A History of Maysville's Rotary Park

It is one of Maysville's oldest civic organizations dating back to its founding in 1923.

The Maysville Rotary Club was founded 18 years after the founding of Rotary Club in Chicago, Ill., in February 1905 by Paul P. Harris.

Today, the Maysville organization has a membership of 57, which includes men and women, one of the highest member numbers in the Kentucky Rotary District 6740.

One interesting fact about the club's history is there have been six pairs of men, either father and son or grandfather and grandson, who have served as club president: F.L Hendrickson and Doug Hendrickson; John H. Clarke and Thomas R. Clarke; Eugene Royse and Robert Zweigart; Clyde Barbour and Kenneth Barbour; Dr. Mitchell Denham and Mallory Denham; and Bill Stewart and Xandy Stewart.

The club's first, and so far only female president has been Barbara Campbell serving in 2011.

According to an outline of those who have served as Rotary president compiled by the late John H. Clarke in March 2000, when he became a member, the club used to meet "each Tuesday evening on the second floor of Traxel's Restaurant." Clarke recalled "during the period of my membership...we used to change eating places every two or three years." The club moved from Traxel's Restaurant to the New Central Hotel, then after the hotel dining room closed, the club moved to a restaurant on West Second Street "two or three doors from the McEuen Building." After several years, the club moved to the Harbeson on Forest Avenue. Following Mrs. Harbeson's death (the year isn't noted) her cook continued to serve the Rotary Club "for a time.

In 1967, the need to move from restaurant to restaurant changed when the Maysville Rotary Club built its clubhouse at Bridge and Second streets.

The clubhouse is situated on the property that makes up Rotary Park. For many of us, the history of that particular tract of land may not be known simply because we are too young. Or maybe we just never heard the story of how the park came to be.

The following is an account of Rotary Park, provided by member Harry Mann. The author of the document is unknown, but by the age of the paper it is printed upon, and the font of the letters created with a typewriter, one knows it was written around 1967 at a very important and proud moment in the club's history.

"At the turn of the 20th century a tract of waste lying in the City of Maysville, Kentucky, between Bridge Street and Limestone Creek was known as the "City Dump" because it was literally the City Dump. For many years before that time and many years after that time it was the dumping place for all debris, garbage and refuse from the citizenry of Maysville and a favorite spot for the riflemen who gathered at this site to practice their marksmanship by shooting rats which infested the area. This dumping continued until the middle of the century when the smoke and smell became so obnoxious that dumping there was prohibited and moved to another area where it was more properly handled, but in the meantime the area between Bridge Street and Limestone Creek had filled up roughly and showed possibilities of development.

See the article here:
A History of Maysville's Rotary Park