By Brete Murphy · November 11, 2026
James Prowse Sr. donated Advance Lodge’s cornerstone and later helped organize Astoria Lodge. His son, a monumental stone cutter raised in Advance in 1900, became Astoria’s Master in 1926. Their separate contributions connect two present Queens lodge lineages.
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At Advance Lodge’s cornerstone ceremony on November 20, 1915, Henry Martin read a history of the institution.
Among the contributions he recorded was the cornerstone itself.
The donor was James Prowse Sr.[1]
The author’s temple research identifies that stone at the corner of the building now addressed as 21-14 30th Avenue in Astoria.
Its inscriptions connect Advance’s beginning in 1867 with the building project of 1915.[2]
The gift supplies one part of this story.
Another belongs to the donor’s son, James Prowse Jr., whose record in Advance began fifteen years before the ceremony.
Father and son later became associated with Astoria Lodge No. 963.
The father helped organize it.
The son became its Master.
Their careers connect Advance’s building with an institution whose later history continued in College Point.
The Son’s Record in Advance
Advance’s register, as examined and summarized by Brete Murphy, records James Prowse Jr.’s raising as a Master Mason on May 1, 1900.
He was thirty years old and became the lodge’s 263rd member.
He served as senior deacon in 1904.[3]
The register also identifies his work as a marble buffer and monumental stone cutter.
That occupational description is a useful point of connection with the later cornerstone gift.
It is not evidence that he made the stone.
Nor does the son’s register entry establish the father’s trade or the date when the father entered Masonry.
Those questions remain unresolved.
The record is clearer for the son at this stage: a named member, a dated degree, an occupation and an office within Advance.
The Father’s Gift
Martin’s 1915 history credits James Prowse Sr. with donating the cornerstone.
The distinction between donor and maker matters.
The supplied account does not identify who quarried, supplied, dressed or carved the stone.
It therefore does not establish that the younger Prowse performed any of that work.[1]
The donation nevertheless gave the father a specific place in the building history.
Other members contributed money, services or materials. His contribution was the stone around which the public ceremony was organized.
The author’s temple history dates the finished building’s dedication to November 14, 1916.[2]
The cornerstone remained part of Advance’s home.
Its donor’s institutional story did not remain confined to Advance.
Read Advance’s Temple-Building Story →
A New Lodge in the Same Building
The Anchor-Astoria history identifies James Prowse Sr. among thirteen Masons who agreed in 1918 to organize a new lodge in Astoria.
The group’s story is told more fully in “The Thirteen Who Left Advance.”
Here, the important connection is the father’s participation and the new institution’s first meeting place.[4]
On June 27, 1919, Edward J. Smith presented its dispensation at a meeting in the Masonic Temple at 114 Grand Avenue.
That was Advance’s building.
The new lodge therefore began its work in the temple whose cornerstone Prowse Sr. had donated.
This was institutional separation without an immediate geographical departure.
The available account does not establish a dispute or justify describing the organization as a walkout.
The shared premises are the documented relationship.
On June 2, 1920, Grand Master Robert H. Robinson constituted Astoria Lodge No. 963.[4]
Advance’s record states that the younger Prowse dimitted in 1920 to become an Astoria charter member.[3]
A dimit records his departure from membership in the earlier lodge. It should not be treated as evidence of disagreement.
By then, father and son were associated with the same new institution.
Read The Thirteen Who Left Advance →
Read Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens →
The Son Becomes Master
In 1926, James Prowse Jr. became Master of Astoria Lodge.
The supplied banquet report places his father among the speakers and describes the elder Prowse as a Past Master.[5]
The report does not establish which lodge he had served in that capacity.
That omission should remain visible.
It would be premature to assign him an Advance or Astoria mastership without an officer list, minutes or another contemporary reference.
The son’s position is clearer.
Six years after Astoria’s constitution, he presided over the lodge his father had helped organize.
The two contributions were different.
The father belonged to the organizing group.
The son’s record connects membership in Advance, transfer to Astoria and subsequent leadership there.
The relationship is strongest when neither career is made to stand in for the other.
Beyond the Lodge Record
The author’s Advance research notes also associate the younger Prowse with Astoria school-board activity in 1932 and 1937.
Those references suggest another area of his public life.
They do not yet establish his exact title, responsibilities or length of service.[3]
Until the underlying notices or official records are examined, the school-board connection remains a research lead rather than a completed civic biography.
The same caution applies to both men’s personal histories.
Their birth and death dates, the father’s occupation and the extent of any family stone business remain to be established.
The lodge records provide a substantial connection without supplying every part of their lives.
Two Present Lineages
Astoria Lodge consolidated with Anchor Lodge on December 1, 1985, becoming Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729.
Its institutional continuation now belongs to the College Point line.[4]
Advance followed a different consolidation sequence and is represented within Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586.
The Astoria temple remains its meeting place under the author’s present-day account.[2]
The Prowse connection therefore reaches into two of the seven current Queens District lodge histories.
It does not mean that a separate Astoria charter now conducts independent work in College Point.
It means Astoria’s history continues within Anchor-Astoria.
Likewise, the cornerstone belongs to Advance’s building history while the present lodge carries additional constituent identities.
Read Anchor-Astoria: Across Queens to College Point →
Read Advance Service Mizpah: Three Kinds of Queens →
What the Father and Son Connect
A consolidation diagram records the later institutional paths.
The two Prowse careers explain an earlier human connection between them.
The father gave Advance a cornerstone.
He later helped organize another lodge that began meeting in the same temple.
The son entered Advance, transferred to Astoria and became its Master.
None of those facts requires a story of rupture.
Together, they show how membership, family relationships and access to a building could connect institutions that remained separate.
The stone is still identified with the Astoria temple.
Astoria Lodge’s later history belongs in College Point.
Between those places stand two men with the same name—and different, documented contributions.
Endnotes
1. The Cornerstone Donation
Henry Martin, “Historical Data of Advance Lodge,” read at the cornerstone ceremony on November 20, 1915.
Credits James Prowse Sr. with donating the cornerstone.
The reference does not identify the stone’s maker or establish the younger Prowse’s participation in its production.
2. Advance’s Temple
The author’s Advance lodge, temple and cornerstone research.
Supplies the present building identification, inscription references, November 14, 1916 dedication and later institutional continuation.
See:
The cornerstone’s presence is distinguished from a claim about its structural role.
3. James Prowse Jr.
Records of Advance Lodge No. 635, as examined and summarized by Brete Murphy.
The supplied summary records:
- Raised May 1, 1900.
- Age thirty.
- Member No. 263.
- Marble buffer and monumental stone cutter.
- Senior deacon in 1904.
- Dimitted in 1920 to become an Astoria charter member.
The school-board references for 1932 and 1937 come from the author’s research notes.
The exact civic office remains unresolved.
4. Astoria Lodge
Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729, “History,” approximately 1998, as transcribed in the author’s research packet.
Supports:
- The organizing group.
- James Prowse Sr.’s participation.
- The June 27, 1919 first meeting under dispensation.
- The June 2, 1920 constitution.
- The December 1, 1985 consolidation with Anchor.
See The Thirteen Who Left Advance.
The article does not infer conflict from the formation of the new lodge.
5. The 1926 Banquet
James Prowse clippings packet supplied by Brete Murphy.
The banquet report identifies the younger Prowse as Astoria’s Master and the elder Prowse as a Past Master.
The father’s lodge of mastership remains unconfirmed.
The exact newspaper title, publication date and page should be added from the clipping before final publication.
6. Scope and Remaining Gaps
This article distinguishes the father’s cornerstone donation from the son’s documented stoneworking occupation.
It does not claim that either man carved the cornerstone.
It does not establish the father’s raising, occupation or lodge of mastership.
The separate James Prowse Sr. member feature contains additional research but is not linked here because its publication path was not supplied.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- When and where was James Prowse Sr. raised?
- What was his occupation?
- Which lodge did he serve as Master?
- What were both men’s birth and death dates?
- What exact school-board role did the younger Prowse hold?
- Did either man operate or work for an identifiable stone business?
- Do invoices, minutes or correspondence identify the cornerstone’s maker?
- Did either man supply stone for another Masonic building?
Follow the Two Lodge Lineages
- Advance Lodge No. 635
- Advance Service Mizpah: Three Kinds of Queens
- Anchor-Astoria: Across Queens to College Point
Continue Through the Connecting Stories
- The Thirteen Who Left Advance
- Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens
- The Engineer’s Room
- Where the Lines Meet: The College Point Temple
- Connecting Stories: Complete Guide
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