Queens History and Freemasonry / Springfield Gardens Series / Jamaica Lodge on Union Avenue
November 10, 2026 · By Brete Murphy
After years upstairs in Jamaica’s old Town Hall, Jamaica Lodge No. 546 bought a church chapel, moved it to Union Avenue and remodeled it as a Masonic temple. Its documented history includes a pipe organ, ambitious enlargement plans, soldiers’ entertainments and the beginnings of Woodhull Lodge.
Series Overview · Main Feature: Nine Lodges, One Living History · Masonic Buildings in Queens
Upstairs at the Town Hall
Before it acquired a temple, Jamaica Lodge No. 546 met upstairs in the old Jamaica Town Hall.
A June 1897 newspaper account described the lodge showing its refurnished room to guests from the Royal Arcanum and the Town Board.
The improvements included an illuminated letter “G” and new brass candlesticks for the lesser lights, presented by the Past Masters.
The report also recorded a less solemn display: the preserved hindquarters of the lodge’s retired goat, offered as a joke for candidates.1
The room combined ceremonial furnishings, hospitality and the humor of the period.
It was nevertheless rented space inside a public building.
That arrangement eventually produced a dispute with the city.
A Lease the City Could Not Ignore
By August 1902, the police wanted more of the old Town Hall.
The precinct already occupied the lower floors. Plans called for turning the former lodge room into a dormitory and dividing the auditorium into offices.
The Masons had moved out on April 1, but the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that their lease ran until 1907 and that they held a receipt for paid rent.2
The newspaper described a conflict in which the lodge’s continuing rights could obstruct the proposed alterations.
Its account suggested that the Masons might require the removal of partitions erected in the leased space.2
This was not simply a story of tenants leaving an old room.
It was also a dispute over what obligations remained after they had gone.
The article does not establish the final legal settlement.
A Chapel on the Move
By the time of the Town Hall dispute, Jamaica Lodge had undertaken a different building project.
The lodge bought the chapel of the Dutch Reformed Church of Jamaica, moved it to a lot on Union Avenue and remodeled and enlarged it.
The October 1902 dedication coverage placed the purchase approximately a year and a half earlier.3
The distinction between chapel and church matters.
The account describes the acquisition and relocation of a chapel associated with the congregation—not the removal of the congregation’s principal church building.
The supplied manuscript also identifies background sources for Jamaica’s early congregations. Those histories require careful comparison before assigning shared meetinghouse arrangements or particular buildings to one congregation.4
For the temple’s immediate story, the contemporary dedication account supplies the central sequence: purchase, relocation, enlargement and conversion to Masonic use.
Dedication on Union Avenue
Grand Master Elbert Crandall dedicated the remodeled building on the evening of October 22, 1902.
The Eagle’s report described attendance from lodges in Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan.3
Grand Lodge officers performed the ceremonial consecration with corn, wine and oil.
The Metropolitan Quartet sang.
Afterward, the gathering continued in the banquet room, described in the report as being on the second floor.3
The Eagle praised the resulting hall as among Long Island’s most commodious and attractive Masonic meeting places.
That was the newspaper’s contemporary assessment, not an independently established architectural ranking.
Still, its description makes clear that the lodge had done more than move an unaltered chapel onto a new lot.
The building had been adapted for a different institution and a different calendar of use.
From Union Avenue to 162nd Street
Union Avenue later became 162nd Street in the numbered street system.
The street-name concordance cited in the author’s research connects the two names.6
A 1957 newspaper notice supplies the temple’s later address:
138? No—the reported address was 89-31 162nd Street, Jamaica.5
That address provides an important starting point for tracing the property beyond the newspaper accounts.
It does not, by itself, establish the original lot boundaries or the survival of the relocated chapel within any later structure.
A Pipe Organ With a Deadline
In 1909, the lodge contracted with M. P. Möller of Hagerstown, Maryland, for a pipe organ.
The American Guild of Organists’ entry, drawing on the Möller ledger, identifies it as Opus 1021.
The specifications included:
- Two manuals.
- Thirteen ranks.
- Tubular-pneumatic action.
- A birch case.
- A contract price of $2,500.
The contract required delivery by November 1, adding the emphatic word “Positively.”
The organ shipped on October 8.7
The ledger details document another investment in the temple’s interior.
They do not establish the instrument’s later alterations, removal or present whereabouts.
Plans for Columns and Bronze Doors
In August 1911, the lodge filed plans for a $10,000 addition.
The proposed three-story brick extension would bring the building forward from the old chapel’s façade to the street line.
Newspaper descriptions promised an ornamental brick front, a tile cornice and limestone trim.
The entrance was to have massive flanking columns and bronze doors.
Inside, the plans placed a new banquet hall above the lodge room.8
The proposal would have given the relocated chapel a more imposing street presence.
It also suggests another reworking of the building’s internal arrangement after the 1902 dedication.
The distinction between plans and completion remains important.
The cited articles describe the proposed work. A completion notice, building record or dated photograph is needed to establish exactly what was built.
Saturday Nights for Soldiers
The temple’s calendar extended beyond lodge meetings.
In November 1917, The Chat described Saturday-night entertainments for soldiers visiting Jamaica.
Under Master Dr. Herbert Noble, the lodge opened the building for dancing and performances by local entertainers.
Women participated in the gatherings, and one Saturday reportedly brought more than 150 soldiers.9
The account places the temple within the neighborhood’s wartime hospitality efforts.
It also shows how a building fitted for ceremonies and banquets could serve a different audience without ceasing to be a Masonic home.
Dinners and a Hospital Gift
The banquet hall also hosted the lodge’s annual dinners.
A January 1916 account included local officeholders among the guests, including a surrogate and a sewer commissioner.10
In October 1923, the lodge made a substantial commitment to Jamaica Hospital’s building campaign.
The Brooklyn Daily Times reported a gift of $11,500, describing it as the largest single contribution in the campaign at that point.
The money was associated with a six-bed men’s ward, with the lodge’s name to appear on a tablet above the entrance.11
The contribution belonged to the lodge rather than to the building itself.
Its place in the temple’s history is the role of the meeting hall as the setting in which members conducted business and approved commitments extending beyond their own institution.
A Home for Woodhull
The temple also supported the beginnings of another lodge.
Woodhull Lodge was organized there in January 1921.
Later notices document its installations and degree work in the building during the 1920s.12
The relationship continued into the postwar period.
A 1957 notice placed the commissioning of a Woodhull Past Master as District Deputy for the Second Queens District at the Masonic Temple, 89-31 162nd Street.5
These references show Jamaica’s temple serving more than its owner lodge.
It was also a setting in which another institution organized, worked and maintained connections with the wider district.
Read Woodhull Lodge No. 982: Jamaica’s Offshoot in Queens.
What Became of the Temple?
The references assembled for this article document the building into the 1950s.
Its later property history remains unresolved.
According to the author’s compilation of Grand Lodge records, Jamaica consolidated with Woodhull in 1985 and with Suburban-Queens Village in 1998, becoming Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge No. 546.13
The later lodge website places Jamaica-Queens Village in Rockville Centre before its 2013 consolidation into Springfield Gardens.14
Those institutional milestones do not establish when the lodge left Union Avenue.
Nor do they identify when the property changed hands, whether the building was altered again or what survives at the historic address.
Those questions require deeds, building records, tax maps, directories and dated photographs.
For the incoming 1998 branch, read Suburban-Queens Village Lodge: Three Histories, One Consolidated Lodge.
For the complete succession, read Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Nine Lodges, One Living History.
A Religious Building Remade for Masonic Use
The Union Avenue temple began with a relocation.
Jamaica Lodge took a chapel associated with a local congregation and adapted it as a permanent Masonic home.
The subsequent record includes an organ contract, enlargement plans, dinners, wartime entertainments, charitable commitments and another lodge’s beginnings.
Its story offers a useful counterpart to the Springfield Gardens temple, which the cited building history later identifies with church use.
On Union Avenue, the documented movement ran in the other direction: from chapel to Masonic temple.
The building’s later fate remains to be traced.
Its early transformation is already distinctive—a lodge leaving rented municipal rooms and making a home from a building that had served another purpose.
Sources and Research Notes
The references below follow the author’s supplied manuscript and research notes. Direct newspaper-clipping URLs were not supplied, so the source-note links lead to these citations rather than to speculative archive pages.
- “At Jamaica Lodge,” Brooklyn Daily Times, June 23, 1897, p. 6. Refurnished Town Hall lodge room, visiting guests, ceremonial furnishings and the goat display.
2. “Freemasons Bar Police from Jamaica Town Hall,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 26, 1902, p. 6. Police plans, the lodge’s April 1 departure and the reported lease extending to 1907. The final resolution of the dispute is not established here.
3. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 16, 1902, p. 11, dedication notice; dedication report datelined Jamaica, October 23, 1902. Chapel purchase and relocation, remodeling, October 22 dedication, visiting Masons, ceremonial proceedings and banquet room.
4. “First Reformed Church (Queens),” Wikipedia; First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, “Our History.” Background references supplied for the neighborhood’s religious history. The congregations and their respective buildings should be kept distinct; these references are not used here to establish an exact early shared-meetinghouse chronology.
5. “Nichols to Be Named Master,” Daily News, June 30, 1957, p. 248. Masonic Temple address at 89-31 162nd Street and the Woodhull-associated district appointment.
6. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Jamaica street-name concordance, as cited in the author’s research. Union Avenue identified with later 162nd Street. Exact document details remain to be added.
7. New York City Chapter, American Guild of Organists, “Masonic Temple, Jamaica,” drawing on the Möller ledger, Opus 1021. Organ specifications, $2,500 price, delivery requirement and October 8, 1909 shipment.
8. “Masons to Spend $10,000,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 25, 1911, p. 3; The Chat, September 2, 1911, p. 29. Proposed addition, façade treatment, entrance and interior arrangement. These reports establish plans, not independently verified completion.
9. “This Masonic Lodge Is Making Soldiers Happy,” The Chat, November 17, 1917. Saturday-night entertainments under Master Dr. Herbert Noble and reported soldier attendance.
10. “Jamaica Masons Dine,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 21, 1916, p. 5. Annual dinner and participating officeholders.
11. “Masons Give $11,500 to Jamaica Hospital,” Brooklyn Daily Times, October 25, 1923, p. 6. Hospital-building contribution and planned six-bed ward recognition. The comparative size of the gift is attributed to the contemporary report.
12. Brooklyn Daily Times, January 6, 1921, p. 4; Brooklyn Eagle, January 14, 1922, p. 20; The Chat, February 16, 1929, p. 5. Woodhull’s organization and later activities at Jamaica’s temple.
13. Grand Lodge of New York records, as compiled by Brete Murphy. Jamaica’s consolidation with Woodhull in 1985, consolidation with Suburban-Queens Village in 1998 and the later institutional succession. Dates follow the author’s compilation rather than an independent examination of the original instruments.
14. Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge No. 546 website, lodge page, as cited in the author’s research. Later Rockville Centre meeting place before the 2013 consolidation into Springfield Gardens. A direct or archived page address remains to be added.
A Note on the Evidence
The chapel acquired by Jamaica Lodge should not be confused with the congregation’s principal church building.
The 1902 newspaper coverage establishes the chapel’s relocation and adaptation, but a more detailed construction history requires additional records.
The Town Hall lease dispute is documented here through a newspaper account, not a complete legal file.
The 1909 organ record does not establish the instrument’s later survival.
The 1911 reports describe proposed alterations; their completion remains to be confirmed.
The 1957 address provides a property-research starting point, not a complete parcel history.
Lodge consolidations do not establish when the Union Avenue property was vacated, sold, altered or demolished.
The present condition and use of the historic site remain unresolved in this article.
Questions for Further Research
- Where did the chapel stand before it was moved?
- Who owned and conveyed the Union Avenue lot?
- Who designed and carried out the 1902 remodeling?
- How was the Town Hall lease dispute resolved?
- Were the 1911 addition and ornamental entrance completed as proposed?
- Do photographs show the chapel before and after its alterations?
- What became of the Möller organ?
- When did Jamaica Lodge stop meeting at 89-31 162nd Street?
- When did ownership change?
- Does any part of the relocated chapel survive?
Continue the Springfield Gardens Series
The Main Feature
Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Nine Lodges, One Living History
Follow the institutional succession separately from the Union Avenue property history.
The Lodge Organized Here
Woodhull Lodge No. 982: Jamaica’s Offshoot in Queens
Explore the institution that began in Jamaica’s temple in 1921.
The 1998 Consolidation Partner
Suburban-Queens Village Lodge: Three Histories, One Consolidated Lodge
Read the history of the combined institution that joined Jamaica in 1998.
Another Temple’s Change of Use
Springfield Gardens Masonic Temple: A Community House Before a Lodge
Compare a purpose-built Masonic community hall with Jamaica’s relocated chapel.
The Series Overview
Open the Springfield Gardens Lodge Series
Find related lodge histories, building articles and meeting-place studies.
Springfield Gardens Main Feature · Series Overview · Woodhull Lodge History
Masonic Buildings in Queens · Lodge Histories · Queens History and Freemasonry
