Providing public toilets: Early Rotary service

By Rotary International

One of Rotary’s earliest service projects helped to bring public toilets to Chicago, the quickly growing industrial city in the Midwest of the United States where Rotary began in 1905. Club members didn’t construct the restrooms themselves, as they sometimes do today. But just as they do today, they worked with other local groups to raise awareness of the need for sanitation in this urban area and advocated to get the project funded.

These public toilets, then known as “comfort stations,” were typically underground structures at busy sites such as parks and public squares. Civic leaders and reformers in several American cities were noting a need for them, and Rotary members in Chicago were part of the movement.

Rotary founder Paul Harris and his fellow member Donald Carter worked with other club members and other organizations to make a plan to build public toilet facilities in the city and gather support for the initiative.

In October 1907, the Chicago Daily Tribune (now the Chicago Tribune) reported that the Rotary Club of Chicago had had plans drawn for public toilets in the downtown district known as the Loop. The club held a forum on the topic later that month, noting, “the topic is many-sided and can be treated to best advantage if we start with recognition of this fact and with due appreciation of its significance.” Representatives from the club, the city, and other local organizations spoke at the meeting. The discussion cited the need for Chicago to keep up with the latest practices in municipal improvements and considered who would pay for the project and what impact it might have on sanitary conditions and public health in the city.

Their efforts were noticed beyond Chicago. In December, Charities and the Commons, a weekly journal about social issues that was published in New York, reported on a study that found a lack of public comfort stations in Chicago.

The project faced opposition from the Chicago Association of Brewers and the Association of Department Stores on State Street, which represented businesses that had public toilets. In the social conventions of the time, men could use toilets in bars or their own places of business. Women’s access to sanitation facilities was more limited. Often the only toilets it was acceptable for them to use were in department stores, where they were expected to make purchases.

Chicago was building a new city hall at the time, and it was suggested that public toilets be constructed there. By March 1908, at least one location had been approved, and others were being considered. The City of Chicago and Cook County each allocated about US$20,000 for the project.

As the city hall building neared completion in January 1911, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported, “In the basement are public comfort stations for men and women, entered at the Washington and LaSalle street corner of the building.”

Paul Harris later recalled that additional public toilets were proposed but a lack of funding prevented the effort from expanding. Underground roads were also expected to be built in the future, and people thought that might require a different approach.

Today, the outline of one of the entrances can still be seen on the outside wall of city hall, along LaSalle Street. And Rotary members continue work to get clean water and sanitation to people in communities around the world.

— March 2025