, of downtown, sometimes it is nice to stop and reflect on what goes on inside these buildings, such as Rotary’s 117-year focus on serving our community.

Rotary’s first club president was Manly W. Tyree, pictured here in a 1915 photo and sporting a fashionable suit of the day.

Fast forward more than a century and Rotary’s 120+ members continue to live their motto of “Service Above Self” which includes the founding in 2014 of the Rotary Club of Raleigh Dental Clinic, which operates as Wake Smiles inside the Salvation Army Center of Hope on Capital Blvd.

The Rotary Club of Raleigh – Downtown has continued to work to support our community through the COVID pandemic, raising money to support such causes as StepUP Ministries, Solar Panels for Ugandan Schools, Southeast Raleigh YMCA, NC State Forestry Department Scholarship Fund, Salvation Army, Wake Smiles, MLK Food Distribution Day and the LeVelle Moton Park. Here are pictures of Rotarians recently out and working at LeVelle Moton Park and ringing bells for the Salvation Army’s red bucket.

If you are interested in making a difference by joining Downtown Raleigh’s Rotary Club or would like more information, contact them at raleighrotary@gmail.com or visit https://www.raleighrotary.org/ .

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