The lodge of fathers

GREEN BAY – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in New York City on Feb. 16, 1868, by a small group of actors and entertainers as a social organization.

As the concept spread throughout the country, its membership broadened to include businessmen, professionals and those of other occupations.

And, on March 15, 1893, a BPOE lodge was founded with 28 men in the city of Green Bay in Odd Fellows Hall.

“Some read the initials to mean ‘the best people on earth.’ This is all right, but BPOE in reality means the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,” a State Gazette article stated the following day.

“There has been a movement for some time past to organize a lodge of this order in Green Bay, but for certain reasons, the matter was not made public.”

“This event will be recorded in the papers tomorrow as the first public Social Session given by the Green Bay Lodge, No. 259, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. It is customary on an occasion like this for the Exalted Ruler or some other gifted brother to give a short address, and as the gifted brother is not present I shall have to make the speech myself,” Exalted Ruler S.J. Murphy, Jr., told the crowd.

“Although this is a secret organization, we are very glad that the public can at times share with us one of its most prominent features.

“This order is founded on the grand principles of justice, charity, brotherly love and fidelity. We have tried to do justice to the good taste of the musical people of Green Bay, and we have no doubt that you will do justice to the entertainment and give it such praise as its merits demand.”

The Elks held their first meetings at the Knights of Pythias Hall in the Duchateau building on Main Street in Green Bay until 1902, when they moved to their own building on the corner of Jefferson and Cherry streets.

The two-story building cost $15,000 — raised by subscriptions — and its first floor contained a lounging and reception room in the front of the building with two large fireplaces.

The back of the first floor was home to the club room, a billiard and card room, kitchen, cloak room and a secretary’s office.

The second floor contained a large lodge room — which was also used as a dance hall — and a stage.

The basement was home to four bowling lanes and showers.
Work on the clubhouse began in July 1901 and was officially dedicated in February 1902.

According to the Elks, it was the first Elks clubhouse built in the state of Wisconsin.

The building brought a sense of pride, along with the changing attitude in how they operated.

“Twenty years ago, the Elks were characteristically of social activities bent more or less on frivolity. In the 20 years passed, it has grown to mature manhood — gray hairs have tinged its temples. Today, its name is the synonym of dignified, unostentatious charity, where it was the lodge of sons, it is now the lodge of fathers,” members of the leadership said in a February 1916 editorial.

The clubhouse played host to many club meetings, social events, memorial services and productions for five decades before the Elks looked to expand.
“Meetings, conventions and social affairs of all kinds were held in the redbrick building with the white-pillared, two-story veranda,”Green Bay Historian Jack Rudolph wrote in 1968. “The total number of dances and parties held there — only a fraction by the Elks themselves — boggles the imagination.”

“Half a century of constant use took its toll on the building. As early as 1939 it was obvious that a replacement would be needed but it wasn’t until 1957 that the project really got into gear.”

Work on a new lodge on the corner of South Adams and Crooks streets was started on Oct. 25, 1958, and the property on which the original clubhouse sat was sold.

The project took one year to construct and several years to fundraise for the facilitywhich cost somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million dollars.
In the new facility, the Elks would hit the height of their membership — reported at 1,400.

As numbers dwindled, the lodge moved to its current location on South Ridge Rd., Ashwaubenon.