A Little History of Your Rotary ClubWhen our Club was chartered in 1946, we met weekly at the Country Club of Coral Gables. It's where we always met until the Country Club was closed for business in 2008.
The first time our Club was displaced was back in 1966-67, due to a big remodeling, the meetings were held at the Holiday Inn for a few weeks and then at the "Beefster" Restaurant. When we returned to our regular quarters our meeting day was changed from Friday to Thursday to accommodate the Country Club.
The second time was after a disastrous fire on the 4th of July weekend, 1983. President Jack Powers came back to town from a fishing expedition to conduct his first weekly meeting and found himself without a meeting place. Meanwhile, an emergency team of Rotarians reacted immediately after the fire to locate a meeting place, the Danielson Gallery at The Biltmore Hotel. The Hotel wasn't even open yet, but there was an excellent French restaurant in that space called Le Biltmore. The operating team of Ann Teller and Rotarian Jean Sardo hosted us there for more than a year as the Country Club undertook restoration of our ballroom meeting space.
In 2002 the City gave a private company the management contract for the Country Club. Once again it was closed for a massive remodeling project. Club leaders scrambled to find a place that could handle our 180 member club. The hotels were too busy to dedicate their largest meeting space to us every week. The only viable location was just outside the Gables on S.W. 32nd Avenue, Renaissance at the Gables. We were at this location for 18 months before we again were restored to home ground.
So ... the Rotary Club of Coral Gables has spent 60 of the past 65 years meeting at the Country Club of Coral Gables. Who knows what the future may bring?
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