Queens History and Freemasonry / Springfield Gardens Series / Suburban Lodge No. 1087
November 10, 2026 · By Brete Murphy
Constituted at a major Queens Masonic gathering in 1928, Suburban Lodge began its working life inside Ridgewood’s Tadmor temple. Its later history leads east—to a Floral Park reference, a union with Queens Village and an institutional line that eventually entered Springfield Gardens.
Series Overview · Main Feature: Nine Lodges, One Living History · Related: Tadmor Lodge
Three Lodges in One Night
On Saturday evening, May 19, 1928, the Tadmor Masonic Temple at Forest Avenue and Summerfield Street in Ridgewood became the setting for an unusually large gathering.
According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the Masters of all thirty-two lodges in the Queens district brought officers and delegations to witness the constitution of three new lodges.1
The ceremony was reported as the first major official act of John A. Dutton, newly elected Grand Master of New York.
Charles W. Froessel, then District Deputy for the Second Queens District and later a Grand Master himself, acted as Dutton’s Deputy for the occasion.12
The newspapers described the gathering as one of the largest Masonic assemblies held in Queens.12
The three new lodges were Maspeth, Rufus King of Jamaica and Suburban.
Suburban’s first Master was W. R. Holmes.
The report also stated where the new lodge would work: it “will meet hereafter in Tadmor Temple.”1
After the ceremonies, the gathering continued with a banquet in Tadmor’s banquet hall.2
Charter and Constitution
The author’s compilation of Grand Lodge records dates Suburban Lodge No. 1087’s charter to May 3, 1928.3
The public constitution ceremony followed on May 19.
Those dates mark separate events. The charter date should not be substituted for the date of the ceremony, or the ceremony treated as the date on which the charter was issued.
A Name and a Neighborhood
Why did a lodge meeting in Ridgewood choose the name Suburban?
The sources cited here do not explain.
The name alone cannot establish where its founders lived, how they understood the neighborhood or whether they anticipated a later move.
What the contemporary reports do establish is a lodge beginning inside an existing Masonic setting.
Tadmor’s temple had been dedicated on December 11, 1926, following a cornerstone ceremony on September 26, 1925. Contemporary coverage placed its cost at $200,000.4
Suburban therefore entered a relatively new building already equipped for lodge meetings and large gatherings.
Another established institution, Ridgewood Lodge No. 710, had its own temple on Bushwick Avenue across the Brooklyn boundary. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission later recognized that building in its 2014 designation announcement.5
Suburban began not with a documented building campaign of its own, but with an announced meeting place inside a neighboring lodge’s temple.
For the host institution’s history, read Tadmor Lodge No. 923: A Monument in the Making of Ridgewood.
A Treasurer Remembered
One of Suburban’s earliest officers was J. Edward Schramm, its first treasurer.
Schramm had headed the undertaking business bearing his name on Anthon Avenue for twenty-five years, according to his obituary.
When he died in 1929, Suburban’s Master, George W. Benz, conducted the Masonic service.6
The notices connect the young lodge with an established neighborhood business and show its officers performing one of the fraternity’s enduring duties: honoring a deceased member.
They also provide an early leadership reference after the founding Master, W. R. Holmes.
Degree Work, Commemorations and a Barn Dance
Suburban’s notices describe a lodge sustained by more than its founding ceremony.
In April 1929, a visiting Brooklyn lodge’s Fellowcraft team was announced to work the Master Mason degree in Suburban Lodge at Tadmor.7
The terminology should be preserved carefully: the visiting group was described as a Fellowcraft team, while the degree being conferred was the Master Mason degree.
The report supplies another example of lodges sharing ceremonial work across neighborhood and borough lines.
In February 1932, Suburban planned a short business meeting followed by a gathering for members and their families marking the two-hundredth anniversary of George Washington’s birth.8
Its program continued to mix instruction and entertainment.
A 1933 notice included the editor of the Masonic Outlook among its guest speakers. In October 1935, the lodge advertised a barn dance at Tadmor temple.910
Together, these notices reveal several parts of its working calendar:
- Degree ceremonies assisted by visiting Masons.
- Historical and patriotic observances.
- Addresses by Masonic speakers.
- Social events within the temple.
They are snapshots rather than a complete annual record, but they show a lodge making repeated use of its host building.
Still at Tadmor in 1955
A September 1955 notice again places Suburban at Tadmor.
Master Leo T. DePaoli announced that Charles E. Fetscher, a Richmond Hill Mason, would receive his commission as Grand Sword Bearer there.11
The ceremony connected Suburban’s meeting place with the wider Queens fraternity more than twenty-seven years after the lodge’s constitution.
It also extends the documented Tadmor association into the postwar period.
The notices cited here establish use of Tadmor in several years between 1928 and 1955. They do not, by themselves, supply a complete tenancy record or establish the date on which Suburban left.
For the building’s separate history, read Tadmor Masonic Temple in Ridgewood.
A Floral Park Reference
By 1979, a different geographic description appears.
Jacob Krauss’s death notice identified his affiliation as “Suburban Lodge 1087 (Masonic), Floral Park, N.Y.”12
Within the references assembled for this article, that is the first indication of a Floral Park association.
It is an important clue, but a limited one.
The notice does not identify a street address, explain the arrangement or establish when the lodge’s meeting place changed.
It should not be used alone to reconstruct an uninterrupted move from Tadmor to a particular Floral Park building.
Directories, meeting notices, lodge minutes and Grand Lodge returns would help close that gap.
Members Beyond Ridgewood
Other obituary and death-notice references place Suburban members in Malverne, Valley Stream and Florida.1213
Like the later notices for other lodges in this series, they show that affiliation could continue after a member moved away from the neighborhood in which the lodge began.
They do not establish that every member followed the same route, or that relocation alone caused the eventual consolidation.
The distinction matters.
A member’s residence, a lodge’s mailing address and its regular meeting place are different kinds of information. They should not be treated as interchangeable.
The Union With Queens Village
On March 27, 1981, Suburban Lodge No. 1087 consolidated with Queens Village Lodge No. 1046, according to the author’s compilation of Grand Lodge records.3
The resulting institution became Suburban-Queens Village Lodge.
Suburban’s name came first in the combined title, while Queens Village’s number, 1046, continued.
The new name therefore preserved both institutional identities without retaining both numbers.
For the other side of that union, read Queens Village Lodge No. 1046: A Neighborhood Lodge in the Community House.
Prosperity Joins in 1984
Prosperity Lodge joined Suburban-Queens Village in 1984.3
Its addition brought another history into the combined institution.
Read Prosperity Lodge No. 962: Shared Rooms, a Social Calendar and a Traveling Degree Team.
Jamaica-Queens Village in 1998
On April 24, 1998, the combined lodge consolidated with Jamaica Lodge No. 546 to become Jamaica-Queens Village Lodge No. 546.3
The Suburban name no longer appeared in the resulting title.
Its institutional line nevertheless continued through the consolidation.
Into Springfield Gardens in 2013
In 2013, Jamaica-Queens Village consolidated into Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057.3
That union carried Suburban’s institutional history into the continuing Springfield Gardens lodge.
The full framework appears in Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Nine Lodges, One Living History.
From a Ridgewood Beginning to a Continuing Line
Suburban began with a charter, a first Master and an announced home inside Tadmor’s recently dedicated temple.
Its early notices record funerals, visiting degree teams, commemorations, speakers and dances.
A 1955 ceremony still places it at Tadmor. A 1979 death notice associates it with Floral Park.
The precise meeting-place history between those references remains incomplete.
The consolidation sequence is clearer in the author’s Grand Lodge compilation: Suburban-Queens Village in 1981, Prosperity’s addition in 1984, Jamaica-Queens Village in 1998 and Springfield Gardens in 2013.
The lodge that began inside a neighbor’s temple eventually became part of a larger institutional line.
Its name disappeared from the combined title before that line reached Springfield Gardens. Its place in the history did not.
Sources and Research Notes
The references below follow the author’s supplied manuscript and research notes. Direct newspaper-clipping URLs were not provided, so publication details are preserved without speculative archive links.
- “Three New Lodges Are Established in Queens by Masons,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 20, 1928, p. 8. Constitution ceremony, delegations, participating lodges, W. R. Holmes and Suburban’s announced meeting place.
2. “Masons Constitute 3 Queens Lodges,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 21, 1928, p. 10; Grand Lodge of New York, Past Grand Masters. Ceremony, banquet and Grand Lodge leadership references.
3. Grand Lodge of New York records, as compiled by Brete Murphy. May 3, 1928 charter; March 27, 1981 consolidation with Queens Village; Prosperity’s addition in 1984; April 24, 1998 consolidation with Jamaica; and continuation into Springfield Gardens in 2013. These details follow the author’s compilation rather than an independent examination of the original instruments.
4. Tadmor temple clippings in the author’s research packet. September 26, 1925 cornerstone ceremony; December 11, 1926 dedication; reported cost of $200,000.
5. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, press release concerning Ridgewood Lodge No. 710, July 22, 2014. Reference for the separate Bushwick Avenue temple and its landmark recognition.
6. “J. E. Schramm Dies,” Brooklyn Eagle, February 3, 1929, p. 8; “Masons Eulogize J. Edw. Schramm,” The Chat, February 9, 1929, p. 16. Schramm’s business, service as first treasurer and Masonic funeral conducted by George W. Benz.
7. Brooklyn Eagle, April 21, 1929, p. 64. Visiting Brooklyn degree team and Master Mason degree at Suburban.
8. The Brooklyn Citizen, February 16, 1932, p. 3. George Washington bicentennial observance for members and families.
9. Brooklyn Eagle, October 1, 1933, p. 30. Guest-speaker program, including the editor of the Masonic Outlook.
10. Brooklyn Eagle, October 13, 1935, p. 56. Barn dance at Tadmor temple.
11. “Fetscher Installation,” Daily News, September 21, 1955, p. 615. Master Leo T. DePaoli, Charles E. Fetscher’s Grand Sword Bearer commission and the Tadmor venue.
12. Jacob Krauss death notice, Newsday, July 28, 1979, p. 16. “Suburban Lodge 1087 (Masonic), Floral Park, N.Y.”
13. Members’ notices: Brooklyn Eagle, April 12, 1954, p. 9; Newsday, December 27, 1960, and February 5–6, 1973. Later residential references. Individual names and locations should be matched to the original clippings before further biographical expansion.
A Note on the Evidence
The May 3, 1928 charter and May 19 constitution ceremony are separate events.
The description of the constitution as one of Queens’ largest Masonic gatherings is attributed to contemporary newspaper coverage, not an independently established attendance ranking.
The reason for the name “Suburban” remains undocumented in the sources cited here.
The notices establish repeated use of Tadmor, not a complete record of uninterrupted tenancy or its legal terms.
The 1979 Floral Park reference is a geographic clue, not a confirmed street address or move date.
Members’ residences should not be substituted for the lodge’s meeting place.
The consolidation chronology follows the author’s Grand Lodge compilation. Institutional succession does not establish the present custody of every original charter, minute book or artifact.
Continue the Springfield Gardens Series
The Main Feature
Springfield Gardens Lodge No. 1057: Nine Lodges, One Living History
Place Suburban within the complete consolidation framework.
The Host Lodge
Tadmor Lodge No. 923: A Monument in the Making of Ridgewood
Explore the institution whose temple hosted Suburban’s constitution and documented meetings.
The Host Building
Tadmor Masonic Temple in Ridgewood
Follow the separate history of the Forest Avenue and Summerfield Street building.
The 1981 Consolidation Partner
Queens Village Lodge No. 1046: A Neighborhood Lodge in the Community House
Read the other institutional history behind Suburban-Queens Village Lodge.
The 1984 Addition
Prosperity Lodge No. 962: Shared Rooms, a Social Calendar and a Traveling Degree Team
Explore the lodge that later joined the combined institution.
The Series Overview
Open the Springfield Gardens Lodge Series
Find the related lodge histories, building articles and meeting-place studies.
Springfield Gardens Main Feature · Series Overview · Queens Village Lodge History
Lodge Histories · Masonic Buildings in Queens · Queens History and Freemasonry
