A stoneworker’s gift, a father’s example, and a son’s rise through the officers’ chairs tied one Astoria family to the lodge’s Grand Avenue home.
Advance Lodge No. 635: Lodge History · The Lodges That Built Queens: Series Overview · Related: A Cornerstone, a Dinner, and a Borough in a Hurry
Two men named James Prowse appear in the records of Advance Lodge No. 635, father and son. It was the younger James Prowse—a marble buffer and monumental stone cutter—who gave the lodge the cornerstone of its new temple. He also worked his way through the lodge’s officer ranks before helping establish Astoria Lodge No. 963 and eventually becoming its Master.
His father, also named James Prowse, was a past master who lived to speak at his son’s testimonial. Between them, the Prowses were not just names on a membership roll. Their story connects a working trade, a substantial gift, and two generations of Masonic service in Astoria, Queens.
James Prowse Jr. and the 1915 Cornerstone
On November 20, 1915, a crowd gathered on Grand Avenue, east of Van Alst Avenue, in Queens, to watch the cornerstone of Advance Lodge’s new Temple set into place. Grand Master George Freifeld and his staff performed the ceremony. Brother Henry Martin, who had compiled a historical record of the lodge for the occasion, set down what the members hoped would follow: a completed and dedicated Temple, where the mysteries and beauties of Ancient Craft Masonry could be revealed more fittingly to those admitted within the lodge’s gates.
Then, in the middle of that hopeful passage, Martin names the man behind the stone. It had been “so kindly donated by Brother James Prowse.”
The donor was James Prowse Jr., the same man whose occupation was recorded as marble buffer and monumental stone cutter. That connection gives the gift a particular resonance. Stone was not merely a symbol in his lodge life. It was material he knew through his working life.
The records do not establish that Prowse personally cut, finished, or inscribed the cornerstone. They establish that he donated it. The distinction matters: his trade helps explain the significance of the contribution without telling us precisely how the stone was prepared.
The Cornerstone in the Ledger of Gifts
Martin’s history includes a section on the building era, 1900 to 1916, and it carries a running list of what members and friends had given toward the new home. Some entries are the sort one expects. One is almost austere in its brevity:
“W.. Brother James Prowse—The cornerstone.”
The entry does not include a generational suffix. Its abbreviated form should therefore be preserved as written, rather than expanded into a different quotation. The cornerstone donor was the younger James Prowse, not his father.
The line is brief, but the contribution was substantial in meaning. A cornerstone marked the beginning of the lodge’s new home, and Martin recorded its donor both in the account of the ceremony and in the ledger of gifts. For a man who worked in marble and monumental stone, it was a contribution closely connected to his craft.
James Prowse Jr. Takes a Chair
By the time of the cornerstone ceremony, the younger Prowse had been inside Advance Lodge for fifteen years. He was raised on May 1, 1900, at the age of 30, becoming the 263rd member of the lodge.
An early public record of his standing comes from the lodge’s annual election at the end of 1903. When the Brooklyn Daily Times reported the new officers in January 1904, the slate was led by Peter Guench as Worshipful Master, with John Landwehr as Senior Warden and Frank Devlin as Junior Warden. Among the appointed officers stood “James Prouse, jr., Senior Deacon,” with John Lovell beside him as Junior Deacon. A second notice a week earlier listed the same appointments.
The newspaper rendered the surname as “Prouse,” but identified him as the younger James and placed him in Advance Lodge’s officer line.
The Senior Deacon’s chair was a working post, carrying messages, receiving visitors, and guiding candidates through the ritual. It also placed Prowse on the path of increasing responsibility within the lodge. Long before his later election as Master of Astoria Lodge, he was learning the work of lodge leadership at Advance.
The Prowse Name Beyond the Lodge Room
The name turns up again in January 1919, in a different setting. Both the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Daily Times listed the organizations taking part in a memorial planning effort in Steinway. Advance Lodge No. 635 was represented by John Kindred Gillette. The Welcome Home Social Club was represented by “James Prowse.”
The clipping does not say which James. The Times version rendered the surname as “Prowae,” adding another variation to the newspaper record.
This notice cannot be confidently assigned to either father or son. It does, however, place the Prowse name within the neighborhood’s civic life, on a committee list that brought a social club and a Masonic lodge into the same undertaking.
A New Lodge, a Familiar Name
In 1920, James Prowse Jr. dimitted from Advance Lodge to become a charter member of Astoria Lodge No. 963, a new lodge meeting in the Astoria Masonic Temple. His connection to Advance did not end with a gift of stone. He carried his experience into the establishment and leadership of another lodge.
In January 1926, the Brooklyn Daily Times reported that James Prowse Jr., the newly elected Master of Astoria Lodge, had been guest of honor at a banquet in the Astoria Masonic Temple. The testimonial was given by the lodge’s Fellowcraft Club. Right Worshipful Moses Symington, District Deputy Grand Master, served as master of ceremonies.
Past masters rose to speak. Among them, the paper noted, was “the guest’s father, James Prowse, sr.”
The item is only a few lines, and a second OCR rendering of the same newspaper item garbled the elder man’s surname as “Prowsie.” But the family relationship is explicit. The son was the honored Master, and his father was among those who spoke for him.
A decade earlier, the younger Prowse had donated the cornerstone of Advance Lodge’s new home. Now he held the gavel of Astoria Lodge, with his father present to recognize his service.
What the Stone Held
It would be easy to say too much about all this. The records do not tell us how James Prowse Jr. came to donate the cornerstone, what role he may have played in preparing it, or what he felt when he later became Master of Astoria Lodge. His occupation does not prove that he made the stone himself.
What the documents do show is a direct connection between craft and contribution. The man who donated Advance Lodge’s cornerstone worked in marble and monumental stone. He also served as an officer, helped establish another lodge, and became its Master.
His father belongs to that story in his own right: a past master who lived to speak at his son’s testimonial. Their roles should not be confused. The father provided an earlier generation of lodge service; the son gave the cornerstone and carried his own service into a new lodge.
In the history of Advance Lodge No. 635, James Prowse Jr.’s contribution was therefore more than an isolated donation. His record joins the material work of building a lodge home with the continuing work of sustaining its traditions. He gave a stone, learned the duties of office, and helped another lodge take its place in Astoria’s Masonic community.
Endnotes
Lodge Records
- Henry Martin, “Historical Data of Advance Lodge No. 635 F&AM,” compiled for the laying of the cornerstone of the Temple, Grand Avenue east of Van Alst Avenue, Queens, November 20, 1915 (A.L. 5915).
- Henry Martin, “1900–1916 The Building Era,” section of the same manuscript, listing gifts to the Temple.
- Advance Lodge No. 635 membership and officer records, including the raising of James Prowse Jr. on May 1, 1900, his occupation as a marble buffer and monumental stone cutter, and his later dimit to Astoria Lodge No. 963.
Newspapers
- “Officers Elected,” The Brooklyn Daily Times, January 2, 1904, p. 9.
- Report of the annual election of Advance Lodge No. 635, The Brooklyn Daily Times, January 9, 1904, p. 20.
- Steinway memorial planning notice, Brooklyn Eagle, January 8, 1919, p. 10.
- Steinway memorial planning notice, The Brooklyn Daily Times, January 8, 1919, p. 7.
- “Prowse Guest at Dinner,” The Brooklyn Daily Times, January 31, 1926, p. 37 (two OCR renderings of the same item).
Continue Reading
- Advance Lodge No. 635 — The lodge history behind the Prowse family’s service and its Grand Avenue home.
- A Cornerstone, a Dinner, and a Borough in a Hurry — A related story from the lodge-building era.
- John I. Lovell of Advance Lodge No. 635 — Another member of Advance Lodge’s officer line.
- Second Floor, Near the Station
- The Lodges That Built Queens: Start Here — Explore the full series.
