By Brete Murphy · November 9, 2026
Whitestone’s Masons began in borrowed rooms in 1920 and dedicated a temple of their own in 1922. Fifty years later, their lodge joined Metropolitan of Manhattan, bringing a Queens neighborhood and an older lodge number into the same institutional line.
← Part 3: Metropolitan—The Lodge That Commuted · The 273 Line: Start Here · Part 5: Bayside Lodge →
The new lodge room was thirty-four feet wide, sixty-two feet long and sixteen feet high.
On Monday evening, January 9, 1922, Whitestone’s Masons used it for the first time.
They held a regular communication, installed their officers in public and gathered afterward for a luncheon served by the officers’ wives.
The dining room and kitchens were not finished. Until that work was done, the newspaper explained, the building could not be dedicated.
The lodge room was ready, so the lodge began using it.
About a year and a half earlier, its institution had been announced for borrowed space in the village Odd Fellows’ Hall.[1][2]
A Lodge for Whitestone
Whitestone in 1920 was already part of New York City, but its identity remained that of a distinct north-shore community.
Flushing had Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 and its Northern Boulevard temple. College Point had Anchor Lodge No. 729.
Whitestone’s new lodge would bring another institution into that local landscape.
A July 3 newspaper notice announced that it would be instituted under dispensation on July 12 at Odd Fellows’ Hall.
Grand Master Robert H. Robinson was to be represented by Thomas J. Towers, the newly appointed district deputy, and Edward J. Smith, his predecessor.
The notice establishes the planned occasion. A completed-event report or lodge minute would provide direct confirmation of how the evening proceeded.
The Grand Lodge granted Whitestone Lodge No. 973 its charter on May 4, 1921, according to the records supplied by the author.
The constitution ceremony followed later that month.[2][4]
Read Cornucopia Lodge No. 563 →
Read Anchor-Astoria Lodge No. 729 →
The Gymnasium and the Grand Master
The chartered lodge was constituted on Thursday evening, May 26, 1921.
The place was the Columbia Club gymnasium.
The May 28 newspaper account described about five hundred Masons attending, including a Brooklyn delegation. The St. Cecile Quartet sang.
Grand Master Robinson and his staff conducted the ceremony and then left for another constitution in Jamaica.
The account captures the pace of the organizing work: one ceremony in Whitestone, another elsewhere in Queens that evening.
It also distinguishes the room used for the special occasion from the lodge’s ordinary quarters. A gymnasium large enough for a visiting crowd was not necessarily its regular meeting place.
The officers named in the supplied reports were:
- James C. Dick, Master.
- Herman Meyer, Senior Warden.
- Harry J. Latterman, Junior Warden.
- Jake Kamil, Treasurer.
- Paul A. Gallo, Secretary.
The Senior Warden’s surname appears differently in one transcription. It should be checked against the page image or lodge register before being treated as settled.[5]
The Men Who Helped
Towers and Smith recur elsewhere in the Queens lodge histories.
Their participation connected Whitestone’s beginnings with a wider network of officers, lodges and organizing ceremonies.
Another connection appears in the January 1922 account: Henry C. Buncke, a Past Master of Anchor Lodge in College Point.
The author’s research identifies Buncke as assisting Whitestone during this early period. The precise nature of that assistance still needs to be reconstructed.
It should not be expanded into an architectural, financial or founding role without supporting records.
The useful point is already clear.
Whitestone’s work involved more than its own officers. Experienced Masons from neighboring institutions participated as the lodge established itself.
Towers installed the officers at the first meeting in the new room.[1]
Read Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens →
Read Henry C. Buncke: A Ledger-Keeper Between Two Villages →
A Temple Before the Second Anniversary
The first use of the lodge room came less than eight months after the constitution ceremony.
The temple dedication followed on February 27, 1922.
Grand Master Robinson returned with his staff. Several hundred Masons attended from Queens and elsewhere in the city.
The new dining room accommodated the collation. Members of Cygnus Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and the officers’ wives assisted.
Robinson received a certificate of honorary membership.
He told the lodge he was proud to belong to one “that had accomplished so much in such a short time.”
The sequence explains the compliment.
The institution had been announced in July 1920. The charter and constitution followed in May 1921. The new lodge room was in use in January 1922, and the temple was dedicated the following month.
About nineteen months separated the announced institution and the dedication.
The records supplied here establish the pace more clearly than the means. The architect, builder, final cost and complete financing arrangements remain to be identified.[1][7]
Read the Building Feature: Thirty-Four by Sixty-Two →
Cygnus Under the Same Roof
The temple also accommodated Cygnus Chapter No. 660 of the Order of the Eastern Star.
On April 1, 1922, the chapter dedicated its room before a reported four hundred members of the Order from Queens and Brooklyn.
James C. Dick participated as Master of the lodge and Patron of the chapter. Laura C. Dick was the chapter’s Matron.
The lodge presented a Bible.
The newspaper described white clothing, colored sashes and an illuminated emblem.
Those details show a second organization making a place within the building.
Cygnus was not simply a department of Whitestone Lodge. It had its own officers and identity while sharing the temple.
The precise date of its constitution remains difficult to read in the supplied OCR. The April chapter-room ceremony is the clearer event.[8]
The Working Years
After the founding ceremonies, the newspaper record becomes less exceptional.
That is part of its value.
A November 1925 notice described third-degree work involving the Fellowcraft team. Later notices announced talks on George Washington’s Masonic association and the flag’s anniversary.
These items do not constitute a complete calendar. They preserve examples of the lodge’s recurring work: degrees, visiting officers, instruction and social occasions.
In November 1929, Master John W. Clancy appeared among the Queens Masters associated with the Queens Masonic Association’s charity ball at the Hotel Pennsylvania.
The lodge was no longer only an organizing project.
It was participating in the borough-wide occasions that connected established lodges.[10][11]
Beyond the Meeting Room
The later member notices widen the view.
The supplied research identifies a Swedish-born florist who retired to Woodstock, a member living in Baldwin and a retired Flushing traffic policeman.
The notices establish individual lives and affiliations. They are not a representative survey of Whitestone’s membership.
They nevertheless remind us that the lodge’s name did not contain all of its geography.
Members could retain an institutional connection after their homes or circumstances changed.
Another notice identifies Joseph C. Gessner with both the later Francis Lewis Lodge and Pacific Whitestone Lodge No. 85 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
That establishes his dual affiliation at the time described.
It does not, by itself, establish how many of Whitestone’s founding Masons also belonged to the Odd Fellows in 1920.[3][12]
The Neighborhood Changes Around the Lodge
The founding reports describe a Whitestone before the bridge and expressway became defining features of its landscape.
The broader research places the end of Whitestone branch railroad service in 1932 and the opening of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in 1939.
Those developments belong to the setting of the lodge’s working years.
They should not automatically become explanations for changes in its membership or finances. Establishing those effects would require returns, minutes and accounts.
The lodge had begun as a new institution in a recognizable local community.
Over the next half-century, both its surroundings and the wider geography of Queens Masonry changed.
The consolidation record gives the next definite institutional milestone.
Whitestone and Metropolitan Become One
On December 21, 1972, Whitestone Lodge No. 973 consolidated with Metropolitan Lodge No. 273.
The combined body retained both names and Metropolitan’s older number:
Metropolitan-Whitestone Lodge No. 273.
The date is clear in the Grand Lodge records supplied by the author.
The immediate meeting arrangements are less fully established.
The consolidation alone does not prove where the first combined meeting took place, whether Metropolitan had already begun meeting in Queens or which entity held title to the Whitestone building.
Those questions remain part of the meeting-place and property research.
The institutional significance does not depend on answering them prematurely.
A lodge chartered in Whitestone in 1921 had joined a Manhattan lodge chartered in 1852. The names placed both histories in public view, while No. 273 continued the older number.
In August 1986, Metropolitan-Whitestone and Bayside Lodge No. 999 consolidated as Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273.[4]
Read Metropolitan Lodge No. 273: The Lodge That Commuted →
Read Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 and Brandeis →
The Building After the Separate Lodge
The author identifies the 1922 temple as the building at 149-39 11th Avenue.
Its later occupants belong to a separate but connected story.
According to the author’s November 2026 confirmation, Harmony and Cornucopia ended their Whitestone meeting arrangements in June 2024 and began meeting in College Point that September.
The author describes the Whitestone temple as subsequently reserved for the German Masonic District’s use.
That is a statement about meeting arrangements and building use, not a verified transfer of legal ownership.
The dates when Harmony and Cornucopia first began meeting there remain unresolved.
Their later use of the temple shows why the building’s life cannot be confined to Whitestone Lodge’s independent years.[9]
Read The Tuesday Night Visitors: Cornucopia and Anchor →
What Whitestone Added to the Line
The surviving number came from Manhattan.
Whitestone supplied another institutional history: a lodge organized in 1920, chartered in 1921 and meeting in a new temple by January 1922.
The two histories met in 1972 without becoming identical.
Metropolitan brought its older warrant and number. Whitestone brought its own members, officers, records and local associations.
The shared name lasted until the next consolidation.
The first room remains a useful place to end.
Thirty-four by sixty-two feet was a measurement of space, not a promise that an institution would remain unchanged.
Whitestone’s Masons furnished and used that space, dedicated their temple and carried on their work. Later members chose consolidation.
The separate name ended. Its history continued within the 273 line.
Endnotes
1. First Meeting in the New Room
Brooklyn Daily Times, January 11, 1922, p. 8.
Supports:
- January 9 first use.
- Room dimensions of 34 by 62 feet, with a height of 16 feet.
- Public installation.
- Unfinished dining room and kitchens.
- Luncheon arrangements.
- Towers’ participation.
Buncke’s assistance is treated within the limits of the supplied report and the author’s research notes.
2. Institution Under Dispensation
Brooklyn Daily Times, July 3, 1920, p. 6.
Announces the proposed July 12 institution at Odd Fellows’ Hall and the participation of Towers and Smith.
The article distinguishes the advance announcement from a completed-event report.
3. The Odd Fellows Connection
Newsday, May 25, 1989: Joseph C. Gessner.
Identifies membership in Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 and Pacific Whitestone Lodge No. 85, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
This individual’s later dual affiliation is not used as proof of the founding group’s membership composition.
4. Charter and Consolidations
Grand Lodge of New York records supplied by Brete Murphy.
Establish:
- Whitestone charter: May 4, 1921.
- Consolidation with Metropolitan: December 21, 1972.
- Metropolitan-Whitestone and Bayside consolidation as Francis Lewis: August 14, 1986.
These are institutional dates. They do not independently establish ownership or meeting-address changes.
5. Constitution and Officers
Brooklyn Daily Times, May 11 and May 28, 1921.
The advance notice gives “Thursday evening, May 23,” an internally inconsistent date.
The completed-event account published May 28 places the ceremony on Thursday, supporting May 26.
The Senior Warden’s surname appears inconsistently in the supplied transcription. The page image or lodge register should control.
6. James C. Dick
Brooklyn Daily Times, September 17, 1922.
Supplies a residential and family-travel reference.
The article does not rely on that notice to characterize him as the sole founding figure.
7. Temple Dedication
Brooklyn Daily Times, February 27 and March 1, 1922.
Together support the announced and reported dedication, Robinson’s participation, the collation, honorary membership and his remarks.
The timeline from July 1920 to February 1922 is approximately nineteen months.
8. Cygnus Chapter
Brooklyn Daily Times, April 3, 1922.
Supports the April 1 chapter-room dedication, attendance estimate, officers, Bible presentation and ceremonial details.
The chapter’s precise constitution date remains uncertain in the damaged OCR.
9. Building Identification and the 2024 Move
Brete Murphy’s confirmation identifies the 1922 temple as 149-39 11th Avenue.
The author also confirms:
- Harmony and Cornucopia’s departure in June 2024.
- Their beginning at College Point in September 2024.
- The Whitestone temple’s subsequent German Masonic District use.
The account does not establish title ownership or the dates those lodges first occupied Whitestone.
See The Whitestone Masonic Temple.
10. Working-Year Notices
- Brooklyn Daily Times, November 1, 1925.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, November 13, 1927.
- Brooklyn Daily Times, February 19, 1928.
Examples of degree work and instructional programs.
Advance notices are not automatically treated as reports confirming completion.
11. Queens Masonic Association Ball
Brooklyn Daily Times and Brooklyn Eagle, November 23, 1929.
Support Whitestone’s participation and Clancy’s identification as Master.
12. Later Member Notices
- Daily Freeman, February 21, 1970.
- Newsday, January 23–24, 1947.
- Daily News, May 15, 1962.
Support individual occupations, residences and affiliations, not a complete membership analysis.
13. Neighborhood Context
The author’s broader Queens research supplies the 1932 railroad closure and 1939 bridge opening.
A specific railroad-history citation and bridge-history reference should be added to the final source file.
No direct causal claim about lodge membership is made from those developments.
A Note on the Record
The principal newspaper references follow the author’s supplied research. Direct clipping URLs were not supplied.
“Village” describes Whitestone’s local identity during the period, not a claim of independent municipal government in 1920.
The article distinguishes institution, charter, constitution, first room use and building dedication.
It does not assume that a consolidation date is a property-transfer date.
It does not identify Anchor as Whitestone’s formal sponsor without the petition or another supporting record.
Questions for Further Research
- Which lodge formally recommended Whitestone’s petition?
- Where were the Odd Fellows’ Hall and Columbia Club?
- Who designed and built the temple?
- What did it cost?
- Who held title before and after the 1972 and 1986 consolidations?
- Where did Metropolitan-Whitestone first meet?
- When did Harmony and Cornucopia begin using the building?
- Does an original cornerstone or time capsule survive?
- What remains of the 1922 interior?
Continue Reading
The Building
Thirty-Four by Sixty-Two: The Whitestone Masonic Temple
Follow the room, dedication and later use separately from the lodge’s institutional history.
A Neighbor Who Assisted
Henry C. Buncke of Anchor Lodge No. 729
Explore the College Point Past Master’s public career and reported assistance to Whitestone.
The Borough’s Connectors
Edward J. Smith: Mr. Mason of Queens
Follow an officer whose work crossed several lodge lines.
Follow the 273 Line
- Start Here: The 273 Line
- Atwood Lodge and the 1852 Division
- Metropolitan Lodge: The Lodge That Commuted
- A Village Lodge Before the Bridge: Whitestone Lodge No. 973 — You are here.
- Bayside Lodge No. 999
- The Engineer’s Room: Arthur E. Wenige
- Francis Lewis Lodge No. 273 and Brandeis
← Part 3: Metropolitan Lodge · The 273 Line: Overview · Part 5: Bayside Lodge →
The Whitestone Temple · The Lodges That Built Queens · Queens History Blog
