By Brete Murphy · November 11, 2026
Three lodges were constituted in Tadmor’s new Ridgewood temple on one evening in 1928. A fourth followed in 1931, and one of the original three continued meeting there for decades. Their later histories connect this corner with Harmony, Springfield Gardens and Anchor-Astoria—while Tadmor continued independently.
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On May 19, 1928, Tadmor’s temple at Forest Avenue and Summerfield Street became a gathering place for Queens Masonry.
Grand Master John A. Dutton came to constitute three new lodges.
Charles W. Froessel assisted.
Contemporary reports described the presence of the masters of thirty-two Queens lodges, a large assembly and a banquet following the ceremony.[1]
The new institutions were Suburban Lodge No. 1087, Maspeth Lodge No. 1089 and Rufus King Lodge No. 1091.
They shared an occasion, not a charter.
Tadmor supplied the setting.
Follow their later histories, add Wakefield’s constitution in the same room three years later, and this Ridgewood corner connects four of the seven present Queens District lodge lineages.
The room did not create those institutions.
It gave them a place to begin their chartered work before a wider gathering.
A Building With Room for a Crowd
Tadmor’s building project had a longer history than its 1926 opening might suggest.
The author’s research describes an early holding at Forest Avenue and Summerfield Street, consideration of another site on Fresh Pond Road and a July 1922 decision to proceed on the corner property.
The supplied account gives the lot as 75 by 100 feet.
The cornerstone was laid on September 26, 1925.
Tadmor first met in the new building on July 19, 1926, and Grand Master Harold J. Richardson dedicated it on December 11.[2]
Those were separate stages: cornerstone, occupancy and dedication.
Contemporary descriptions identified steel, terra cotta and tapestry brick.
The principal lodge room occupied the second floor. A smaller meeting room and a basement auditorium supplied additional spaces.
Reports placed the cost at approximately $200,000 before furnishings.
That figure belongs to the stage of the project being reported, not necessarily its final audited cost.[2]
The lodge described its principal room as the largest in Brooklyn or Queens.
That is a contemporary claim, not a measured ranking established by this research.
The building’s documented capacity for large events is significant without the superlative.
Read Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms →
Froessel’s Family Occasion
The new temple’s early history included a gathering centered on Charles W. Froessel and his five brothers.
On November 29, 1926, Froessel raised them to the degree of Master Mason.
The Brooklyn Eagle’s account reported more than 1,500 present and identified judges, public officials and former district officers among the participants.[3]
Those attendance figures remain attributed to the newspaper.
They should not be treated as a precise measurement of the room’s ordinary seating capacity.
The occasion nevertheless demonstrates how the building could accommodate an event extending well beyond Tadmor’s usual business.
It also introduces a recurring feature of this story.
A room built by one institution could become a setting for relationships involving many others.
Read Charles W. Froessel: From Tadmor’s East to the Grand East →
Three Constitutions in One Evening
Eighteen months later, the temple hosted the constitution of Suburban, Maspeth and Rufus King.
The author’s Grand Lodge compilation gives their charter date as May 3, 1928.
The joint constitution followed on May 19.[1]
Some contemporary clippings transpose Maspeth’s and Rufus King’s numbers.
This article follows the Grand Lodge identifications:
- Suburban No. 1087.
- Maspeth No. 1089.
- Rufus King No. 1091.
The distinction between charter approval and constitution matters.
The May 19 gathering was a ceremony bringing the new institutions into their constituted status, not evidence that all three had first organized that evening.
Nor did the shared ceremony make them Tadmor subsidiaries.
They were separate lodges.
One, however, would continue using the building.
The Brooklyn Eagle reported that Suburban “will meet hereafter in Tadmor Temple.”[1]
Suburban Stays
Subsequent notices give the 1928 announcement a longer history.
The supplied references place Suburban events at Tadmor’s temple in 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1955.
They include degree work, a Washington bicentennial observance, a barn dance and an occasion honoring a Grand Lodge officer.[4]
Taken together, the references document a relationship extending across more than a quarter century.
They do not establish every intervening meeting date or the terms of occupancy.
The rental agreement, payments and responsibility for particular rooms remain questions for the records.
It would therefore be too strong to say that the arrangement guaranteed Tadmor rental income on specified terms or freed Suburban from every property obligation.
What is established is repeated use over a long period.
By July 1979, a notice placed Suburban in Floral Park.
The move occurred between the latest supplied Tadmor reference in 1955 and that later notice.
Its exact date and the reasons for it remain unresolved.[4]
Read Springfield Gardens: Suburban’s Later Institutional Line →
Wakefield’s Borrowed Evening
Wakefield’s constitution brought another young lodge to Ridgewood.
On June 11, 1931, it used Tadmor’s lodge room for the ceremony.
Its tenth-anniversary history later thanked Tadmor for the use of its “beautiful and commodious temple.”[5]
Wakefield’s earlier arrangements had been less settled.
The same history described organizing activity in a Glen Morris clubhouse, rehearsals in a member’s cellar and institution in Cathedral Lodge’s room.
Those references explain why the constitution venue belongs within a wider sequence of assistance.
They do not establish that Wakefield became a regular tenant at Tadmor.
For the ceremony, Thomas J. Towers performed the Deputy Grand Master’s role and Edward J. Smith the Grand Secretary’s role.
These were ceremonial assignments.
They should not be confused with holding the corresponding Grand Lodge offices.[5]
Wakefield retained its own institution after the evening ended.
Its later history led through Richmond Hill and Queensboro to Anchor-Astoria.
Read Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association →
Read Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens →
Granite’s Organ
One of the temple’s important gifts came from Granite Lodge No. 1011.
Granite had formed with members from Tadmor and had used Tadmor’s earlier premises.
The two lodges held a joint Flag Day occasion there in June 1925.
The November 1926 coverage identified Granite as the donor of a pipe organ for the new temple.[6]
That sequence connects the two buildings without making them interchangeable.
Granite’s documented use of the first temple does not, by itself, establish regular tenancy in the second.
Its gift does establish a contribution to the new room.
The relationship was expressed through an object intended for use in another institution’s building.
Granite’s later consolidation history entered Anchor-Astoria.
Tadmor continued independently.
Their shared beginning remained part of both histories.
Read Anchor-Astoria’s Lineage Essay →
A Brooklyn Guest in 1988
The building’s later use extended beyond Queens lodges.
A Daily News notice of April 27, 1988, placed a Heritage Lodge No. 284 homecoming at the Tadmor Masonic Temple, 59-03 Summerfield Street.
The occasion honored a member identified as the new district deputy of the Third Kings District.[7]
The notice establishes use for that event.
It does not establish Heritage’s regular tenancy.
That distinction is essential when reconstructing a building’s occupants.
A calendar notice may identify a guest occasion rather than a lodge’s ordinary home.
The reference nevertheless shows that the temple remained available for a Masonic gathering more than sixty years after its opening.
Where the Constituent Histories Went
The lodges connected with these occasions later followed different institutional paths.
| Lodge | Later continuation |
|---|---|
| Maspeth | Combined with Constitution in 1974; the Maspeth-Constitution branch entered Harmony in 1990 |
| Rufus King | Joined Cardozo-King David in 1982; the combined branch entered Harmony in 1990 |
| Suburban | Combined with Queens Village in 1981; its later line entered Springfield Gardens in 2013 |
| Wakefield | Combined with Richmond Hill in 1978; the later Queensboro line entered Anchor-Astoria in 2024 |
| Granite | Combined with Cathedral in 1976; the later Queensboro line entered Anchor-Astoria in 2024 |
| Tadmor | Continued independently under its own name and number |
These are summaries of the author’s Grand Lodge compilation.[8]
They establish later institutional continuation, not the survival of every earlier warrant as a separate active charter.
Four present lines emerge:
- Tadmor.
- Harmony.
- Springfield Gardens.
- Anchor-Astoria.
The connection is not identical in each case.
Tadmor owned and occupied the temple.
Maspeth, Rufus King and Wakefield used it for constitutions.
Suburban continued meeting there.
Granite contributed an organ and had a documented relationship with Tadmor’s earlier premises.
Those differences make the network more informative, not less.
Read Harmony: A Manhattan Number, Six Lodge Histories →
After Tadmor’s Departure
By June 2011, newspaper coverage reported that Tadmor had sold the building, had approximately sixty members and was meeting in an American Legion hall in Forest Hills.
The report does not supply the exact sale date or establish when Tadmor last met in the building.[9]
The author’s later account places Tadmor in the Advance Masonic Temple in Astoria.
The supplied Department of Education listing identifies Greater Ridgewood Youth Council with 59-03 Summerfield Street.
That establishes a later use or occupancy reference, not necessarily ownership.
The author’s November 2026 identification also records the Tadmor cornerstone at the Forest Avenue corner.
The deed history, transfer dates and sequence of later occupants remain subjects for further research.
One Corner, Several Histories
The temple’s significance does not depend on proving it was the largest room in Queens.
Its documented uses are enough.
It accommodated a large family-centered degree occasion, the constitution of three lodges in one evening, another constitution in 1931, decades of Suburban activity and a later Brooklyn lodge gathering.
Those uses did not turn the participants into one institution.
They made the building a shared setting within a wider network.
Today, the relevant constituent histories continue through lodges meeting in Astoria, College Point and Rockville Centre.
Their later consolidation records do not show how much of their ceremonial life once depended on access to another lodge’s room.
The corner of Forest and Summerfield supplies that missing dimension.
One lodge built the temple.
Several institutions made it part of their histories.
Endnotes
1. The May 1928 Constitutions
- Brooklyn Daily Times, May 17, 1928.
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 20, 1928, page 8, “Three New Lodges Are Established in Queens by Masons.”
- Brooklyn Eagle, May 21, 1928, page 10.
- Brooklyn Times Union, May 1928.
Charter dates and lodge numbers follow Grand Lodge of New York records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
The article corrects the transposition of Maspeth’s and Rufus King’s numbers in some newspaper references.
2. Planning, Construction and Dedication
- Brooklyn Eagle, March 25 and August 3, 1922.
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 27, 1923.
- Brooklyn Eagle, July 20, 1926.
- Brooklyn Times Union, September 25, 1925.
- The Chat, September 26, 1925.
- Daily News, October 17, 1926.
- The Chat, November 27, 1926.
The author’s building research supplies the assembled planning, occupancy and dedication chronology.
The reported cost is not treated as a final audited total.
The “largest” description remains attributed to the lodge and contemporary coverage.
3. Froessel’s Five Brothers
Brooklyn Eagle, November 28 and 30, 1926.
Supports the November 29 occasion and reported attendance.
Attendance estimates are not used as a precise architectural capacity measurement.
4. Suburban’s Use of Tadmor Temple
- Brooklyn Eagle, April 21, 1929, page 64.
- Brooklyn Citizen, February 16, 1932, page 3.
- Brooklyn Eagle, October 13, 1935, page 56.
- Daily News, September 21, 1955, page 615.
- Newsday, July 28, 1979, page 16.
These references establish dated uses and the later Floral Park meeting-place reference.
They do not establish the exact departure date or financial terms of occupancy.
5. Wakefield
Wakefield Lodge No. 1110, tenth-anniversary book, 1940.
Supports the early arrangements, constitution venue, ceremonial roles and quoted appreciation.
Wakefield’s constitution use is distinguished from regular tenancy.
6. Granite and the Organ
Queens Masonic District history for Granite’s origins.
Brooklyn Daily Times, January 4 and June 14, 1925.
Brooklyn Eagle, November 30, 1926.
Granite’s relationship with Tadmor’s first premises is distinguished from its organ gift to the second temple.
The supplied evidence does not establish regular Granite tenancy at Summerfield Street.
7. Heritage’s Homecoming
Daily News, April 27, 1988, page 840.
The newspaper prints “Summerfield Ave.”
The event reference establishes use, not regular tenancy or ownership.
8. Later Consolidations
Grand Lodge of New York records as compiled by Brete Murphy.
The author’s Harmony, Springfield Gardens and Anchor-Astoria series.
The table summarizes the institutional continuations.
Formal names and effective dates should follow the controlling records in the individual lineage histories.
9. Later Building and Lodge References
Daily News, June 28, 2011.
New York City Department of Education listing for Greater Ridgewood Youth Council, as cited in the supplied manuscript.
Author’s identification of the cornerstone, November 2026.
The listing is not treated as a deed record.
Tadmor’s current Astoria meeting place follows the author’s present-day account.
10. Scope and Remaining Gaps
This article follows documented guests, ceremonies, contributions and occupancy references.
It does not claim that every institution named was a regular tenant.
The full tenant list, Suburban’s departure date, the sale date and the later ownership sequence remain unresolved.
Direct clipping URLs were not supplied with the manuscript.
Questions for Further Research
- When did Suburban leave Tadmor Temple?
- What records establish the terms of its occupancy?
- Which other lodges, Eastern Star chapters or Masonic bodies met there regularly?
- When was the property sold, and to whom?
- When did Tadmor cease meeting there?
- What later transfers and occupancy changes appear in the deed and property records?
- How common were multi-lodge constitution ceremonies in New York?
- Does a photograph or plan of the 1926 lodge room survive?
- What became of Granite’s organ?
Continue Through the Connecting Stories
- Charles W. Froessel: From Tadmor’s East to the Grand East
- Thomas J. Towers and the Queens Masonic Association
- Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens
- The Engineer’s Room: Hillside, Advance and Tadmor
- Connecting Stories: Complete Guide
Follow the Four Lineages
- Tadmor: One Charter, Many Rooms
- Harmony: A Manhattan Number, Six Lodge Histories
- Springfield Gardens: Nine Lodge Histories
- Anchor-Astoria: Across Queens to College Point
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