By Brete Murphy · November 11, 2026
During Tadmor’s tenth-anniversary year, visiting Queens Masons took places in its degree work. The surviving account identifies Geba’s David Kaplan and King David’s Isaac A. Albert. Read beside the year’s other visits and ceremonies, the evening reveals a network of cooperation across lodge boundaries.
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In May 1925, Tadmor Lodge No. 923 conferred a degree with visiting Queens lodge leaders taking places in its work.
The account preserved in the author’s research identifies David Kaplan of Geba Lodge serving as senior deacon.
It also places Isaac A. Albert, Master of King David Lodge, among the participants.[1][2]
The exact date and complete lineup remain unresolved.
Those gaps limit what can be reconstructed.
They do not erase the central connection: members associated with separate institutions contributed to a degree in Tadmor’s room.
The evening belongs within a tenth-anniversary year marked by visits, services, a joint observance and a new temple project.
It was one example of cooperation, not evidence that the lodges had only just begun to recognize a common district identity.
Tadmor’s Tenth Year
Tadmor had been constituted in Jamaica in June 1915.
Ten years later, it was using its first temple at Halleck Avenue and Fresh Pond Road while preparing a larger building at Forest Avenue and Summerfield Street.[3]
A December 1924 newspaper headline described it as the largest lodge in Queens.
That ranking belongs to the newspaper’s description.
The supplied material does not establish a comparison of every lodge’s membership at the same date.
Granite Lodge No. 1011, organized with members from Tadmor, was also associated with the earlier premises.
The relationship between those institutions supplies another part of the anniversary-year story.
Tadmor’s rooms were not simply the setting for its own meetings.
They accommodated activity involving other lodges and organizations.
The masters’ night should be read within that pattern.
Read Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms →
What the Surviving Lineup Establishes
The visiting roles matter because they were particular contributions to the ceremony.
Kaplan served as senior deacon at Tadmor that evening.
That assignment should not automatically be treated as his ordinary office in Geba.
Albert’s identification requires a different clarification.
A January 1925 notice has been read or transcribed as “J. A. Albert.”
The author’s research identifies the name as I. A. Albert—Isaac A. Albert, King David’s Master.[2]
The correction establishes who is meant.
It does not supply the missing full roster for the May gathering or identify every station occupied.
Until the original report is located and checked, the article should not claim that every chair was filled by a visiting Master or describe the complete ceremonial arrangement.
The event’s value lies in the named connections that can be followed.
Geba and King David belonged to different communities from Tadmor.
Their participation brought those institutions into the same work without combining their identities.
Geba’s Earlier Tadmor Connection
Kaplan’s appearance was not the first recorded relationship between Geba and Tadmor.
The author’s Geba research identifies a Tadmor delegation associated with Geba’s institution in June 1919.
Edward J. Smith, Tadmor’s first Master and then a district officer, participated in the proceedings.[1]
The June 8 newspaper reference should be read carefully.
Because it preceded the reported June 10 ceremony, it may announce the planned delegation rather than provide a completed-event account.
The later institutional history and any subsequent report should be checked together.
Even with that distinction, the sources identify a relationship extending beyond one evening in 1925.
The earlier connection involved a new lodge’s institution.
The later one involved degree work in Tadmor’s room.
They are different forms of participation within a continuing network.
Read Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens →
Read Advance Service Mizpah: Geba’s Later Institutional Line →
King David Comes From Astoria
King David Lodge No. 994 received its charter on May 3, 1922.
Its early meeting place was Advance’s temple on Grand Avenue in Astoria.
Albert’s participation therefore connects Tadmor’s Ridgewood room with another recently organized lodge using established Masonic premises elsewhere.[2]
That is a firmer conclusion than a demographic comparison.
The earlier manuscript described Tadmor as largely German-American and Geba and King David as largely Jewish.
Those subjects may be developed through contemporary descriptions, membership records and individual biographies.
Surnames alone do not establish them.
Nor do King David programs from 1935 or 1954 establish the composition of the whole lodge in May 1925.
The evening can demonstrate cooperation without making an unsupported statement about every participant’s ethnic or religious identity.
The institutional distinction is already clear.
Separate lodges contributed to one ceremony.
Read Advance Temple, Then and Now →
Read Harmony: King David’s Later Line →
The Rest of the Anniversary Year
The May gathering becomes more informative when placed beside the year’s other references.
January: An Announced Lecture
The Brooklyn Daily Times reported Tadmor’s anniversary preparations and announced Thomas J. Towers of Richmond Hill as a historical lecturer.
The same January 4 issue described the newly formed Queens Masonic Association.[4]
The juxtaposition is useful.
It does not establish that the Association organized Tadmor’s program.
The lecture notice also records a plan, not necessarily proof of the completed appearance.
Read Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association →
May: Church and Degree-Team References
The Chat’s May 9 coverage connects Tadmor with a service at Ridgewood Presbyterian Church and the Rev. Arthur B. Rhinow.
It also supplies the reference to Hillside’s Fellowcraft team contributing to work at Tadmor.[5]
These references should not be folded into the masters’ night without confirming dates and wording.
Hillside’s participation may have belonged to another meeting.
The description of its team should likewise follow the original report rather than assume that “Fellowcraft team” identifies the degree being conferred.
Read Rhinow’s Chaplaincy Sidebar →
Read Hillside’s Temple Story →
June: Tadmor and Granite
A June reference describes a joint Flag Day observance involving Tadmor and Granite in the Halleck Avenue temple.[3]
That connection differed from a visiting officer’s ceremonial assignment.
It was an occasion shared by two separate lodges with an earlier membership relationship.
September: A New Temple Project
In September, the cornerstone ceremony for Tadmor’s larger temple supplied another public milestone.[3]
The masters’ night had taken place before that building opened.
It belongs to the first temple’s history, not the later Summerfield Street room that hosted the 1928 triple constitution.
Read One Hall in Ridgewood: The Later Tadmor Temple →
Cooperation Before the District Division
The author’s district history dates the division of Queens into two Masonic districts to April 19, 1926.[6]
That later administrative change provides context for the 1925 activity.
It should not become an explanation for every visit or ceremony in the preceding year.
The supplied sources do not establish that the masters’ night was organized in anticipation of the division.
Nor do they establish that all its participants later attended the same Association balls.
What they show is a set of practical relationships already operating across lodge boundaries.
An officer could contribute to another institution’s work.
A team could travel.
Two lodges could hold an observance together.
A temple project could draw attention beyond the membership that owned it.
The anniversary year records several forms of connection rather than one centrally directed program.
Where the Three Histories Continue
Tadmor remains independent under the supplied institutional record.
It now meets in Advance’s Astoria temple.
Geba’s later consolidations brought its history into Advance Service Mizpah No. 586, which uses the same building.
King David’s history continued through Cardozo-King David and Cardozo-Rufus-King-David into Harmony No. 241.
Harmony now meets in College Point under the author’s present-day account.[7]
These are institutional continuations.
They do not mean that Geba and King David remain separately active lodges or that their original warrants conduct work independently inside the present bodies.
The modern addresses nevertheless add a useful perspective.
Tadmor and Geba’s institutional continuation now share a building.
King David’s continuation meets elsewhere.
The 1925 ceremony connected them through work rather than a common address.
Read Where the Lines Meet: The College Point Temple →
What One Evening Can Show
The masters’ night cannot yet be reconstructed chair by chair.
Its exact date, full roster and relationship to Hillside’s visit still need to be established.
The surviving account is enough to identify a particular kind of cooperation.
Tadmor’s degree work included contributions from men associated with other lodges.
The wider year shows that the evening was not an isolated form of contact.
Lectures, services, teams, observances and ceremonies connected the institutions in different ways.
That is the scale at which this story is strongest.
Not a complete portrait of Queens society.
Not proof that differences had disappeared.
One ceremony, several lodge connections—and a record of people contributing beyond their own institution’s room.
Endnotes
1. Geba and David Kaplan
The author’s Geba Lodge No. 954 article and underlying research.
The supplied material identifies:
- Geba’s charter date as May 7, 1919.
- Its institution as June 10, 1919.
- A Tadmor delegation associated with that occasion.
- Kaplan serving as senior deacon at Tadmor in May 1925.
Brooklyn Eagle, June 8, 1919, is an advance reference and should be distinguished from a completed-event report.
Kaplan’s ceremonial station at Tadmor is not automatically treated as his ordinary Geba office.
2. King David and Isaac A. Albert
The author’s King David article and research correction.
Brooklyn Daily Times, January 25, 1925.
The author identifies the name as Isaac A. Albert, with I. A. misread or transcribed as J. A.
The exact original report placing Albert in the May gathering should be added to the final source file.
Later King David program references do not establish the lodge’s complete membership composition in 1925.
3. Tadmor’s Anniversary Year
The author’s Tadmor article and dossier, including:
- Brooklyn Daily Times, June 21, 1915.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, December 21, 1924.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, January 4 and June 14, 1925.
- Times Union, September 25, 1925.
The “largest lodge” description remains attributed to the newspaper.
The May event is placed in the first temple, not the later Summerfield Street building.
4. Towers and the Association Announcement
Brooklyn Daily Times, January 4, 1925, page 19.
Supports the announced lecture and the contemporary Association reference.
The two items are not treated as proof that the Association directed Tadmor’s anniversary program.
5. Rhinow and Hillside
The Chat, May 9, 1925.
Supports the church-service and Hillside-team references summarized in the author’s research.
The relationship between Hillside’s appearance and the masters’ night remains unresolved.
6. District Division
The author’s Anchor-Astoria research, Article 1.
Supplies April 19, 1926, as the district-division date.
The article does not assign an administrative motive to the 1925 ceremony without further evidence.
7. Later Institutional Continuations
Grand Lodge of New York records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
The revised Advance Service Mizpah, Tadmor and Harmony lineage essays.
The present meeting places follow the author’s November 2026 account.
Constituent histories are distinguished from separately active lodges.
8. Scope and Remaining Gaps
The exact date and full lineup of the masters’ night remain unresolved.
The article does not infer ethnic or religious composition from names alone.
It does not assume that every chair was filled by a visiting Master.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- What was the exact date of the masters’ night?
- Where is the original report?
- Who filled each station?
- Which degree was conferred?
- What office did Kaplan ordinarily hold in Geba at the time?
- What precise role did Albert perform?
- Was Hillside’s team present at the same meeting?
- Did Tadmor make a reciprocal visit to Geba or King David that year?
- What do Tadmor’s minutes add to the newspaper summary?
Follow the Lodge Connections
- Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms
- Advance Service Mizpah: The Geba Line
- Harmony: The King David Line
- Springfield Gardens: The Hillside Line
- Anchor-Astoria: The Granite and Richmond Hill Lines
Continue Through the Connecting Stories
- Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens
- Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association
- Rhinow and Scudder: Companion Sidebars
- One Hall in Ridgewood
- Connecting Stories: Complete Guide
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