By Brete Murphy · November 10, 2026
Francis Lewis Lodge carries the number of a Manhattan institution chartered in 1852. Its history brings together Metropolitan, Whitestone, Bayside and Brandeis—and connects Lower Manhattan with the north shore of Queens and the Nassau border.
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Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 meets in College Point under a number first assigned to Metropolitan Lodge in Manhattan in 1852.
Between those two settings lie several institutional histories.
Metropolitan supplied the number.
Whitestone and Bayside supplied connections with two north-shore communities and their lodge buildings.
Brandeis added a later beginning at Floral Park, near the Nassau County boundary.
Behind Metropolitan stands another episode: its formation by members who departed from Atwood Lodge.
These are related histories, but they are not all the same kind of relationship.
Atwood belongs to Metropolitan’s origin story. Whitestone, Bayside and Brandeis belong to the later consolidation sequence.
Read together, they offer a route from Manhattan to northeastern Queens.
The number traveled east.
The surviving evidence is less complete about when individual members moved, how they attended meetings and when each institutional change produced a new meeting address.
Before Metropolitan: The Atwood Connection
The supplied research traces Metropolitan’s beginning to Atwood Lodge No. 208.
Atwood was associated with Henry C. Atwood and the rival St. John’s Grand Lodge, which united with the Grand Lodge of New York on December 27, 1850.
The account places Atwood Lodge at Crosby and Broome Streets.
Members who departed from it subsequently organized Metropolitan Lodge No. 273, chartered on December 9, 1852.[1]
That episode belongs to a history of jurisdiction, recognition and institutional separation.
It should not be compressed into a claim that Atwood’s charter became Metropolitan’s.
The new lodge had its own name and number.
For this lineage essay, the distinction establishes where the present No. 273 entered the story.
Metropolitan’s Manhattan Addresses
Metropolitan remained associated with Manhattan for approximately 120 years before its 1972 consolidation with Whitestone.
The author’s research identifies meeting places that included Odd Fellows’ Hall near Grand and Centre Streets, Broadway addresses, a Fourteenth Street hall and Masonic Hall on West 23rd Street.
Those references describe a succession of premises.
They do not yet establish an uninterrupted occupancy chronology for every year.
In particular, Metropolitan’s exact meeting place immediately before the 1972 consolidation remains a research question.[2]
Its earlier addresses also intersect with another Queens lineage.
City Lodge No. 408 appears in connection with Odd Fellows’ Hall and Broadway premises in the author’s research.
Shared addresses do not prove that the two lodges occupied the same room at the same time.
They show how separate institutional histories passed through some of the same Manhattan buildings.
Read City Lodge No. 408: A Manhattan Connection →
Read Advance Service Mizpah’s Lineage Essay →
The Members’ Addresses Tell Another Story
The member notices assembled for Metropolitan identify residential connections beyond Manhattan.
The supplied examples include Flatbush, Glendale, Woodhaven, Queens Village, Lynbrook and Mount Vernon.
These notices establish individual affiliations and addresses.
They do not establish the residential distribution of the whole membership, the dates when each person moved or how frequently each attended lodge.
The distinction matters to the commuter theme.
It is reasonable to investigate how a Manhattan lodge maintained relationships with members living elsewhere.
It is not yet possible to reconstruct their evening journeys from death notices alone.
The institutional address and the members’ addresses were different maps.
That is the documented starting point for the interpretation, rather than proof that the entire lodge’s membership moved east before its consolidation.[2]
Whitestone Builds a Lodge
Whitestone’s early lodge history began with an institution ceremony in the village’s Odd Fellows’ Hall in July 1920.
Its charter as Whitestone Lodge No. 973 followed in May 1921.
By January 1922, it was using its own temple at 149-39 11th Avenue. The supplied newspaper references also describe a dedication by Grand Master Robert H. Robinson.[3]
That sequence moved from borrowed premises to a lodge building within a relatively short period.
It provides a contrast with Metropolitan’s long succession of Manhattan rooms.
The two institutions began in different periods and settings.
Their later union would preserve Metropolitan’s number while incorporating Whitestone’s institutional history.
The relationship between Whitestone’s growth and transportation is a useful subject for the wider local history. The lodge records themselves, however, must establish who its founders were and where they previously belonged.
The village’s development should not stand in for that membership research.
Bayside and the Cornucopia Connection
Bayside’s organization followed in 1922.
The supplied account places its early proceedings in Cornucopia’s Flushing temple and records an affectionate description of Cornucopia as the new lodge’s “daddy.”
That wording expresses a founding relationship.
It does not mean Bayside operated under Cornucopia’s charter.
Bayside became a separate lodge, No. 999.[4]
Its own building project followed quickly.
In May 1923, reports described the cornerstone ceremony for a three-story brick temple at Bell and Lamartine Avenues.
The account identifies member Herbert O. Wiegand as the architect and states that he provided his services without charge.
A parade, the Fort Totten band and a large reported attendance made the occasion a public event as well as a lodge ceremony.
One newspaper estimate placed the spectators at two thousand. That remains a contemporary estimate, not a verified count.[4]
The building’s later community use belongs alongside its institutional history.
The eventual sale date and the sequence of subsequent uses still require closer documentation.
Read Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 →
Read The Tuesday Night Visitors: Cornucopia and Anchor →
Brandeis: A Later Beginning Near Nassau
The author’s Grand Lodge compilation gives Brandeis Lodge No. 1165 a charter date of May 6, 1969, at Floral Park.
Its beginning came decades after Whitestone and Bayside.
That difference adds another period to the lineage rather than simply another neighborhood.
Brandeis’s own history remains the least developed part of the present research.
Its early meeting places, founding membership and choice of name require documentation.
The name may suggest Justice Louis D. Brandeis, but the supplied material does not establish the dedication.
The essay therefore leaves the namesake unresolved rather than turning a plausible identification into a fact.[1]
Three Consolidations, One Continuing Number
The author’s compilation supplies the following sequence:
| Date | Institutional change |
|---|---|
| December 21, 1972 | Metropolitan and Whitestone combined as Metropolitan-Whitestone Lodge No. 273 |
| August 14, 1986 | Metropolitan-Whitestone and Bayside combined as Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 |
| September 22, 2015 | Brandeis joined Francis Lewis |
These are the three consolidations identified in the supplied chronology.
Atwood’s earlier connection with Metropolitan is not a fourth consolidation in this sequence.[1]
The retention of No. 273 connects the present lodge with Metropolitan’s 1852 charter.
It does not mean every subsequent meeting place is known.
The 1972 union establishes a new institutional relationship with Whitestone. It does not, by itself, establish the exact day Metropolitan ceased meeting in Manhattan.
Likewise, the 1986 creation of Francis Lewis does not answer where the combined lodge met throughout the following decades.
Those address histories require their own records.
A New Name Rather Than a Longer List
The 1986 consolidation adopted the name Francis Lewis rather than continuing to lengthen the predecessor names.
The supplied biographical source identifies Lewis as the Welsh-born merchant associated with Whitestone who signed the Declaration of Independence.
His son Morgan Lewis later became Grand Master of New York.[5]
Those connections provide context for the name.
The consolidation resolution or contemporary minutes are still needed to establish the members’ stated reasons for choosing it.
It would be too strong to say that they selected the name specifically because it represented all the constituent communities.
The result is clear even without assigning that motive.
The present title no longer lists Metropolitan, Whitestone or Bayside.
Their histories remain within the institution, while Metropolitan’s number remains visible.
College Point: The Present Meeting Place
The author’s November 2026 account places Francis Lewis in the Anchor-Astoria temple at 18-14 College Point Boulevard.
Anchor-Astoria, Cornucopia and Harmony also meet there under that account.[6]
Shared occupancy is not another consolidation.
Francis Lewis retains its own identity while using a building that accommodates several current Queens District lodges.
The arrangement also creates a present-day connection with Cornucopia, whose temple supplied space during Bayside’s beginnings.
That is a relationship between premises and institutions across different periods.
It should not be mistaken for an unbroken tenancy or a shared charter.
Read Anchor-Astoria’s Lineage Essay →
What the Number Remembers
The lineage contains several different forms of continuity.
Metropolitan supplied the surviving number.
Whitestone and Bayside contributed their institutional histories, buildings and local connections.
Brandeis added a later lodge organized near the county boundary.
Atwood remains an antecedent to Metropolitan rather than an absorbed constituent in the later merger sequence.
Together, these histories connect Manhattan with northeastern Queens.
They do not prove that every member followed the same residential path or that every consolidation had the same cause.
The strongest conclusion is institutional.
A number issued to a Manhattan lodge in 1852 now identifies a lodge meeting in College Point, carrying histories from several other communities.
The number traveled.
The fuller story of the people who traveled before, beside or after it remains a subject for research.
Endnotes
1. Institutional Origins and Consolidations
Grand Lodge of New York records as supplied and compiled by Brete Murphy.
The author’s Francis Lewis series, “The 273 Line,” Parts 1 and 2.
Supporting references include:
- Grand Lodge of the State of New York, Past Grand Masters list.
- “Cyrus Lodge No. 208,” Grand Lodge lodge histories, 1910.
These materials supply the Atwood-Metropolitan connection, charter references and consolidation chronology.
The essay distinguishes Atwood’s role in Metropolitan’s formation from the later consolidations involving Metropolitan, Whitestone, Bayside and Brandeis.
Brandeis’s namesake remains unconfirmed in the supplied material.
2. Metropolitan’s Addresses and Members
The author’s Francis Lewis series, Part 3, drawing on:
- New York Herald, November 10, 1857.
- New York Times, May 30, 1861.
- New York Herald, December 12, 1870.
- New York Herald, February 17, 1873.
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 24, 1942.
- Additional member notices assembled in the research packet.
The notices support individual affiliations and residential references.
They are not treated as a complete membership survey or evidence of particular commuting routines.
Metropolitan’s precise meeting-place chronology immediately before 1972 remains unresolved.
3. Whitestone
The author’s Francis Lewis series, Part 4, drawing on:
- Brooklyn Daily Times, July 3, 1920.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, May 28, 1921.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, January 11, 1922.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, March 1, 1922.
Supports the institution, charter, temple occupancy and dedication sequence.
4. Bayside
The author’s Francis Lewis series, Part 5, drawing on:
- Times Union, May 14, 1922.
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 31, 1923.
- Brooklyn Citizen, May 31, 1923.
- Bayside Historical Society material cited in the author’s research.
Supports the Cornucopia connection and the temple-building account.
Reported attendance figures remain attributed to contemporary coverage.
5. Francis Lewis and the Lodge Name
NYC Parks, Francis Lewis Park history, as cited in the author’s series, Part 7.
Supplies the biographical context.
The lodge’s own records are needed to establish the stated reasons for selecting the name in 1986.
6. Present Meeting Place
Brete Murphy, November 2026 confirmation, and the Francis Lewis lodge listing on the Grand Lodge’s MORI platform, as cited in the supplied manuscript.
Supports the present College Point meeting place and shared occupancy.
The date of Francis Lewis’s arrival in College Point remains unresolved here.
7. Scope of the Essay
This essay interprets four constituent lodge histories and Metropolitan’s earlier Atwood connection.
It does not describe five active warrants or four documented consolidations.
The eastward movement is an institutional framework.
Selected residential notices do not establish a uniform migration, attendance pattern or explanation for consolidation.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- Where did Metropolitan meet immediately before the 1972 consolidation?
- Did it begin meeting in Queens before that union?
- What do its membership records show about residential distribution?
- Why did Brandeis select its name?
- Where did Brandeis meet during its independent history?
- Where did Francis Lewis meet after the 1986 consolidation?
- When did it begin meeting in College Point?
- When was Bayside’s temple sold, and what followed?
- What do the consolidation resolutions say about names, numbers and meeting places?
Follow the Connections
- Cornucopia Lodge No. 563
- The Tuesday Night Visitors: Cornucopia and Anchor
- Anchor-Astoria: Six Lodge Histories Across Queens
- Advance Service Mizpah: The Manhattan Connection
- City Lodge No. 408
- Connecting Stories Across the Queens District’s Seven Lodges
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