By Brete Murphy · November 11, 2026
Advance built its Grand Avenue temple for its own work and other uses. Astoria and King David later met there, while consolidation brought additional institutional histories into Advance’s continuing line. Today, the building also accommodates Tadmor and Parthenon under the author’s account.
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Advance’s new temple opened with a week-long fair beginning on April 24, 1916.
The announced program assigned different evenings to Eastern Star participants, fraternities, Master Masons, neighborhood visitors and Knights Templar.[1]
The program is an early indication of the building’s intended reach.
Advance Lodge No. 635 had constructed a home for its own meetings, but the opening was organized around more than one institution.
The address was then 114 Grand Avenue.
It is now 21-14 30th Avenue in Astoria.
Advance’s institutional continuation, Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586, still meets there under the author’s present-day account.
Other occupants and users have changed.
Following those changes reveals a history that is related to—but different from—the account of how the building was designed and constructed.
A Building With Several Uses
Advance’s temple history describes decades in rented rooms before the new building.
Its final rented premises were on Fulton Avenue, now Astoria Boulevard.
The building project offered more than a dedicated lodge room.
Plans included a hall with a stage for gatherings and additional space intended for rental.[1]
That arrangement establishes an intention to accommodate several activities.
It does not, by itself, establish how much income the spaces generated or whether rentals explain the building’s later viability.
Those questions require accounts, leases and maintenance records.
The distinction is important to this connecting story.
A building could be planned for shared use without every occupant becoming part of the lodge that owned or managed it.
Advance’s later history supplies examples of both separate occupancy and institutional consolidation.
Read Advance’s Temple-Building Story →
A Room Plan From Woodhaven
The author’s summary of Advance’s records states that Arthur E. Wenige’s firm supplied lodge-room blueprints previously used for Hillside in Woodhaven.
That is a connection through professional work and a plan.
It does not establish that the complete buildings were identical or that every feature of the original rooms survives unchanged.[2]
Hillside’s later institutional line entered Springfield Gardens.
The plan therefore connects Advance’s building with another present Queens District lineage without placing Hillside itself inside Advance’s consolidation tree.
The finished temple was dedicated by Townsend Scudder under Grand Master Thomas C. Penny’s authority, according to the lodge history.
The supplied transcription gives November 14, 1916, but that passage requires checking against contemporary coverage.[1]
The fair, the beginning of use and the dedication should remain separate stages.
Read The Engineer’s Room: Hillside, Advance and Tadmor →
Read Townsend Scudder’s Dedication Sidebar →
Astoria Begins in Advance’s Building
On June 27, 1919, Astoria’s proposed lodge held its first regular meeting under dispensation in the temple.
Edward J. Smith presented the authorization.[3]
Anchor-Astoria’s later history describes thirteen Masons agreeing to organize the new institution after leaving an unnamed “mother lodge.”
Several connections point toward Advance.
The meeting place is established.
James Prowse Sr., one of the organizers, had donated Advance’s cornerstone.
His son was an Advance member who dimitted in 1920 to become an Astoria charter member.
The affiliation of all thirteen founders still needs checking.
The building’s role is clearer than the complete membership history.
It supplied a place where a separate lodge could begin its work.
That does not establish rivalry, a dispute or a formal parent-and-daughter relationship.
Read A New Lodge in Advance’s Temple: Astoria’s Thirteen Founders →
King David Adds Another Institution
King David Lodge No. 994 received its charter on May 3, 1922.
Its early meeting-place references also identify Advance’s building, sometimes described as the Astoria Masonic Temple.[4]
The author’s research records Advance’s approval of that use.
It does not establish that King David’s founders had all belonged to Advance.
Nor does sharing the temple mean Astoria, King David and Advance became one institution.
They retained separate names, officers and lodge work.
The shared address is nevertheless significant.
Within several years of opening, the temple accommodated more than the institution that built it.
A March 1926 reception for the district deputy illustrates the limits as well as the usefulness of the space.
The author’s building research describes an attendance exceeding five hundred and a move to Moose Hall on Broadway.[1]
The reported number remains a contemporary estimate.
The episode shows that even an established temple could require another hall for a particular occasion.
Two Departures, Unsettled Dates
Astoria’s history describes financial and membership difficulties during the years 1930–1937 and records a move to Castle Hall on 31st Avenue.
Its precise departure date from Advance’s temple remains unresolved.[3]
King David’s chronology is more closely bracketed.
A January 1933 reference still places it at Grand Avenue.
An October 1934 notice announced its first meeting in new quarters at Castle Hall for October 29.[4]
The notice establishes the announced transition.
A subsequent report or minutes would provide stronger confirmation of the first completed meeting there.
Both lodges therefore connect Advance’s temple with Castle Hall.
Their exact period of overlapping occupancy at the latter building still needs to be established.
The departures occurred during the Depression.
That timing should not become a complete explanation of either decision without the relevant records.
The loss of two occupants also does not establish that Advance’s building became empty.
Other uses continued.
The Neighborhood’s Hall
The supplied mid-century references place several bodies and events in the temple.
They include an Astoria Property Owners Association meeting in January 1955, a Queens Masonic War Veterans Post election in 1961 and Eastern Star dinners and card parties in later decades.[1]
Each notice establishes a particular use.
It does not necessarily establish regular tenancy, a continuing lease or responsibility for the whole building.
Together, the references show why a lodge-room history needs more than a list of lodges.
A temple could accommodate civic organizations, social events and affiliated bodies without those users entering its institutional lineage.
The record between the 1930s and the 1993 consolidation remains incomplete.
It is better described as a period requiring further research than as an interval when the building stood waiting to be filled again.
Consolidations Bring Histories Together
In 1993, Advance consolidated with Island City Mizpah.
That body already combined the histories of Island City in Hunters Point and Mizpah in Newtown and Elmhurst.
Service City Geba joined the combined line in 2018.
The resulting present institution is Advance Service Mizpah No. 586.[5]
These changes account for six constituent lodge histories:
- Advance.
- Island City.
- Mizpah.
- City.
- Service.
- Geba.
They do not mean six separate active lodges now meet under one name.
They also do not establish the first physical arrival of every incoming group.
Island City Mizpah’s occupancy may have begun before, at or after the formal consolidation.
That question requires meeting notices, minutes or rental records.
The consolidation chronology explains institutional continuity.
It cannot substitute for an occupancy chronology.
Read Advance Service Mizpah: Three Kinds of Queens →
Tadmor and Parthenon
The author’s November 2026 account places Tadmor Lodge No. 923 and Parthenon Lodge No. 1101 in the building alongside Advance Service Mizpah.[2][6]
Tadmor’s first arrival remains unresolved.
A June 2011 report placed it in an American Legion hall in Forest Hills, while the later account recalls a longer association with Advance’s temple.
The references need to be reconciled.
They may describe a sequence, an overlap or an imprecise recollection, but the supplied material does not establish which.
Parthenon’s arrival date and institutional history also require further documentation.
Its presence should not be omitted simply because it falls outside the seven-lodge constituent count used in this series.
The current occupant list and the seven Queens District lineages are different frames.
Read Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms →
A Dated View of Renovation
A January 27, 2023 Give Me Astoria article by Barry Ward described work on the temple.
The supplied summary mentions repainted entrance ornament, new wooden doors and a black-and-white tiled entrance floor.[7]
That is a dated account of improvements.
It does not establish that the same work remains underway in November 2026.
The author’s building research also records event rentals and participation in Open House New York.
The dates and current terms of those activities should be checked before presenting them as an invitation to visit or hire the premises.
The point for this story is historical use: the building has accommodated activities beyond ordinary lodge meetings.
A Working Occupancy and Lineage Table
| Lodge or institutional body | Documented relationship with the building | Later continuation or present status |
|---|---|---|
| Advance No. 635 | Temple opened in 1916 | Continues within Advance Service Mizpah No. 586 |
| Astoria No. 963 | First regular meeting under dispensation in 1919; later moved to Castle Hall | Continues within Anchor-Astoria No. 729 |
| King David No. 994 | Early use from the 1920s; Grand Avenue reference in 1933; Castle Hall move announced in 1934 | Continues within Harmony No. 241 |
| Island City Mizpah | Consolidated with Advance in 1993; first occupancy date unresolved | Constituent branch of Advance Service Mizpah |
| Service City Geba | Joined the combined line in 2018 | Constituent branch of Advance Service Mizpah |
| Tadmor No. 923 | Present use confirmed by the author; arrival date unresolved | Separate continuing lodge |
| Parthenon No. 1101 | Present use reported by the author; arrival date unresolved | Separate lodge in the supplied account |
This is a working table, not a complete tenant register.
It distinguishes formal consolidation from separate occupancy.
A Companion to the Ridgewood Temple
Tadmor’s Summerfield Street temple supplies a useful comparison.
It hosted constitutions for institutions that later entered Harmony, Springfield Gardens and Anchor-Astoria.
Advance’s building hosted Astoria and King David, while later accommodating Tadmor itself.
The two buildings connected several histories in different ways.
Hosting a constitution was not the same as regular tenancy.
Regular tenancy was not the same as consolidation.
Neither should be described as a temple “launching” a lodge without evidence of the organizing role.
The comparison is strongest when those differences remain visible.
Read One Hall in Ridgewood: Tadmor Temple and Four Queens Lodge Lineages →
The Address and the Institutions
The temple’s history reaches into four of the seven present lodge lineages through documented use or institutional continuation:
Advance Service Mizpah, Anchor-Astoria, Harmony and Tadmor.
Hillside’s room-plan connection adds a different relationship with Springfield Gardens.
Those are not five present occupants.
They are five ways the building intersects with the wider series.
The address has remained recognizable while the institutional arrangements have changed.
Some lodges left.
Some constituent histories arrived through consolidation.
Other lodges continued separately in shared premises.
That is the building’s contribution to the connecting stories.
It preserves more than the history of its original occupant.
It provides a setting in which separate histories could meet without always becoming one.
Endnotes
1. Opening, Building Uses and Mid-Century Activity
The author’s Advance Masonic Temple article and underlying sources, including:
- The History of Advance Lodge No. 635.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, July 22 and December 4, 1914.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, April 21, 22 and 25, 1916.
- Brooklyn Eagle, November 28, 1914.
- Brooklyn Eagle, November 21, 1915.
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 25, 1916.
- Times Union, March 11, 1923, and October 18, 1936.
- Daily News notices, 1955–1988.
The opening fair, occupancy and dedication are treated as separate stages.
The dedication date in the supplied transcription requires contemporary corroboration.
Event notices do not automatically establish regular tenancy.
2. The Room Plan and Present Occupants
Records of Advance Lodge No. 635, as examined and summarized by Brete Murphy.
See The Engineer’s Room.
The shared-blueprint account concerns the lodge room, not identical complete buildings.
Current use by Tadmor and Parthenon follows the author’s account.
3. Astoria Lodge
Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729, “History,” approximately 1998, as transcribed in the author’s research packet.
Supports the June 27, 1919 first regular meeting and the later Castle Hall reference.
The unnamed mother lodge and the affiliation of all thirteen founders remain unresolved.
See:
4. King David
The author’s King David article and Grand Lodge compilation.
Times Union, January 8, 1933, and October 28, 1934.
The October notice announces the October 29 meeting in new quarters.
The announced date is distinguished from a retrospective account of the completed event.
5. Consolidation History
Grand Lodge of New York records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
The author’s Advance Service Mizpah merger history and revised series capstone.
The supplied manuscript dates the 2018 consolidation to January 31; the precise effective date should follow the controlling record.
Constituent lodge histories are not described as separate active warrants within the present body.
6. Tadmor’s Arrival
Brete Murphy, November 2026 account.
The Tadmor lodge listing cited in the author’s research.
Daily News, June 28, 2011, for the Forest Hills American Legion reference discussed elsewhere in the series.
The arrival date remains unresolved pending reconciliation.
7. Renovation Coverage
Barry Ward, “Astoria’s Advance Masonic Temple Takes Old Building to Next Level,” Give Me Astoria, January 27, 2023.
The renovation description is attributed to that dated report.
It is not presented as a verified November 2026 construction status.
8. Scope and Remaining Gaps
This article follows institutional use rather than supplying a complete property or tenant history.
It does not establish uninterrupted ownership by one unchanged legal entity.
It does not establish that departures emptied the building or that consolidations immediately increased its physical occupancy.
Direct clipping and article URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- When did Tadmor first meet at Advance’s temple?
- How does that date relate to the 2011 Forest Hills reference?
- When did Astoria move to Castle Hall?
- When did King David hold its first completed meeting there?
- When did Parthenon begin using the building?
- What is Parthenon’s institutional history?
- Which other bodies regularly met in the temple between the 1930s and 1993?
- Did Island City Mizpah use the building before consolidation?
- What do leases, accounts and minutes establish about shared occupancy?
- What do deeds and organizational records establish about legal ownership?
- Can contemporary coverage confirm the November 1916 dedication date?
Follow the Building’s Connections
- Advance Service Mizpah: Three Kinds of Queens
- Astoria’s Thirteen Founders
- Anchor-Astoria: Across Queens to College Point
- Harmony: The King David Line
- Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms
- Springfield Gardens: The Hillside Line
Continue Through the Connecting Stories
- The Engineer’s Room
- The Two James Prowses
- Rhinow and Scudder: Companion Sidebars
- One Hall in Ridgewood: Tadmor Temple
- Where the Lines Meet: The College Point Temple
- Connecting Stories: Complete Guide
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