Elks Lodge 878
82-10 Queens Boulevard | also 51-03 Simonson Street | Elmhurst | built 1923
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1923
Nearly 300 cars parade down Queens Boulevard as the Elks lay their lodge's cornerstone
Lodge 878, founded in 1903, had met at the Lodge 828 building in Long Island City for 21 years and bought this corner lot in 1921 after members debated whether to build in Forest Hills or Elmhurst. To mark the cornerstone on October 6, 1923, and the lodge's twentieth anniversary, about 1,500 people rode in almost 300 automobiles from Long Island City to the site.
“…a parade of almost 300 automobiles carrying 1,500 people drove down Queens Boulevard from Long Island City to the Lodge 878 site.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1924
The $750,000 Elks lodge opens with a pool, six bowling alleys and 28 bedrooms
Built by the McIntee Construction Co. of Manhattan, the lodge cost $750,000 and opened on October 26, 1924. Few fraternal homes in the country were thought bigger or better equipped, with a pool and gym in its annex, six bowling alleys, a grille room, a barber shop, a main meeting room for 2,000 people and twenty-eight bedrooms. A bronze elk based on Eli Harvey's prototype stands on the terrace.
“The lodge, which cost $750,000, opened on October 26, 1924.”
- 1926
Architectural Forum praises the lodge's Maya-style design in a series on fraternal buildings
The Ballinger Company designed the lodge as an Italian Renaissance palazzo of granite, limestone and brick, with a lodge room themed on Maya or Aztec art. The building won the Queens Chamber of Commerce's building award for 1925, and in September 1926 Architectural Forum put its elk statue on the first page of a three-part series. The series credited Ballinger with a brilliant adaptation of the decorative style of the ancient Maya.
“…carried out, brilliantly and effectively, an adaptation of the highly decorative style of the ancient Maya builders of Central America.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
Membership reaches 6,600 as the lodge becomes a hub of Queens politics
By the 1960s Lodge 878 had 6,600 members, 26 staff and weekly meetings of 300 to 400 people, with Democrats and Republicans alike among the members. The New York Times wrote that anyone wanting a job in 1960s Queens went to the Elks. Each year the lodge ran a six-day Elks Bazaar that gave away as many as 24 new cars, and it also arranged members' funerals.
“By the 1960s, Lodge 878 had 6,600 members and 26 staff, with between 300 and 400 members attending the weekly meetings.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1995
Facing soaring taxes and shrinking ranks, the Elks put their lodge up for sale
The yearly property tax bill climbed to $86,000 by 1995, up from $35,000 in 1990, and the Elks put the Lodge 878 building on the market. Membership had fallen to about 900 and meeting attendance to 50. The car raffle had ended in 1985 when just one car was offered. Members remained mostly white and male as Elmhurst's Asian population overtook its white one, and the lodge began renting rooms for Chinese weddings and quinceañeras.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
The "It Ain't Seinfeld" wrestling supercard takes over the lodge
To earn money, the lodge rented its spaces to wrestling promoters, and Extreme Championship Wrestling ran shows in the lodge room. Among the wrestling events held there were the It Ain't Seinfeld supercard in 1998 and Ring of Honor's One Year Anniversary Show in 2003. Film and television productions rented the building too, but the Elks barely turned a profit.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Elks lodge building
At the April 2001 hearing, four people spoke for designation, including representatives of the building's owners, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and the Historic Districts Council, and Council Member John D. Sabini wrote in support. The commission designated the 1923-24 lodge on August 14, 2001, with a landmark site covering only the land under that building.
- 2001
The Elks sell the main building to New Life Fellowship Church and keep the annex
New Life Fellowship, a Korean Pentecostal church, had rented the mezzanine since 1995. Unable to pay a $60,000 tax bill, the Elks began talks with it in 2000 and asked to keep using the first floor rent-free for 99 years. The sale closed in 2001, when the lodge had 550 members; the Elks kept the annex, closed its pool and still meet there.
“…the Elks stipulated that they wished to keep occupying the building's first floor for 99 years without paying rent.”
Source: Wikipedia
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