82-20 Queens Boulevard, near 51st Avenue Elmhurst (Queens), N.Y. 11373 Founded in 1903, the Queensboro Lodge No. 878 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (B.P.O.E.) erected a new Club House in 1923 at a cost of $750,000. Located on Queens Boulevard near 51st Avenue in Elmhurst, Queens, the neoclassical structure was designed by the Ballinger Company and constructed of granite and brick with limestone trimming. Inside the five-story building were a swimming pool, a gym, an Aztec-themed 700-seat theater, 28 guest rooms, a banquet hall, three bars, smoking rooms, and eight bowling alleys. Large stained-glass panels on each wall of the theater illustrated the Elks' four cardinal tenets: Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity. During its heydey, the Queensboro Lodge had 6,600 members, including some of the borough's most prominent residents. Over the years, members died or moved away, and area demographics changed. Membership in the Elks was restricted to American citizens, and many of the new residents of Queens did not meet that requirement. By 2001, the membership had dwindled to about 550, and officials decided to sell the building to the New Life Fellowship, a Korean church organization that had been renting the mezzanine for the previous five years. The Elks continued as tenants, meeting in the basement and in the addition that housed the swimming pool. For several decades, the building was the site of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) bouts. |
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