By Brete Murphy · November 10, 2026
From Jamaica’s nineteenth-century lodge to eight institutions organized during the early twentieth century, Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057 brings together histories from across southern and southeastern Queens. Its present meeting place is across the county line in Rockville Centre.
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Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057 brings together nine constituent lodge histories.
Their beginnings run from Jamaica Lodge’s 1864 charter to Suburban’s constitution in 1928.
Their early meeting places stretched across Jamaica, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Hollis, Queens Village, Springfield Gardens and Ridgewood.
Their consolidation sequence extended over fifty years, from Council’s union with Hillside in 1963 to Jamaica-Queens Village’s consolidation with Springfield Gardens in 2013.
The present lodge meets in Rockville Centre, Nassau County, while remaining part of the Queens Masonic District under the supplied district account.[1]
The result is a Queens institutional lineage with a meeting place outside the borough.
Its history connects several neighborhoods without making their development—or their lodges’ later decisions—one uniform story.
Jamaica: The Nineteenth-Century Beginning
Jamaica Lodge No. 546 received its charter on June 16, 1864, according to the author’s Grand Lodge compilation.
Its early meeting places included Jamaica Town Hall.
In 1902, the lodge dedicated its own temple on Union Avenue, now 162nd Street.[2]
That building later accommodated more than Jamaica’s ordinary meetings.
Tadmor’s constitution took place there in June 1915. Woodhull also used Jamaica’s premises during its separate institutional history.
The author’s research additionally identifies Jamaica’s recommendation of the new Cornucopia lodge in 1864.
These connections establish Jamaica as a participant in a wider network.
They do not make every lodge it recommended or hosted part of its eventual consolidation line.
Cornucopia remained independent. Tadmor did too.
Woodhull followed a different course and later consolidated with Jamaica.
Read Jamaica Lodge’s Rooms and Union Avenue Hall →
Read Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms →
Eight More Beginnings
The other eight constituent histories began during the early twentieth century.
Their organization dates fall between Hillside’s beginnings in 1911 and Suburban’s constitution in 1928.
That concentration is significant.
It places most of this lineage’s institutional beginnings within a relatively short period.
It does not mean that all eight followed the same path from a neighborhood club to a charter and then to a purpose-built temple.
Some acquired buildings. Others used community premises or another lodge’s rooms.
The differences are part of what the lineage reveals.
Hillside: A Building in Woodhaven
Hillside Lodge No. 894 began work in 1911 and received its charter in 1912.
Its temple in the Brooklyn Manor development of Woodhaven followed in 1913.
The author’s research reports growth from approximately thirty members to nearly five hundred by 1920.
Those figures should remain attached to their reporting dates rather than treated as a complete membership series.[3]
Hillside’s building also served institutions beyond Hillside itself.
Tadmor’s retrospective history places its institution there in August 1914.
Advance’s records state that Arthur E. Wenige’s firm later supplied lodge-room blueprints previously used at Hillside.
The building therefore connects this lineage with both Tadmor and Advance Service Mizpah.
The shared-plan account concerns a lodge room, not proof that the entire Hillside and Advance buildings were identical.
Read the Hillside Masonic Temple Story →
Read The Engineer’s Room: Hillside, Advance and Tadmor →
Prosperity and Council: Institutions in Shared Premises
Prosperity Lodge No. 962 was chartered in 1920.
Its early history belongs within Hillside’s temple rather than a separate building project.
Council Lodge No. 979 was chartered in Richmond Hill in 1921.
The supplied research identifies several meeting-place references, including Hillside’s building, but its full occupancy chronology remains unresolved.[3]
These lodges demonstrate why an institutional map and a building map are not the same.
Several separate lodges could use one temple.
A change of address did not necessarily mean consolidation, and a consolidation did not necessarily require an immediate move.
Woodhull: A Separate Lodge With Jamaica Connections
Woodhull Lodge No. 982 organized in 1921 as an offshoot of Jamaica.
Its name commemorated Nathaniel Woodhull.
The supplied research places its meetings at Jamaica’s temple and, during parts of its history, at the Hollis temple associated with the former Minnetonka Avenue address.
Those references should not be converted into ownership claims.
Using a temple did not mean Woodhull owned it.
Its later return to Jamaica through consolidation in 1985 was an institutional change, distinct from its earlier use of Jamaica’s premises.[3]
Dunton: The Clubhouse Before the Charter
Dunton Lodge No. 1017 received its charter in 1923.
Its beginnings lay in a Masonic club whose building project preceded the lodge’s charter.
That distinction matters.
The club’s reported membership was not automatically the membership of the later lodge.
Nor do notices of joint events establish that the club, lodge and associated organizations were legally the same body.
Dunton’s Van Wyck Boulevard premises require their own property history alongside the lodge’s institutional account.[3]
Read Dunton Lodge No. 1017: A Clubhouse First, a Lodge Second →
Read the Dunton Temple Property Story →
Queens Village: A Community-House Setting
Queens Village Lodge No. 1046 received its charter in 1925.
Its early meeting-place history includes the neighborhood’s Community House.
That setting adds another type of premises to the lineage.
A lodge could become established without first commissioning a building of its own.
The room’s occupancy dates, changing address references and later use still need to be followed through the underlying records.[3]
Springfield Gardens: Club, Lodge and Temple
Springfield Gardens began with a club of forty-two Masons in 1920, according to the supplied history.
Its lodge charter followed in 1926.
It later had a temple at 138-35 Springfield Boulevard.
Those are three stages rather than one event: organizing a club, obtaining a lodge charter and establishing premises.
The property’s later history and the date of the lodge’s move to Rockville Centre remain important gaps.[1]
Read Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057 →
Suburban: The Ridgewood Connection
Suburban Lodge No. 1087 adds a geographical exception.
Despite its name, its early history belongs to Ridgewood.
It was constituted at Tadmor’s temple in 1928 and used Tadmor’s premises during its subsequent history.
Suburban therefore connects Springfield Gardens’ lineage with a building that also hosted the beginnings of institutions later represented in Harmony and Anchor-Astoria.
A shared ceremonial setting did not place those lodges in one consolidation line.
Their later institutional decisions led in different directions.[1]
Fifty Years of Consolidations
The author’s compilation supplies the following sequence:
| Year | Institutional change |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Council joined Hillside |
| 1981 | Queens Village and Suburban combined |
| 1984 | Prosperity joined the combined Suburban-Queens Village body |
| 1985 | Woodhull consolidated with Jamaica |
| 1986 | Dunton joined Springfield Gardens |
| 1994 | Council-Hillside joined Springfield Gardens |
| 1998 | Jamaica and Suburban-Queens Village combined as Jamaica-Queens Village |
| 2013 | Jamaica-Queens Village joined Springfield Gardens |
The supplied compilation dates the final consolidation to July 22, 2013.[1]
Dunton’s consolidation year requires a source note: the author’s compilation gives 1986, while an earlier district account gives 1985.
The table follows the author’s compilation pending reconciliation.
These changes gathered the nine constituent histories into the present lodge.
They do not mean that nine separate active warrants now operate together.
Nor does the table establish when each predecessor stopped using a particular room.
Neighborhood Change and Institutional Evidence
The consolidations took place during decades of substantial change in southern and southeastern Queens.
The contextual sources assembled for this project describe Black homeownership expanding in neighborhoods including St. Albans, Springfield Gardens, Laurelton and Cambria Heights.
They also discuss residential movement from Brooklyn, suburban movement beyond the city and the effects of discriminatory housing practices.[4]
That context belongs in the wider history.
It should not substitute for the records of a particular lodge.
A consolidation date alone cannot establish why members supported it.
Selected death notices can identify individuals living on Long Island, in Florida or elsewhere. They cannot establish the residential distribution of the whole membership or explain every institutional decision.
The next stage of research requires membership returns, minutes, financial records and consolidation resolutions.
This lineage also does not encompass all Masonic activity in the neighborhoods it names.
Prince Hall Masonry has its own institutional history and should not be treated as absent simply because it is outside the consolidation line examined here.
Buildings Follow Different Timelines
Hillside’s temple was sold to Queens Tabernacle in 1986, according to the author’s building research.[5]
That is a specific property event.
The fate of each other building requires equally specific evidence.
A community-house room, a club-owned property and a lodge-owned temple did not necessarily involve the same legal or financial arrangements.
It is therefore too broad to say that all the buildings disappeared as the lodges consolidated.
Some properties may have remained while their occupants changed.
Some lodges may have moved before consolidation.
Others may have continued using the same room afterward.
The institutional and property histories need to be read together without making one stand in for the other.
A Queens Lineage in Nassau County
The present lodge meets at the Scottish Rite premises in Rockville Centre under the supplied listing.
It remains one of the seven lodges counted within the Queens District.[1]
That distinction separates district affiliation from physical location.
The move across the county line is established as a present arrangement.
Its date and the reasons for choosing Rockville Centre remain unresolved here.
It would therefore be premature to describe it simply as the lodge following its members.
That is a question the residential records and relocation decision may help answer.
What Nine Histories Reveal
The lineage brings together three broad stages.
Jamaica supplies the nineteenth-century beginning.
Eight later institutions supply a concentrated period of organization between 1911 and 1928.
The consolidations supply a second chronology extending from 1963 to 2013.
Those stages connect several communities, several kinds of premises and different institutional decisions.
The present lodge’s name does not display all nine identities.
The history does.
Its meeting place is now outside Queens, but its constituent institutions remain part of the borough’s record.
The lineage is not evidence that every neighborhood followed one path.
It is the record of how separate institutions eventually found a continuing form together.
Endnotes
1. Lineage, Consolidations and Present Meeting Place
The author’s Springfield Gardens series and Grand Lodge of New York records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
Queens Masonic District historical material and the MORI listing for Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057, as cited in the supplied manuscript.
Support the constituent histories, consolidation sequence and present Rockville Centre meeting place.
The final consolidation is dated July 22, 2013, in the supplied compilation.
Dunton’s consolidation is given as 1986 in the author’s compilation and 1985 in an earlier district account. The discrepancy remains unresolved.
2. Jamaica Lodge and Union Avenue
The author’s Jamaica Lodge and Union Avenue temple articles.
Brooklyn Daily Times, June 21, 1915.
Support Jamaica’s institutional and building history and Tadmor’s constitution venue.
See Jamaica Lodge’s Rooms and Union Avenue Hall.
3. The Early Twentieth-Century Lodges
The author’s articles on:
- Hillside and its temple.
- Prosperity.
- Council.
- Woodhull.
- Dunton.
- Queens Village.
The Hollis meeting-place reference includes the photograph record titled “Former Masonic Temple, Hollis,” identifying 91-19 191st Street and the earlier Minnetonka Avenue name.
An address or photograph record does not establish Woodhull’s ownership of the property.
Club membership figures are distinguished from lodge membership.
4. Residential and Demographic Context
Contextual sources supplied with the manuscript include:
- Craig Giammona, “Library looks at race’s role in Laurelton demographics,” QNS / Times Ledger, February 2007.
- Historic Districts Council material on Cambria Heights.
- Jackie Robinson Museum material on St. Albans.
- History News Network material on suburban segregation.
These sources provide broader housing and neighborhood context.
They are not treated as evidence of a particular lodge’s membership composition, motives or consolidation decision.
The article does not repeat the draft’s claim that 1950 was New York City’s all-time population peak.
5. Hillside’s Building
The author’s Hillside temple article supplies the 1986 sale to Queens Tabernacle.
The other buildings require separate occupancy and property research.
6. Scope of the Essay
This essay examines the nine constituent histories identified in the author’s Springfield Gardens compilation.
It does not describe all Freemasonry in southern or southeastern Queens.
It does not treat Prince Hall institutions as part of this consolidation tree.
The essay distinguishes institutional continuity, building occupancy, ownership and members’ residential addresses.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- Where did Council meet before its consolidation with Hillside?
- When did Springfield Gardens begin meeting in Rockville Centre?
- What reasons do the relocation records give?
- What happened to the Springfield Boulevard temple?
- What is the complete ownership and occupancy history of Dunton’s premises?
- How long did Queens Village use the Community House?
- What do membership returns show at each consolidation?
- Can Dunton’s 1985–1986 date discrepancy be resolved?
- Which records document the retention of names, numbers and property?
Continue Through the Springfield Gardens Series
- Springfield Gardens: Start Here
- Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Main History
- Jamaica Lodge’s Rooms and Union Avenue Hall
- Hillside Masonic Temple
- Woodhull Lodge No. 982
- Dunton Lodge No. 1017
- Dunton’s Van Wyck Boulevard Temple
Follow the Connections
- The Engineer’s Room: Hillside, Advance and Tadmor
- Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms
- Cornucopia: One Charter, Many Connections
- Connecting Stories Across the Queens District’s Seven Lodges
← Lineage 5: Cornucopia · The Seven Lodges: Complete Series Guide · Springfield Gardens: Start Here →
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