By Brete Murphy · November 9, 2026
Metropolitan’s notices place its meetings in Manhattan and its members’ homes across Brooklyn, Queens and the suburbs. Its long middle history runs through rented rooms, family entertainments, a Brooklyn revue and the 1972 consolidation with Whitestone.
← Part 2: Atwood and the 1852 Division · The 273 Line: Start Here · Part 4: Whitestone Lodge and Its Temple →
In November 1857, Metropolitan Lodge invited “the Masonic fraternity, with their lady friends” to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
The place was the Corinthian Room of Odd Fellows’ Hall at Grand and Centre Streets. The promised attraction was “a choice and very select programme of entertainments.”
Metropolitan was five years out of the Atwood division. It had a name, a number and an anniversary worth bringing families to.
Its later notices would trace a succession of Manhattan rooms.
Its members’ addresses would tell a different story.
By the twentieth century, Metropolitan men appeared in Flatbush, Glendale, Woodhaven, Queens Village, Lynbrook and places farther out. They belonged to a Manhattan lodge without necessarily living in Manhattan.
In 1972, Metropolitan joined Whitestone Lodge No. 973.
The exact date of its last Manhattan meeting remains to be established. The longer pattern is already visible: the membership’s geography had widened well before the consolidation.
Rooms Along the Way
Metropolitan’s surviving notices identify rooms in buildings used for other purposes as well as for Masonic meetings.
The 1857 anniversary took place at Odd Fellows’ Hall on Grand Street, a building also associated with City Lodge No. 408, an ancestor of today’s Advance Service Mizpah Lodge.
By 1861, a notice placed Metropolitan at 817–819 Broadway. In 1870, its address was 594 Broadway, another building appearing in City Lodge’s history.
The shared addresses connect the two research trails. They do not, without matching dates and room records, establish that the lodges occupied the same room at the same time.
In 1873 and 1875, Metropolitan’s notices placed it over the Germania Savings Bank at the southeast corner of Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue.
The addresses make an itinerary through Manhattan, but not yet a complete property history. The evidence assembled here does not establish that Metropolitan never owned property.
What it does preserve is a lodge conducting its affairs in a succession of shared urban buildings.
Read City Lodge No. 408: A Manhattan Branch of the Queens Story →
At Masonic Hall
By 1896, Metropolitan was listed at “Masonic Hall,” meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays.
The original Masonic Hall at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue had been dedicated in June 1875. It was later replaced as the Grand Lodge’s complex developed.
The Livingston Masonic Library’s account of the earlier building preserves its cornerstone and dedication history.
Metropolitan’s own later references are more important to this article than the complete construction chronology.
A 1924 notice gave its address as 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue.
In April 1942, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that Harry W. Ludlam, a Mill Neck police justice, had been taken ill “while attending a meeting of Metropolitan Lodge 273” at the Masonic Temple, 71 West 23rd Street.
That report supplies a definite Manhattan meeting place late in the lodge’s separate history.
It also puts the larger pattern into a single scene: a member associated with a Long Island community attending his lodge in Manhattan.
The Men in the Notices
The nineteenth-century member notices open onto working lives beyond the lodge room.
Colonel John H. Waterhouse, who died in Harlem in July 1879, had arrived in New York as a sixteen-year-old country boy in the 1820s.
The newspaper account followed him from dry-goods clerk to partner and broker. He had commanded the Eleventh Regiment of the militia and had been on duty during the Astor Place riot of 1849.
The New York Times reported that Metropolitan Lodge, “with which he had been for many years associated,” would attend his funeral in a body.
Another 1879 notice identified Daniel W. Harrington as a charter member.
An election report named William Fowler as Master in December 1874. Reports from 1896 and 1897 identify Henry Comstock among the lodge’s leaders.
The 1896 installation included entertainment, dancing and a banquet for members’ families.
These are different kinds of entries: a funeral, an election, a family evening. Together they show the lodge as more than a place where officers conducted a meeting.
Its public record included the milestones of members’ lives and occasions on which their families entered the institution’s social world.
A Link Back to Atwood’s World
Charles Sotheran adds another connection.
A journalist and author, Sotheran had been made a Mason in England and later affiliated with Metropolitan, according to the 1902 newspaper account used for this article.
The same account identified him with the Cerneau Scottish Rite.
That affiliation provides a point of comparison with the earlier Atwood research, where Cerneau connections also appear.
It should not be treated as proof that Metropolitan maintained an unchanged institutional position across half a century. One member’s affiliation cannot establish the policy or allegiance of an entire lodge.
It does show how the biography of a later member can reopen a subject encountered near the beginning of the line.
Return to Part 2: Atwood Lodge and the Birth of Metropolitan →
A Manhattan Lodge With a Borough Address Book
The secretary’s address offers an early hint.
In 1896, Metropolitan’s published contact information included a post-office box in Rutherford, New Jersey.
A mailing address alone does not establish residence. It does show that the lodge’s working connections were not confined to the neighborhood around its meeting room.
The later member notices are more explicit.
They include an electrical contractor on Patchen Avenue in Brooklyn, a Flatbush politician associated with a china works, a fireproofing contractor on Ocean Avenue and a Lynbrook engineer.
Other notices identify members in Glendale, Woodhaven, Queens Village, Mount Vernon, Yonkers, Freeport and Mill Neck.
This is not a complete membership survey. Obituaries favor particular people and particular moments, and the available packet may not represent the lodge as a whole.
Even with that limitation, the geographical reach is unmistakable.
The meeting notices tell us where the lodge assembled. The member notices tell us where some of its people had made their homes.
Those were no longer the same map.
Metropolitan Follies
In February 1924, Metropolitan’s social life crossed the river in a more conspicuous way.
Its Fellowcraft Club arranged an original charitable revue, “Metropolitan Follies,” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
H. D. Peckham, a member living on East 17th Street in Brooklyn, wrote the book and lyrics and appeared as Dr. Wimple.
Arthur F. Dolan of Corona and George F. Fowler of Freeport assisted him.
The advertised songs included “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “When I Get Home in the Morning.”
The Brooklyn Eagle’s cast list supplied numerous Brooklyn addresses.
The advance notices place the performance on February 25. They document the production being organized and advertised; a review or report after the event would strengthen the account of what actually occurred on stage.
Even as an announced undertaking, it reveals something the meeting address alone cannot.
A Manhattan lodge’s members could organize a substantial social event in Brooklyn, with participants drawn from Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.
The lodge room was one center of activity, not the boundary of the institution.
Anniversaries and Continuing Connections
Metropolitan marked its anniversaries with public entertainments as well as lodge proceedings.
In August 1902, the Brooklyn Eagle announced plans for the fiftieth anniversary that October at Terrace Garden, near Third Avenue and 59th Street.
The program was to include a reception, supper and dancing.
The notice establishes the plan, rather than independently confirming the completed celebration. It nevertheless shows the scale on which the lodge intended to mark fifty years.
A later notice places another Metropolitan connection outside Manhattan.
In May 1950, the New Rochelle Standard-Star reported the appointment of Wallace I. Ellis, a Metropolitan Past Master, as District Deputy Grand Master for the Third Manhattan District.
His association with New Rochelle and office in a Manhattan district fit the larger pattern.
Lodge affiliation, district service and place of residence did not have to share an address.
Coming to Whitestone
Grand Lodge records supplied by the author date the consolidation of Metropolitan Lodge No. 273 and Whitestone Lodge No. 973 to December 21, 1972.
The combined body retained Metropolitan’s older number and both names:
Metropolitan-Whitestone Lodge No. 273.
A corporate listing gives January 16, 1974, as an incorporation date for an entity named Metropolitan Whitestone Lodge No. 273.
That legal entry is separate from the lodge consolidation. It should not replace the 1972 date or be used, without further records, to establish ownership or the precise terms of the union.
One question remains especially important: where was Metropolitan meeting immediately before the consolidation?
A February 1970 Newsday death notice described it as “Metropolitan Lodge 273 in Queens.”
That may preserve evidence of a move before 1972. It may also be imprecise obituary wording. The notice deserves investigation rather than dismissal.
The last definite Manhattan meeting reference in the present packet is the 1942 West 23rd Street report. The gap between that notice and 1972 still needs directories, lodge returns or minutes.
What is established is the institutional outcome.
By the end of 1972, Metropolitan’s separate history had joined Whitestone’s. The number continued in a combined lodge rooted in northeast Queens.
Continue to Part 4: Whitestone Lodge No. 973 and Its Temple →
What the Addresses Leave Behind
Metropolitan’s history does not describe one simple journey from a Manhattan address to a Queens address.
The members moved in different directions and at different times. Some continued to travel to Manhattan. Some appeared in Brooklyn entertainments. Others remained affiliated while living farther away.
The notices preserve those connections unevenly.
A secretary’s post-office box, a cast member’s street address, a funeral announcement and a report of illness at a meeting each supply a point on the map.
The 1972 consolidation gives that dispersed story an institutional destination, but it does not explain every journey that came before it.
That is what makes Metropolitan the long middle of the 273 line.
The number remained recognizable while the people attached to it made their lives across a wider city.
Metropolitan’s Manhattan Address File
This table distinguishes event venues from documented meeting references.
| Date | Place | What the cited item establishes |
|---|---|---|
| 1857 | Corinthian Room, Odd Fellows’ Hall, Grand and Centre Streets | Fifth-anniversary venue |
| 1861 | 817–819 Broadway | Lodge address in a contemporary notice |
| 1870 | 594 Broadway | Lodge address in contemporary notices |
| 1873–1875 | Germania Savings Bank building, Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue | Lodge-room references |
| 1896 | Masonic Hall | Meeting place; second and fourth Thursdays |
| 1924 | 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue | Published lodge address |
| 1942 | Masonic Temple, 71 West 23rd Street | Report of a member attending a meeting |
The Masonic Hall references may describe successive buildings within the same institutional complex. They should not automatically be counted as three unrelated locations.
Sources and Research Notes
1. The Fifth Anniversary
New York Daily Herald, November 10, 1857, p. 2.
Names Louis F. Minard as Master and John Sheville as Secretary and announces the November 12 anniversary entertainment.
The notice establishes the event venue. Regular tenancy in the Corinthian Room requires separate confirmation.
2. Broadway Addresses
- New York Times, May 30, 1861, p. 5.
- New York Herald, December 12 and 13, 1870.
Support the Broadway address sequence.
The comparison with City Lodge No. 408 follows the author’s separate City Lodge research. Matching occupancy dates remain to be established.
3. Germania Savings Bank Rooms
- New York Daily Herald, February 17 and 23, 1873.
- New York Daily Herald, February 18, 1875.
Support the Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue location.
4. Masonic Hall and the 1942 Meeting
- New-York Tribune, April 5, 1896.
- Brooklyn Citizen, February 11, 1924.
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 24, 1942: Harry W. Ludlam.
For background on the original building, see the Livingston Masonic Library’s “1875 Masonic Hall Exhibit”.
The library’s Masonic Temple stereograph article provides another account of the earlier hall and its replacement.
The article avoids assigning a single replacement date because the online descriptions are not fully consistent about the sequence.
5. John H. Waterhouse
- New York Times, July 7, 1879, p. 8.
- New York Daily Herald, July 7, 1879.
Support his career, militia service and Metropolitan affiliation.
6. Daniel W. Harrington
New York Daily Herald, December 18, 1879.
Identifies him as a charter member; names Benjamin E. Haskin as Master.
7. Officers and the Rutherford Contact
- New York Times, December 12, 1874.
- New-York Tribune, January 12 and April 5, 1896.
- New-York Tribune, January 10, 1897.
Support Fowler’s election, Comstock-era activities and the secretary’s published mailing address.
A mailing address is not treated as conclusive proof of residence.
8. Charles Sotheran
Brooklyn Daily Times, July 5, 1902.
Supports his biography, Metropolitan affiliation and Cerneau Scottish Rite office.
The comparison with Atwood is interpretive and should not be expanded into a claim of continuous lodge policy.
9. Members’ Residential Geography
- Brooklyn Eagle, January 25 and February 14, 1919.
- Brooklyn Eagle, August 21, 1927.
- Brooklyn Eagle, June 13, 1933.
- Times Union, May 2, 1934.
- Mount Vernon Argus, September 7, 1934.
- Brooklyn Eagle, October 14, 1943.
- Brooklyn Eagle, January 25, 1944.
- Herald Statesman, September 9, 1927.
These examples establish individual connections. They are not a representative statistical sample of the membership.
10. Metropolitan Follies
- Brooklyn Citizen, February 11, 1924.
- Times Union, February 10 and 17, 1924.
- Brooklyn Eagle, February 17, 1924.
Support the advertised production, participants, songs and addresses.
These are advance references. A post-performance account remains a useful research target.
11. Fiftieth-Anniversary Plans
Brooklyn Eagle, August 9, 1902.
Announces the planned October celebration at Terrace Garden.
12. Wallace I. Ellis
Standard-Star, New Rochelle, May 25, 1950.
Reports his appointment as District Deputy Grand Master for the Third Manhattan District.
13. Consolidation and Incorporation
Grand Lodge of New York records supplied by Brete Murphy:
- Metropolitan and Whitestone consolidation: December 21, 1972.
Corporate listing:
- Metropolitan Whitestone Lodge No. 273, incorporation dated January 16, 1974.
The corporate record and the lodge consolidation record concern distinct events. A direct corporate-record link was not supplied.
14. The 1970 Queens Reference
Newsday, February 14, 1970: Francis Robert Ewing.
Describes Metropolitan Lodge No. 273 as being “in Queens.”
The reference is preserved as an unresolved lead. It does not, by itself, establish a regular meeting address or move date.
A Note on the Record
The principal newspaper references follow the author’s supplied research. Direct clipping URLs were not supplied.
OCR errors affect some lodge numbers and names. Page images should control where available.
The article does not establish that Metropolitan never owned property.
It does not claim uninterrupted Manhattan meetings through December 1972.
Anniversary venues, entertainment venues, mailing addresses and funeral locations are distinguished from regular lodge rooms.
Questions for Further Research
- Where did Metropolitan meet between 1942 and 1972?
- Does the 1970 Queens reference correspond to a documented move?
- Does F. C. Ewer’s 1865 installation address identify that year’s officers or meeting place?
- Who arranged the Whitestone consolidation, and what reasons appear in the minutes?
- Did City and Metropolitan occupy Odd Fellows’ Hall during the same years?
- What survives of Metropolitan’s charter, jewels and minute books?
- Is there a contemporary review confirming the performance of Metropolitan Follies?
Follow the 273 Line
- Part 1: The 273 Line—Start Here
- Part 2: Atwood Lodge and the 1852 Division
- Part 3: The Lodge That Commuted—Metropolitan No. 273 — You are here.
- Part 4: Whitestone Lodge No. 973 and Its Temple
- Part 5: Bayside Lodge No. 999 and the Bell Boulevard Temple
- Part 6: Arthur E. Wenige—One Lodge Room, Two Temples
- Part 7: Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 and Brandeis
Related Reading
- City Lodge No. 408: A Manhattan Connection
- The 273 Line: Research Dossier and Series Roadmap
- The Lodges That Built Queens: Series Overview
← Part 2: Atwood and the Division · The 273 Line: Overview · Part 4: Whitestone Lodge →
