By Brete Murphy · November 9, 2026
In 1986, Metropolitan-Whitestone and Bayside lodges joined under the name Francis Lewis while retaining a number first issued in Manhattan in 1852. Brandeis Lodge joined in 2015, adding another history to the continuing line.
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On August 14, 1986, two Queens lodges became one.
Metropolitan-Whitestone Lodge No. 273, itself the result of a 1972 consolidation, joined Bayside Lodge No. 999. The combined lodge retained the older number and adopted a different name.
It would be Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273.
Metropolitan, Whitestone and Bayside disappeared from the lodge’s title, but not from its history. The number still led back to Manhattan in 1852. The Queens branches still led to the temples their members had built in Whitestone and Bayside.
The new name gave the combined institution another connection to the place where it now belonged.
In 2015, Brandeis Lodge No. 1165 joined the line as well.
This is the last link in the series so far—not the end of the history, but the point at which its separate branches meet in one continuing lodge.
Why Francis Lewis?
Francis Lewis was a merchant, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a resident of Whitestone, then part of the Town of Flushing.
Born in Llandaff, Wales, in 1713, he built a commercial career in New York and supplied British forces during the French and Indian War. He was captured by the French during that conflict.
By the Revolutionary period, his family was established at Whitestone.
He signed the Declaration for New York in 1776. Later that year, British forces destroyed his Whitestone property and took his wife, Elizabeth Annesley Lewis, prisoner.
Her captivity and its consequences became part of the family’s Revolutionary story. Sources differ over whether she died in 1778 or 1779; the exact year is not necessary to understand the loss the household suffered.
The local connection is described in NYC Parks’ history of Francis Lewis Park.
For a lodge bringing together Whitestone and Bayside members, the name had an evident geographical resonance.
Francis Lewis Boulevard ran through both communities. The name also appeared on a school and on the waterfront park near the Whitestone Bridge.
It connected the lodge with the north shore of Queens without repeating either constituent lodge’s neighborhood name.
That is an interpretation of the name’s local fit, not a documented account of the decision. The 1986 consolidation resolution or contemporary minutes would be needed to establish who proposed it and what reasons the members gave.
What the record supplied for this series establishes is the outcome: a new name, an older number and a combined lodge.
A Masonic Connection—and a Distinction
Francis Lewis Lodge honors its namesake as a Freemason, according to the lodge tradition supplied by the author.
A record establishing Francis Lewis’s own lodge and membership date has not yet been located for this article. His Masonic affiliation is therefore attributed to that tradition rather than presented as independently documented here.
His son’s connection is clearer.
Morgan Lewis, a Revolutionary officer and later governor of New York, served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York. He appears in the Grand Lodge’s [list of Past Grand Masters](Past Grand Masters | Grand Lodge of the State of New York
Past Grand Masters | Grand Lodge of the State of New York
The two men should not be treated as interchangeable evidence.
Morgan Lewis’s Grand Mastership establishes his own Masonic career. It does not, by itself, establish his father’s membership.
The distinction leaves the lodge’s tradition intact while identifying the record still needed to support it.
The First Notices Under the New Name
The Francis Lewis name began appearing in death notices within a year of the consolidation.
In July 1987, a notice for Peter T. Cook Jr. announced Masonic services by Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 at the Lloyd Funeral Home in Bayside.
The chapel was familiar territory in the earlier Bayside Lodge notices.
Later announcements described Francis Lewis Lodge as being “in Bayside.” By 2000, notices placed funeral services in Whitestone, and a 2013 obituary described Edmund Kubliski as belonging to Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 “in Whitestone, N.Y.”
Those references preserve the lodge’s public identity, but they do not establish a complete sequence of meeting places.
A funeral chapel is not necessarily a lodge room. An obituary’s neighborhood description may reflect an established association rather than a current address.
The notices are more useful for another part of the story: the members’ lives.
They include men associated with New York Telephone, U.S. Tobacco and a Long Island radio laboratory; a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge; and an elderly member who had moved from Flushing to Mineola.
Their addresses extended beyond the lodge’s immediate neighborhood—to other parts of Long Island, Rockland County, Florida and Texas.
Metropolitan’s earlier notices had already shown members living far from its Manhattan rooms. Under the Francis Lewis name, that pattern continued.
The institution remained local. Its membership connections reached farther out.
Brandeis: The Youngest Lodge in the Line
Brandeis Lodge No. 1165 received its charter on May 6, 1969, at Floral Park, according to the Grand Lodge records supplied by the author.
It was the youngest lodge to enter the surviving line.
Its name suggests Justice Louis D. Brandeis, but no founding document available for this article confirms that identification. The connection should remain provisional until a charter history, dedication address or early lodge record establishes it.
Nor does the name alone establish the religious composition of the membership.
The surviving notices tell a narrower story, but a useful one.
In March 1979, Brandeis mourned Albert G. Meltsner as “our first Honorary Member and pillar of strength.”
The notice described a Thirty-third Degree Mason and Hospitaler of the Scottish Rite bodies of the Valley of New York who had devoted his years to helping others.
In June, the lodge announced the death of Albert Weinstein, a charter member, with Masonic services at Riverside on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
A 2001 obituary identified Walter F. Spafford, a Marine Corps veteran and building manager living in Garrison, as a member.
These notices do not supply a full lodge history.
They preserve three points within it: an honorary member remembered for service, a member present at the beginning and a later member living well beyond Floral Park.
That is enough to establish continuity, but not enough to reconstruct the lodge’s officers, meeting rooms or complete program of activity.
The Floral Park Building Question
The place of chartering does not, by itself, establish where Brandeis met.
Floral Park had a Masonic temple at Tulip and Carnation Avenues. Built in 1925, it later became known as Centennial Hall.
The Floral Park Historical Society’s walking-tour brochure describes the building’s Masonic origins and its later municipal use.
The village purchased the property in 2004. It subsequently housed the historical society’s museum and archives and remained a meeting place for local groups.
Later reporting documents the building’s sale and plans for residential redevelopment.
The temple is therefore a place to investigate in Brandeis’s history—not a confirmed meeting address.
A lodge notice, directory, lease or minute-book entry would be needed to put Brandeis in that room.
Until such a record is found, the distinction should remain plain: a Masonic building existed in Floral Park, and Brandeis was chartered there, but the connection between the two has not been established.
September 2015: Another History Joins the Number
On September 22, 2015, Brandeis consolidated into Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273.
The surviving lodge retained its name and number.
The consolidation added a 1969 charter history to a line whose number dated to 1852 and whose Queens branches had been chartered in 1921 and 1922.
The Grand Lodge online listing captured in the author’s research packet gives September 22, 2015, as a “charter” date for Francis Lewis.
That field should not be read as the beginning of the entire institution.
The supplied consolidation records identify it as the date Brandeis joined the surviving lodge. It is one milestone in the line, not a replacement for every earlier one.
This is why a lineage needs more than a single date.
A current listing can identify the lodge as it now exists. The earlier warrants, divisions and consolidations explain how it came to exist.
Francis Lewis in the Queens District
The district history supplied for this series dates the combination of the First and Second Queens Districts to May 2000.
The author’s November 2026 count identifies seven active lodges in the Queens District:
- Advance Service Mizpah
- Anchor-Astoria
- Cornucopia
- Francis Lewis
- Harmony
- Springfield Gardens
- Tadmor
A 1929 newspaper count gave Queens thirty-one lodges.
The difference does not mean that twenty-four independent histories simply vanished. Some institutional lines continued through consolidations, changes of name and surviving numbers.
Francis Lewis provides one example.
Metropolitan, Whitestone, Bayside and Brandeis no longer appear as separate active lodges, but each belongs to the history of the lodge that continues.
Return to The Lodges That Built Queens →
A Listing, a Place and an Unfinished Itinerary
The Grand Lodge listing captured in the author’s packet gives Francis Lewis Lodge’s meeting place as Masonic Hall at 18-14 College Point Boulevard, College Point, with meetings on the first and third Wednesdays.
The same listing describes the lodge as being “in Whitestone.”
Those descriptions should not be forced into a single geographical statement. One gives a meeting address; the other preserves a locality associated with the lodge.
Because meeting arrangements can change, the captured schedule is a record of the listing consulted, not a substitute for checking current arrangements before visiting.
The full itinerary since 1986 remains to be established.
Funeral notices place the lodge’s activities in Bayside and Whitestone. The captured directory places its meetings in College Point. The minutes and successive directories are needed to connect those points.
What the Lodge Carries Forward
The number begins in a Manhattan division.
The Queens branches lead to village lodges that built temples in the 1920s. Brandeis adds a later charter from Floral Park. Francis Lewis supplies the name under which those histories now continue.
Not every part of that inheritance is equally visible.
A number appears on a notice. A former name survives in a minute book. A jewel or charter may preserve the identity of a lodge no longer meeting separately.
Which objects and records remain in the lodge’s care is a question for further research. Their survival should not be assumed.
The institutional connection, however, is clear in the supplied consolidation dates.
In 1986, members adopted a name different from those of the lodges they were combining. In 2015, another lodge entered that continuing body.
The name changed. The number remained. The history grew.
Sources and Research Notes
1. Grand Lodge Records Supplied by the Author
Grand Lodge of New York records supplied by Brete Murphy establish the dates used here:
- Metropolitan and Whitestone consolidation: December 21, 1972.
- Metropolitan-Whitestone and Bayside consolidation as Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273: August 14, 1986.
- Brandeis Lodge No. 1165 charter: May 6, 1969.
- Brandeis consolidation into Francis Lewis: September 22, 2015.
Direct public links to these record extracts were not supplied.
For the complete sequence, see The 273 Line: Start Here.
2. Francis and Elizabeth Lewis
NYC Parks, “Francis Lewis Park: History”.
Bayside Historical Society, “The Cost of Liberty: The Story of Elizabeth Annesley Lewis,” as identified in the author’s research. A direct article URL was not supplied.
The manuscript’s background research also consulted the Francis Lewis biography on Wikipedia.
Sources differ on Elizabeth Lewis’s death year. This article does not choose between 1778 and 1779.
The interpretation of the lodge name’s geographical suitability is the author’s analysis. The members’ stated reasons for choosing it remain to be established from contemporary records.
3. The First Francis Lewis Notice
Newsday, July 4, 1987: Peter T. Cook Jr.; Masonic services by Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 at the Lloyd Funeral Home in Bayside.
4. Later Member Notices
- Newsday, October 8, 1989: Arthur R. Schoedel.
- Journal News, January 3, 1993: Thomas Meldrum.
- Daily News, June 7, 2000: George John Docke Sr.
- Legacy, February 25, 2013: Edmund Kubliski.
- Newsday, May 25, 1989: Joseph C. Gessner.
These notices support individual affiliations, residential connections and funeral arrangements. They do not establish a complete meeting-address chronology.
Direct obituary and clipping URLs were not supplied.
5. Brandeis Lodge Notices
- New York Times, March 28, 1979: Albert G. Meltsner.
- New York Times, June 16, 1979: Albert Weinstein.
- Journal News, January 10, 2001: Walter F. Spafford.
The attribution of the lodge’s name to Justice Louis D. Brandeis remains provisional. No founding document confirming the namesake was supplied.
The notices cited here do not establish the lodge’s overall religious composition or the motives for its formation.
6. The Floral Park Temple
Floral Park Historical Society, self-guided historical walking-tour brochure.
[“Village Closes Deal on Centennial Hall,” Long Island Press, January 15, 2020](Village Closes Deal on Centennial Hall
Village Closes Deal on Centennial Hall Recently, Village of Floral Park officials closed on the sale of Centennial Hall, which was formerly known to many as the Masonic Temple for years, to Centennial Holdings LLC after many public visioning sessions, which dated back all the way to 2015.
[“Developer of Floral Park Rental Project Seeks IDA Benefits,” Long Island Business News, August 23, 2023](Developer of Floral Park rental project seeks IDA benefits - Long Island Business News
Developer of Floral Park rental project seeks IDA benefits - Long Island Business News By David Winzelberg
The plan calls for a new four-story, 30,512-square-foot building with 24 apartments.
These sources document the building’s history, sale and proposed redevelopment. They do not establish Brandeis Lodge’s occupancy.
The Historical Marker Database entry identified in the original research remains an additional lead; its direct item URL was not supplied.
7. Francis Lewis Lodge Directory Listing
Grand Lodge of New York Connect listing, “Francis Lewis #0273,” as captured in the author’s research packet.
The captured listing supplies:
- The September 22, 2015 date displayed in the charter field.
- The College Point Boulevard meeting address.
- The first-and-third-Wednesday schedule.
- The locality description “in Whitestone.”
No exact lodge-page URL was supplied. The listing’s displayed date is interpreted alongside the separate consolidation record, not as the founding date of the entire lineage.
Current meeting arrangements should be checked before visiting.
8. Queens District History and Lodge Count
Queens Masonic District information, as supplied in the author’s research.
The May 2000 district consolidation and November 2026 count follow that material.
The historical comparison with thirty-one lodges follows the November 23, 1929 Brooklyn Daily Times reference used in Part 1.
9. Francis Lewis’s Masonic Affiliation
Lodge tradition, as supplied by Brete Murphy.
A record identifying Francis Lewis’s own lodge and membership date has not yet been located for this article. His affiliation is therefore attributed to the tradition rather than presented as independently established here.
10. Morgan Lewis
Grand Lodge of the State of New York, “Past Grand Masters”.
Establishes Morgan Lewis’s place among New York’s Grand Masters. It is not used as proof of his father’s lodge membership.
Questions Still Open
- Who proposed the Francis Lewis name, and what does the 1986 consolidation resolution say about it?
- Where did the lodge meet in each period after 1986?
- Where did Brandeis meet, and which lodge sponsored its formation?
- Does a Brandeis founding record identify the intended namesake?
- Which constituent lodges’ charters, jewels and minute books survive?
- What primary record establishes Francis Lewis’s own Masonic affiliation?
Follow the 273 Line
- Part 1: The 273 Line—Start Here
- Part 2: Atwood Lodge and the 1852 Division
- Part 3: Metropolitan Lodge’s Manhattan Century
- Part 4: Whitestone Lodge No. 973 and Its Temple
- Part 5: Bayside Lodge No. 999 and the Bell Boulevard Temple
- Part 6: Arthur E. Wenige—The Room That Serves Three
- Part 7: Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 and Brandeis — You are here.
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