About Brete Murphy

BreteMurphy.com is the home of my writing on Queens history, New York City history, Freemasonry, symbolism, fraternal traditions, and the stories that connect people to place.

My work begins with a simple belief: places remember. Streets, buildings, institutions, and symbols all carry traces of the people who shaped them. Some histories remain visible in architecture and public memory. Others survive only in fragments — in records, overlooked sites, fading traditions, and stories that are too easily lost. This website is my effort to gather, interpret, and share those histories in a thoughtful and accessible way.

A major focus of this site is the history of Queens, with particular attention to its neighborhoods, landmarks, local institutions, and lesser-known narratives. Alongside that work, I write on the history of Freemasonry in Queens and New York City, including lodge history, notable members, Masonic buildings, symbolism, and education.

I am also developing separate areas of the site devoted to other fraternal and initiative orders of which I am a member, approached through historical, educational, and interpretive writing.

BreteMurphy.com is both an author website and a long-term research project. Over time, I intend to expand it beyond the blog to include books, booklets, historical tour guides, historical image collections, and interactive resources — including, eventually, an interactive map of Queens.

Whether you are here as a reader, researcher, student of fraternal history, lover of New York, or simply someone curious about overlooked stories, I hope this site offers something of value.

History is not only found in monuments and textbooks. It is also found in neighborhoods, meeting halls, symbols, archives, and memory. This site is dedicated to exploring those connections, one article at a time.