Queens History and Freemasonry / Springfield Gardens Series / Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge
Part of the Springfield Gardens Lodge series · An institutional history within The Lodges That Built Queens
Main Feature: Nine Lodges, One Living History · Series Overview · Jamaica Lodge History
In 1998, two already-combined branches joined under Jamaica’s Civil War-era number. For fifteen years, Jamaica-Queens Village carried five founding lodge histories before entering Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057 in 2013.
November 10, 2026 · By Brete Murphy
Who Came Together
On April 24, 1998, Jamaica Lodge No. 546 consolidated with Suburban-Queens Village Lodge.
The new institution became Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge No. 546.
The date and relationship follow the author’s compilation of Grand Lodge records.
The union brought together more than the two names suggest.
Each partner already carried an earlier consolidation history.
Jamaica had taken in Woodhull. The Suburban-Queens Village branch had been joined by Prosperity.
Five separately founded lodge identities therefore met in the combined institution.
Jamaica Lodge No. 546
Chartered in 1864, Jamaica was the oldest branch.
Its history included rented rooms in the old Jamaica Town Hall and a temple created from a relocated church chapel on Union Avenue.
It had supported Cornucopia’s application in Flushing and supplied the setting in which Woodhull began.
Read Jamaica Lodge No. 546: A Mother Lodge of Southeast Queens.
Woodhull Lodge No. 982
Woodhull organized in Jamaica’s temple in 1921.
A contemporary newspaper described it as an offshoot of Jamaica Lodge.
It merged into Jamaica in 1985, according to the author’s consolidation research.
Its later presence within Jamaica-Queens Village was therefore indirect: Woodhull had already ceased operating separately before the 1998 union.
Read Woodhull Lodge No. 982: The Search for a Temple of Its Own.
Queens Village Lodge No. 1046
Queens Village was chartered in 1925.
Newspaper notices place its lodge room in the Queens Village Community House at 214th Street and Jamaica Avenue.
It consolidated with Suburban on March 27, 1981.
Suburban Lodge No. 1087
Suburban was chartered in 1928 and constituted that May at Tadmor’s temple in Ridgewood.
It continued using the building in later years.
Its history demonstrates that a lodge could establish a lasting identity without commissioning a separate temple.
For the building, read Tadmor’s Two Masonic Temples: From Fresh Pond Road to Summerfield Street.
Prosperity Lodge No. 962
Prosperity was chartered in 1920 and met at Hillside’s Woodhaven temple by 1925.
It joined the Suburban-Queens Village branch in 1984.
The supplied transcription is inconsistent about the combined lodge’s intermediate number after that union. That detail requires comparison with the original records.
The uncertainty does not change the broader relationship: Prosperity’s history entered Jamaica-Queens Village through the branch that united with Jamaica in 1998.
Read The Hillside Temple in Woodhaven.
What the Old Number Meant
The combined lodge retained No. 546.
That number connected the new institution with Jamaica’s 1864 charter.
Its website continued to describe service to the Queens District and Grand Lodge “since 1864,” according to the excerpt preserved in the author’s research.
The wording expressed institutional continuity.
It did not mean that the name Jamaica-Queens Village had existed since the Civil War.
That name dated from 1998.
Nor should the five founding identities be described as five separately operating lodges after the consolidation.
Their histories had entered one combined institution through successive unions.
“Five lodge histories” is also more precise than “five charters” unless the physical survival and location of the original documents have been established.
A Queens Lodge in Nassau County
By its final years, Jamaica-Queens Village was meeting at the Rockville Centre Masonic Hall, 28 Lincoln Avenue.
Its lodge page gave the regular schedule as the second and fourth Tuesdays.
The address was in Nassau County, while the institution retained a Queens identity.
The same page identified events elsewhere, including a dinner and presentation at an American Legion post on Elizabeth Street in Floral Park.
These references establish a calendar extending beyond the neighborhoods in the combined name.
They do not establish the date of the move to Rockville Centre or a single reason for choosing that location.
Members’ relocation is part of the wider series record, but it should not substitute for minutes documenting the lodge’s actual accommodation decisions.
A Shared Masonic Hall
The Lincoln Avenue building is associated with the Scottish Rite’s Valley of Rockville Centre.
It was not one of the neighborhood temples built by the five predecessor lodges.
A 2018 Long Island Herald profile by Ben Strack describes the hall and the Valley Masonic Historical Society’s museum.
The article also describes a broader role for the building as Masonic groups used shared premises.
That later profile supplies context for the setting.
It is not evidence of every detail of Jamaica-Queens Village’s earlier occupancy.
The dates, terms and ownership arrangements require separate documentation.
For the continuing lodge’s present relationship with the building, read Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: A Queens Lodge Outside Queens.
July 22, 2013
On July 22, 2013, Jamaica-Queens Village entered Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057, according to the supplied consolidation research.
The former lodge’s website recorded the change, describing the institution as “now known as Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057.”
That wording acknowledged the new operating identity.
Springfield Gardens’ retrospective history treats the union as a major development following its earlier consolidations with Dunton and Council-Hillside.
It also recognizes the Past Masters associated with the incoming lodge histories.
The [current Grand Lodge listing for Springfield Gardens](connect | Grand Lodge of New York
connect | Grand Lodge of New York
displays the 2013 date in its charter field.
That date should not be confused with Springfield Gardens’ original 1926 charter.
It belongs to a later stage in the institution’s record.
Did the Meetings Stay in the Same Place?
Jamaica-Queens Village’s former page identifies Rockville Centre and a second-and-fourth-Tuesday schedule.
Springfield Gardens now uses the same address and regular weekdays.
That correspondence suggests continuity of setting.
It does not prove that Springfield Gardens already occupied the building before the merger, that the consolidation required no relocation, or that the same room was used throughout.
Those questions should remain open until calendars, minutes or an occupancy record establish the sequence.
The institutional change is documented more clearly than the precise logistics of the transition.
Fifteen Years Under a Combined Name
Jamaica-Queens Village existed under that name from 1998 to 2013.
Its fifteen-year history was short compared with the 1864 line represented by its number.
But it was not an incidental name between two more important lodges.
It brought together five founding identities from Jamaica, Woodhaven, Queens Village and Ridgewood.
It provided the combined institution through which those histories entered Springfield Gardens.
The number remained 546 until that final consolidation.
Afterward, the separate line continued within No. 1057.
The Last Carrier of No. 546 in This Line
Jamaica-Queens Village joined an old number to a newer combined name.
That arrangement made its purpose visible.
Jamaica’s seniority remained recognizable, while the hyphen acknowledged another branch of the institution’s inheritance.
The lodge did not preserve every predecessor as an independent organization.
It preserved a succession of membership and institutional relationships.
In 2013, that succession entered Springfield Gardens.
The separate use of No. 546 in this lineage ended.
The histories it represented did not.
Sources and Research Notes
Formation and Predecessors
Grand Lodge of New York records, as compiled by Brete Murphy. April 24, 1998 consolidation; predecessor charter and merger dates; July 22, 2013 consolidation into Springfield Gardens.
Author’s Springfield Gardens lineage dossier. Jamaica and Woodhull branch; Queens Village, Suburban and Prosperity branch; intermediate-number discrepancy following Prosperity’s 1984 union.
Related newspaper references and building research presented in the companion Jamaica, Woodhull, Hillside and Tadmor articles.
The Lodge’s Own Page
- Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge No. 546 website, as preserved in the author’s research through a search excerpt. Source for the “since 1864” statement, Rockville Centre address, Tuesday schedule, Floral Park event and consolidation notice.
The original page blocked automated reading during the earlier research. Its statements should remain attributed to the preserved excerpt until a complete copy or archival capture is examined.
A direct page URL has not been supplied here, so no speculative link is assigned.
Rockville Centre
Ben Strack, “Rockville Centre Hall Preserves History, Values of Freemasonry,” Long Island Herald, October 31, 2018. Building, museum and regional Masonic-use context. Published after Jamaica-Queens Village’s consolidation.
[Grand Lodge connect, Springfield Gardens No. 1057](Groupable
Groupable
Present receiving institution, Rockville Centre setting, Queens affiliation and displayed 2013 date.
Institutional Recollection
- Queens Masonic District, history of Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057, as supplied in the author’s research. Retrospective account of the consolidations and inherited Past Masters’ recognition.
A Note on Names, Numbers and Continuity
Jamaica-Queens Village dates from 1998. Its “since 1864” statement refers to the older Jamaica line, not the age of the combined name.
The five-lodge count refers to separately founded institutions. It does not mean five independent lodges continued operating after the merger.
The intermediate number after Prosperity joined the Suburban-Queens Village branch requires confirmation.
The 2013 consolidation date follows the supplied record and the former lodge’s notice. The original instrument would provide the strongest formal confirmation.
The modern Springfield Gardens listing’s 2013 date is not used to replace its original 1926 charter date.
The shared Rockville Centre address and schedule do not, by themselves, establish that the consolidation required no move.
No claim is made that five original charters, all predecessor minutes or every associated artifact are physically held in one location.
Questions for Further Research
- Where did Jamaica-Queens Village first meet after the 1998 consolidation?
- When did it begin using 28 Lincoln Avenue?
- Was Springfield Gardens already meeting there before July 2013?
- Did the consolidation preserve the existing meeting schedule without interruption?
- What legal and financial arrangements accompanied the 1998 and 2013 unions?
- Which official number did the Suburban-Queens Village branch use after Prosperity joined?
- Does a complete archived copy of the former lodge website survive?
- Where are the combined lodge’s minutes, rosters and ceremonial objects?
Continue the Springfield Gardens Series
The Main Feature
Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Nine Lodges, One Living History
Place Jamaica-Queens Village within the complete consolidation framework.
The Series Overview
Open the Springfield Gardens Lodge series
Find the companion lodge histories, building articles and meeting-place studies.
The Older Number
Jamaica Lodge No. 546: A Mother Lodge of Southeast Queens
Follow the 1864 lodge whose number the combined institution retained.
Jamaica’s Earlier Offshoot
Woodhull Lodge No. 982: The Search for a Temple of Its Own
Explore the lodge that entered Jamaica in 1985.
The Continuing Institution in Rockville Centre
Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: A Queens Lodge Outside Queens
Examine the present meeting place and the distinction between Queens affiliation and a Nassau County address.
Related Building Histories
Prosperity’s Woodhaven Setting
The Hillside Temple in Woodhaven
Visit the building used by Prosperity before its later consolidations.
Suburban’s Ridgewood Setting
Tadmor’s Two Masonic Temples: From Fresh Pond Road to Summerfield Street
Explore the temple where Suburban was constituted and later met.
Return to the Springfield Gardens Main Feature · Springfield Gardens Series Overview
Lodge Histories · Active Lodges of Queens · Queens History and Freemasonry
