By Brete Murphy · November 11, 2026
On consecutive evenings in May 1912, Hillside and Richmond Hill lodges were constituted in the same hall on Jamaica Avenue. Both soon obtained temples of their own. Their later institutional histories continued through different lines, now represented in Rockville Centre and College Point.
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On Tuesday evening, May 21, 1912, Hillside Lodge No. 894 was constituted at Arcanum Hall in Richmond Hill.
The following evening, Richmond Hill Lodge No. 892 was constituted in the same place.
The supplied newspaper accounts identify Deputy Grand Master George Freifeld and accompanying officers with the ceremonies.[1]
The hall stood at Jamaica and Jefferson Avenues.
Two separate lodges used it for the formal occasions that followed their work under dispensation.
Their numbers were two apart.
Their constitutions were one night apart.
Their later histories would take them into different surviving institutions.
Hillside’s line now belongs within Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057.
Richmond Hill’s belongs within Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729.
The shared beginning is not evidence that the lodges were organized together.
It is a documented connection between two institutions developing in neighboring communities.
Two Beginnings in 1911
The Daily Long Island Democrat reported Richmond Hill’s organization in April 1911.
The supplied account gave a membership of fifty and identified Frank E. Phillips as Master.
Other officers included men described through their work in medicine, commerce and the ministry.[4]
The author’s preferred chronology places Richmond Hill’s institution under dispensation on May 17, 1911.
The lodge used Arcanum Hall on the second and fourth Thursdays.
Some later reports give an earlier beginning, so the institution date still requires checking against the controlling Grand Lodge record.
The contemporary 1911 coverage and the 1944 summons support the chronology followed here.[4]
Hillside’s institution followed on May 29, 1911, according to the author’s sources.
Its early membership was reported at approximately thirty.
Joseph H. Courtenay served as its first Master.[3]
Those were beginnings under dispensation.
The ceremonies in May 1912 came later.
Keeping the stages separate prevents the story from giving either lodge two contradictory founding dates.
The First Pair in This Series’ Boom-Era Group
The revised capstone identifies twenty-one constituent lodge histories whose charter or constitution references fall between 1912 and 1931.
Hillside and Richmond Hill are the earliest pair in that group.[2]
That is a statement about this series’ constituent set.
It is not a claim that no other Queens lodge organized during those years or that these two institutions began every subsequent period of growth.
Their proximity is nevertheless useful.
Both organized in 1911.
Both reached constitution in May 1912.
Both soon moved toward buildings of their own.
The comparison reveals a concentrated period of institution-building without requiring identical motives.
The supplied evidence does not establish why each founder joined or whether a desire to walk to meetings was decisive.
Those questions belong in membership records, addresses and contemporary statements.
What Was Arcanum Hall?
The hall is the firmest connection and one of the largest remaining gaps.
The newspaper references establish its name, location and use for the ceremonies.
Richmond Hill’s regular meeting references also place it there.
They do not yet establish the property’s owner or operator.
The name has prompted a possible Royal Arcanum connection in the research.
No supplied record confirms that identification.
It should remain a question rather than become a description of the building.
The same caution applies to rental arrangements.
Use by a lodge does not, by itself, establish the lease, payment or management terms.
Nor does Hillside’s constitution at Arcanum Hall establish that it held every earlier regular meeting there.
Its meeting-place sequence between institution in 1911 and the opening of its temple still needs to be reconstructed.
The two ceremonies are documented.
The hall’s complete institutional and property history is not.
Hillside Builds in Woodhaven
Hillside’s building project followed quickly.
The author’s research describes a holding company, the involvement of Wenige & Nelson and construction of the Willard Avenue temple in 1913.
An opening fair followed in January 1914.[3]
Those dates distinguish the building project from its public opening.
The temple also connects Hillside with other institutions in this series.
Tadmor’s later history places its institution there in August 1914.
Prosperity’s beginnings also belong within Hillside’s premises.
Advance’s records state that Wenige’s firm supplied lodge-room blueprints previously used at Hillside.[3]
That last relationship concerns a plan.
It does not establish identical buildings or an unchanged interior in either place.
The building allowed Hillside to host work beyond its own meetings.
That wider use became part of its contribution to the district.
Read Hillside Masonic Temple →
Read The Engineer’s Room: Hillside, Advance and Tadmor →
Richmond Hill Builds on Stoothoff Avenue
Richmond Hill’s temple project followed on Stoothoff Avenue.
The supplied research describes groundbreaking in June 1915, a cornerstone ceremony that July and dedication on March 15, 1916.[4]
The groundbreaking account reported approximately 150 members taking turns with a spade.
That is a contemporary description of participation, not an independently reconstructed count.
At the cornerstone ceremony, Thomas J. Towers read the lodge’s history.
His later appearances in Tadmor’s room and at Wakefield’s constitution provide connections beyond Richmond Hill’s own building.[4]
Membership reports also indicate growth.
The supplied sources give Richmond Hill approximately fifty members in 1911 and about 160 by mid-1915.
Hillside’s later reports describe a rise from approximately thirty to nearly five hundred by 1920.[3][4]
These are dated reports, not a complete annual series.
They show growth in both institutions without establishing identical rates or circumstances.
Read Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association →
Another Connection at Wakefield’s Founding
The two lodge histories intersected again through individual members.
Wakefield’s anniversary account lists eleven founders at its November 1929 organizing meeting.
Jeromus H. Meissner came from Hillside.
Roy A. Steinmetz and Henry Christ came from Richmond Hill.[5]
The roster establishes their earlier affiliations.
It does not mean Hillside and Richmond Hill formally organized Wakefield together.
The new institution drew on nine lodges, not just these two.
Richmond Hill later supplied Wakefield with a meeting place.
By 1936, Wakefield was using its temple, according to the anniversary history.
The connection therefore involved both members and premises.
It was not necessarily the last contact between the lines.
It is a documented crossing within the sources assembled here.
Read Eleven Men, Nine Lodges: Wakefield’s Founders →
Different Institutional Continuations
Hillside consolidated with Council Lodge No. 979 on April 29, 1963.
Council-Hillside joined Springfield Gardens on July 22, 1994, according to the author’s compilation.[3]
Springfield Gardens now meets in Rockville Centre under the present-day account used in this series.
Richmond Hill combined with Wakefield on January 1, 1978.
That branch joined Cathedral-Granite as Queensboro in December 1986.
Queensboro entered Anchor-Astoria on April 13, 2024.[4]
Those are institutional continuations, not separate old charters now conducting independent meetings inside the present lodges.
Council adds another reminder that geography and lineage are different maps.
Although identified with Richmond Hill, Council entered the Hillside branch.
A neighborhood name did not determine which later consolidation a lodge would choose.
The reasons for those decisions require the records of the particular unions.
Read Springfield Gardens: Nine Lodge Histories →
Read Anchor-Astoria: Across Queens to College Point →
Two Nights, Several Connections
Arcanum Hall’s later fate remains unresolved.
The absence of a complete record should not become a claim that the hall disappeared before the lodges did.
What survives clearly is the pair of ceremonies.
Hillside and Richmond Hill reached constitution in the same room on consecutive evenings.
They then obtained separate temples, hosted other institutions and continued through different consolidation lines.
Their histories also crossed through Wakefield’s founders.
The sequence does not make them twins in every respect.
It makes them a useful pair to read together.
One room supplied a shared milestone.
The institutions that used it remained distinct.
More than a century later, their histories continue in two different lodges—and the record still brings them back to two nights on Jamaica Avenue.
Endnotes
1. The May 1912 Constitutions
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 19, 23 and 27, 1912.
- Daily Long Island Democrat, May 24, 1912.
Support the consecutive ceremonies, Arcanum Hall location and participation of George Freifeld and accompanying officers as summarized in the author’s research.
The paired dates do not establish that the visit was deliberately planned as a two-lodge program.
2. The Series’ Early Twentieth-Century Group
The revised capstone, Seven Lodges, Thirty-Three Histories.
Hillside and Richmond Hill are the earliest pair within its twenty-one-institution group.
This is a count of constituent histories in the seven-lodge set, not all lodges ever active in Queens.
The earlier “Thirty-Four Charters” working title has been superseded.
3. Hillside
The author’s Springfield Gardens series, Hillside lodge and temple research, drawing on:
- Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 28, 1913.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, November 16, 1917.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, May 27, 1920.
- Brooklyn Eagle, August 30, 1920.
- Grand Lodge records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
Supports the institution chronology, building project, reported membership and later consolidations.
The 1913 construction and January 1914 opening fair are distinguished.
4. Richmond Hill
The author’s Anchor-Astoria research, Article 4, drawing on:
- Daily Long Island Democrat, April 10, 1911.
- Richmond Hill Lodge summons, January 27, 1944.
- The Chat, June 12, 1915.
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 27, 1912.
- The author’s temple and cornerstone research.
- Grand Lodge records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
The article follows the supplied 1911 institution chronology while flagging conflicting later references.
The subsequent consolidation sequence is distinguished from building occupancy.
5. Wakefield
Wakefield Lodge No. 1110, tenth-anniversary book, 1940.
Supports the founders’ affiliations and later Richmond Hill meeting-place reference.
See Wakefield’s Founders.
Individual membership connections are not treated as proof of formal joint sponsorship.
6. Scope and Remaining Gaps
Arcanum Hall’s ownership, operation and possible Royal Arcanum affiliation remain unresolved.
Hillside’s constitution venue is not treated as proof of its complete regular meeting-place history.
The article does not infer founders’ motives from neighborhood growth.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- Who owned and operated Arcanum Hall?
- Was there a documented Royal Arcanum connection?
- What was the hall’s precise address under later street numbering?
- Where did Hillside meet before its temple opened?
- Do Grand Lodge proceedings settle Richmond Hill’s institution date?
- Was the two-evening visit planned as a coordinated program?
- Which institution held No. 893?
- Were there early dual members or other documented links between the two lodges?
- What happened to Arcanum Hall afterward?
Follow the Two Lodge Lines
- Springfield Gardens: The Hillside Line
- Hillside Masonic Temple
- Anchor-Astoria: The Richmond Hill Line
Continue Through the Connecting Stories
- The Engineer’s Room
- Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association
- Eleven Men, Nine Lodges: Wakefield’s Founders
- Connecting Stories: Complete Guide
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