A guide to One Lodge, Six Charters, a series on Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586, its six predecessor lodges, and the neighborhoods, buildings, and people behind their history.
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Most neighborhoods keep a few buildings that were meant to look permanent. A bank. A church. A courthouse. This series is about a quieter kind, the lodge temple, put up by local men who wanted a room of their own and who, in one Long Island City case, put a bowling alley in the basement.
One Lodge, Six Charters follows the six New York lodges that became Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586. Between 1973 and 2018 they folded into each other in five consolidations. The resulting lodge meets in Astoria on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Its predecessors began on Grand Street in Manhattan, in Long Island City, in Astoria, in old Newtown, in rented rooms in Jackson Heights, and in Flushing.
This is the story of that lineage, not a survey of every lodge in Queens. Other lodges enter when they shared a building, a ceremony, or a member’s career with one of the six.
You do not have to be a Mason to read it. Terms get explained as they come up, and the series glossary covers the rest.
What One Lodge, Six Charters Covers
A lodge, in plain terms, is the local unit of Freemasonry: a group of members, a charter from the Grand Lodge of New York, and a room to meet in. The series works on four fronts: lodges, buildings, people, and mergers.
The lodge histories follow six charters granted between 1856 and 1923. The building articles examine five principal meeting places, from a hall on Grand Street to the temple on 30th Avenue that remains a lodge building. The member features follow merchants, printers, public officials, and a pilot. The merger articles trace five consolidations and the number that left and came back.
The subject is this lodge family, but the frame reaches into the surrounding neighborhoods. The lodges moved with those neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods are part of the plot.
Why a Lodge Belongs in a History of Queens
Lodges were builders and landlords, which is one reason a historian might care. Island City Lodge rented its ground floor to commercial tenants and put a kitchen and a bowling alley beneath its lodge room. Mizpah’s Elmhurst temple became home to many Queens lodges because of where it stood. Service Lodge in Flushing met in a temple built and run by another lodge, Cornucopia No. 563.
The Grand Lodge records give the charter dates. The buildings show what the neighbors thought they were building toward.
The ground itself kept changing names. Newtown had become Elmhurst by 1920. Long Island City was a city in its own right until 1898, which fits the Island City temple’s place in what was later known as the old City Hall block. A lodge history that skips those shifts misses what the lodges were responding to.
How to Use This Series
The pages are meant to be entered from any side. Read them in sequence from the Series Hub, or come in by lodge, neighborhood, building, person, or date. Each page links to its neighbors.
For the present lodge and the combined inheritance, begin with Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586. For the five consolidations, begin with the Merger History. The Timeline places those mergers beside the charters, buildings, and moves.
The six individual lodge histories offer different entrances. City Lodge No. 408 begins on Grand Street in Manhattan. Island City Lodge No. 586 leads into Long Island City and its Jackson Avenue temple. Advance Lodge No. 635 follows Astoria’s first Masonic lodge and its home on 30th Avenue.
Mizpah Lodge No. 738 begins in Newtown and leads to the Elmhurst temple. Geba Lodge No. 954 moves from rented rooms in Jackson Heights into that shared building. Service Lodge No. 1009 begins at the Flushing Temple on Northern Boulevard.
The Series Hub also gathers the member directories and notable-member features. The directories are reference pages, beginning with charter members and continuing with names added as the research develops. The features tell individual stories. Related figures are identified separately from members: Townsend Scudder, for example, repeatedly officiated at Queens lodge occasions but belonged to Glen Cove Lodge No. 580.
Dates and lodge numbers follow the Grand Lodge records used for the project. Differences in earlier working notes are collected in the sources and notes rather than carried through the narrative.
The Six Charters and Their Buildings
City Lodge No. 408 was chartered on September 1, 1856. Its Manhattan meeting place was Odd Fellows Hall at 165–171 Grand Street, between Centre and Baxter Streets, on ground now associated with Little Italy and SoHo. It is the oldest of the six lodges in this series.
Island City Lodge No. 586 received its dispensation on June 18, 1865, and its charter on June 18, 1866. It is the oldest Queens lodge in the lineage. Its temple on Jackson Avenue near Anable Avenue had its cornerstone laid on September 8, 1906, and was dedicated by Grand Master Townsend Scudder on May 10, 1907.
The federal courthouse began renting the Island City temple’s ground floor in 1934 and the whole building in 1938, when the lodge moved to Mizpah’s temple. The lodge later sold the building to the federal government. It still stands in commercial use.
Advance Lodge No. 635 was chartered on July 2, 1867. Its temple at 21-14 30th Avenue in Astoria had its cornerstone laid on November 20, 1915, and opened in 1916. It remains a lodge building and has housed the combined Advance, Island City, and Mizpah branch since 1993.
Mizpah Lodge No. 738 was chartered on June 20, 1873, in Newtown, later Elmhurst. Its temple had its cornerstone laid in 1920 and was dedicated in 1921. The building became home to many Queens lodges, including Island City, Geba, and Service City. It was later sold to a church and still stands.
Geba Lodge No. 954 was chartered on May 7, 1919. Its early meeting places connect rented rooms in Jackson Heights with the later shared life of Mizpah’s Elmhurst temple.
Service Lodge No. 1009 was chartered on May 3, 1923. It met at the Flushing Temple, 137-70 Northern Boulevard near Union Avenue, a building constructed and run by Cornucopia Lodge No. 563.
The series gives Island City, Mizpah, and Advance separate cornerstone and temple articles. A ceremony marks a particular day. A building has a longer life, with tenants, expenses, alterations, and sometimes a different owner.
People Behind the Charters
A lodge is a roster before it is a building, and the series follows some of the names. In Masonic usage, to be raised is to be made a Master Mason, the third and last of the basic degrees.
William M. Berger was a charter member of Advance and its Master in 1878. He had been raised in 1866 in Island City Lodge, which ties the Long Island City and Astoria branches together in a single career.
Caleb G. Francis, a Connecticut-born merchant raised in Marsh Lodge No. 188 in 1863, became Advance’s first Secretary. James D. Torrey, a printer whose business included circus posters and Civil War publications, became its first Treasurer.
Anthony “Speed” Hanzlik, the pilot and manager of Flushing Airport, was raised in Advance Lodge on December 6, 1938. Benjamin S. H. Maillefert, the underwater blaster at Hell Gate, has a feature among the Advance Lodge pieces. John I. Lovell and Ezra Newton Dodson have profiles in the same group.
Other articles lead outward from the lodge’s name and its building. The USS Advance article follows the vessel behind Advance Lodge’s name. A Cornerstone, a Dinner, and a Borough in a Hurry places its 1915 ceremony in the borough around it. James Prowse’s story follows the man who donated the cornerstone.
Mergers and Continuity
A consolidation joins two or more lodges into one, under a combined name and a single number. Five of them make up this story.
In 1973, City and Service became Service City Lodge No. 1009. In 1982, Geba joined to make Service City Geba Lodge No. 1009.
A second branch formed in 1987, when Island City and Mizpah became Island City Mizpah Lodge No. 738, keeping Mizpah’s number. In 1993 that lodge joined Advance to form Advance Island City Mizpah Lodge No. 586. The combined lodge took Island City’s old number to commemorate the oldest Queens lodge in the lineage.
In 2018 the two branches joined as Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586.
The Merger History tells it step by step, while the Timeline sets the consolidations beside the charters and buildings. The Family Tree follows the changing names and numbers.
A merger can look like a retreat. The more useful way to read this one is as a relay: each lodge handed the next one its members and its years.
One Lodge, Six Charters starts with a lodge in Astoria and works backward to a hall on Grand Street. If you read one more page, make it the Series Hub. If you read two, add the Timeline. The rest are there for the day you want to know what was in the basement.
Sources and Notes
Grand Lodge Records
Charter dates, consolidation years, and lodge numbers follow the Grand Lodge of New York records identified for this project.
[Before publication: insert the proceedings volumes and page references actually used for the charter and consolidation chronology.]
Buildings, Meeting Places, and Member Histories
The linked lodge histories, building articles, and member features provide the detailed accounts behind this introduction.
[Before publication: insert the lodge histories, programs, newspaper notices, city directories, and other sources actually used for the building details and biographies summarized here. Confirm the current meeting schedule and present-day building uses.]
Note 1: Dates and Lodge Numbers
Earlier working notes gave 1925 for the chartering of Service Lodge No. 1009, June 21 for Mizpah Lodge No. 738, 1865 for the chartering of Island City Lodge No. 586, and No. 783 for the lodge formed in 1987.
The chronology used in this series gives May 3, 1923, for Service’s charter; June 20, 1873, for Mizpah’s charter; and June 18, 1866, for Island City’s charter, following its dispensation of June 18, 1865. Island City Mizpah retained Mizpah’s No. 738 in 1987.
The consolidations are given by year: 1973, 1982, 1987, 1993, and 2018. The 1993 consolidation restored No. 586 to commemorate Island City, the oldest Queens lodge in the lineage. City Lodge, founded in Manhattan in 1856, remains the oldest of the six predecessor lodges overall.
Start Here · Series Hub · Timeline · Previous Article: Series Hub · Next Article: Merger History · Related Directory: ASM 586 Members · Related Member Profiles: Series Hub
Related Reading
- Series Hub: One Lodge, Six Charters
- Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586: A Living Inheritance of Six New York Lodges
- The Merger History of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
- Timeline of the Lodges That Formed Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
- The Lodge Family Tree of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
- A Short Glossary for Reading This Series
