Queens History and Freemasonry / Active Lodges of Queens / Anchor-Astoria Series
Part 2 of the Anchor-Astoria Lodge series · A building history for Freemason Buildings of Queens
Previous: Two Villages, One Number · Series Overview · Next: The Richmond Hill Lineage
Storefronts below, Masonic lettering above: a three-story building on College Point Boulevard is a shared meeting place for four active lodges. Its present role is clear. Its construction, early ownership and original arrangements remain to be documented.
November 10, 2026 · By Brete Murphy
A Door at the Right
At street level, the building could be mistaken for an ordinary commercial property.
An undated photograph records a dry cleaner and a window-fashions shop sharing a long awning. A separate entrance at the right, numbered 18-14, carries a small sign: Anchor-Astoria Masonic Temple.
Look up, and the building explains itself.
Across the upper façade, MASONIC and TEMPLE flank a large square and compasses with the letter G. A panel on the parapet reads ANCHOR-ASTORIA.
The photograph records particular tenants at an unidentified date. It should not be read as a current business directory.
The Masonic use, however, continues.
According to the author’s November 2026 confirmation, four active lodges meet here:
- Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729.
- Cornucopia Lodge No. 563.
- Harmony Lodge No. 241.
- Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273.
They are separate institutions sharing a building, not four names for the same lodge.
Together, they bring histories reaching beyond College Point—and, in some cases, beyond Queens—to one entrance on College Point Boulevard.
What the Building Shows
The photograph records pale buff-brick walls, ornament beneath the cornice and a short raised parapet.
The top floor has four tall rectangular windows arranged in two pairs.
The floor below has two broad arched windows with contrasting trim.
Storefronts occupy the street frontage, while the separate entrance provides access away from the commercial doors.
The arrangement suggests a practical division between business premises below and meeting spaces above.
It does not establish the original floor plan, the use of every room or the financial relationship between the shops and the lodge.
The Economics Remain to Be Proved
Commercial space could help support a lodge property through rental income.
Whether that was the original plan here—and how much income the storefronts actually provided—requires leases, accounts or ownership records.
The façade alone cannot establish that shop rents paid the mortgage, maintenance or heating bills.
Nor does it tell us whether Anchor commissioned the building or adapted an existing property.
The visible arrangement is evidence of how the building was used when photographed. Its original business plan remains unknown.
A Later Name on the Parapet
The ANCHOR-ASTORIA name dates from the union of Anchor Lodge No. 729 and Astoria Lodge No. 963 on December 1, 1985.
The parapet lettering therefore cannot predate that union.
If the reported 1929 construction date is correct, the name is a later addition or relettering.
The photograph does not show what the panel originally said. The blue Masonic lettering may also belong to a later alteration, but its date has not been established.
The façade carries the institution’s history in layers rather than in one unchanging design.
What “Built in 1929” Establishes—and What It Does Not
A StreetEasy listing for 18-14 College Point Boulevard describes a three-story commercial building and gives 1929 as its construction year.
That is a useful lead, not a substitute for the original building record.
No new-building application, dedication notice or cornerstone documentation has been located in the research assembled for this article.
The architect and builder remain unidentified.
The [published Anchor-Astoria lodge history](connect | Anchor-Astoria #0729
connect | Anchor-Astoria #0729
does not explain the present temple’s origins.
It says that Anchor and Marvin Lodge of Odd Fellows met at the Poppenhusen Institute until growth led them to seek other quarters. It does not give the date or destination of that move.
The account therefore leaves a gap between Anchor’s remembered beginnings and its present address.
Even confirmation of the 1929 date would not settle whether Anchor built, bought or initially rented the property.
Ownership Is Another Question
A 2021 online review identified in the research packet says the lodge owns the building.
The writer identifies as a member.
That statement is a lead for documentary research, not a verified title history.
The property might be held by a lodge, trustees, a temple association or another legal entity. The deed is needed before assigning ownership precisely.
The same research should establish when the property entered Masonic use and under what arrangement.
Institutional occupancy, legal ownership and responsibility for maintaining a temple are related questions, but they are not interchangeable.
Four Lodges Behind One Entrance
Whatever its origins, the building’s present role is substantial.
Anchor-Astoria remains active here, carrying the histories of the College Point and Astoria lodges that united in 1985.
The institutional story appears in Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729: Two Villages, One Number.
The other lodges bring different histories to the same meeting place.
Cornucopia began in Flushing. Its former Northern Boulevard temple was sold in 1990, according to the lodge’s account, and demolished in 2018.
Harmony and Francis Lewis carry their own consolidation histories.
Their presence should not be confused with Anchor-Astoria’s mergers. Sharing the temple does not incorporate one lodge into another.
From Whitestone to College Point
According to the author’s November 2026 research confirmation, Cornucopia and Harmony left the Whitestone Masonic Temple at the end of the Masonic year in June 2024.
They held their first College Point meetings in September.
The supplied account connects their departure with the Whitestone building’s transition to use by the German Masonic District. The precise property and administrative arrangements are outside the evidence presented here.
For Cornucopia, College Point was therefore not an immediate move from its former Flushing temple. Its intervening Whitestone period belongs in the chronology.
Read Cornucopia Lodge No. 563: Borrowed Aprons and the Making of Flushing and The Flushing Masonic Temple: A Corner Built to Last.
The Lineage That Came Through Queensboro
A merger brought another kind of inheritance.
According to the supplied consolidation research, Queensboro Lodge No. 892 merged into Anchor-Astoria on April 13, 2024.
Queensboro carried the lineages of Richmond Hill, Wakefield, Cathedral and Granite lodges.
That is institutional succession, not simply shared occupancy.
It also does not establish that every predecessor charter, minute book or artifact is physically stored in the College Point building. An inventory would be needed to describe those holdings.
The sequence is traced in Richmond Hill Lodge No. 892: The Lineage That Reached College Point.
Ridgewood Lodge No. 710 is not part of this line. The author’s corrected Grand Lodge research places it with Cypress Hill and Star of Hope, rather than Anchor-Astoria.
A Working Temple, Not an Explained One
The building’s practical appearance makes a compelling contrast with more conspicuous temples elsewhere in Queens.
But its modest scale does not prove why it survived.
Without accounts, ownership records or construction documents, it would be speculation to say that storefront rents saved it or that it was never intended as a monument.
What can be said is simpler.
At 18-14 College Point Boulevard, a building with commercial frontage continues to accommodate Masonic meetings.
Several active lodges use the same address while retaining their separate identities.
Its importance does not depend on inventing an origin story.
The door still opens for lodge work. The next task is to establish how this particular building became the place where that work could continue.
Sources and Research Notes
The Building and Its Appearance
“Anchor-Astoria Masonic Temple,” undated Flickr photograph identified in the author’s research packet. Source for the exterior description and businesses visible at the time of the photograph. Its direct page, date and reproduction license require confirmation before use.
StreetEasy, 18-14 College Point Boulevard. Property listing identifying a three-story commercial building and giving 1929 as its construction year. The date remains provisional pending original building records.
ChamberofCommerce.com lodge listing, identified in the supplied research. Address reference, not evidence of the building’s construction or legal ownership.
MapQuest listing for Anchor Lodge 729 F&AM, review posted in 2021 by a writer identifying as a member. Ownership claim treated as a research lead only.
The Lodge and Earlier Meeting Places
- [Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729, “History”](Groupable
Groupable
Source for the Poppenhusen Institute tradition, the search for later quarters and the December 1, 1985 union. The account does not document the present temple’s construction.
- Internal references suggest that the lodge history was composed around Anchor’s 125th anniversary. It is a retrospective institutional account.
Present Use and the 2024 Moves
Brete Murphy, confirmation supplied November 2026. Anchor-Astoria, Cornucopia, Harmony and Francis Lewis meeting at the College Point temple.
Brete Murphy, research confirmation supplied November 2026. Cornucopia and Harmony’s departure from Whitestone in June 2024 and first College Point meetings in September 2024.
Cornucopia lodge history and the sources assembled for the companion Flushing articles. Former temple sale and demolition.
“Requiem for the Razed Flushing Cornucopia Masonic Temple”, Flushing.com, March 18, 2019. Retrospective account of the former Flushing building.
Consolidation and Lineage
Author’s consolidation research. Queensboro’s April 13, 2024 merger into Anchor-Astoria and the earlier Richmond Hill, Wakefield, Cathedral and Granite sequence.
Author’s corrected Grand Lodge research, November 2026. Ridgewood Lodge No. 710 is excluded from the Anchor-Astoria lineage.
What the Record Does Not Yet Establish
- The original construction date.
- The architect, builder and commissioning owner.
- Whether Anchor built, bought or initially rented the property.
- The date Anchor first occupied the building.
- The original floor plan and later alterations.
- The legal ownership sequence.
- The original storefront arrangement and rental finances.
- The dates of the parapet and Masonic lettering.
- The location and extent of predecessor lodges’ surviving records.
Where the Next Evidence May Be Found
Building Records
Locate the original new-building application and certificate of occupancy. These may establish the date, architect, owner and approved uses.
Property Documents
Trace conveyances and legal ownership through the [NYC Automated City Register Information System](ACRIS Error
ACRIS Error
and earlier records where necessary.
Historic Photographs
Search the NYC Municipal Archives for the 1940 tax photograph and related views.
Lodge Records
Examine Anchor’s minutes for purchase, construction, tenancy or dedication references. Identify any temple association separately from the lodge itself.
The Building
Record any cornerstone or date stone and compare visible alterations with historic photographs. Interior inspection should be undertaken only with permission.
These are research directions, not claims that the relevant records have already been examined.
Continue the Anchor-Astoria Series
Part 1: The Active Lodge
Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729: Two Villages, One Number
Follow the College Point and Astoria institutions that united in 1985.
Part 2: The Shared Building
Anchor-Astoria Masonic Temple: Four Lodges, One Door in College Point — You are here.
Part 3: The Richmond Hill Lineage
Richmond Hill Lodge No. 892: The Lineage That Reached College Point
Trace the institutional succession that formed Queensboro and later entered Anchor-Astoria.
Part 4: An Earlier Temple
Richmond Hill Masonic Temple: A Public Hall, a Private Lodge Room
Explore the building created by one of the predecessor institutions.
Previous Article: Two Villages, One Number · Series Overview · Next Article: The Richmond Hill Lineage
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