New York Fraternal Lodges

About Fraternal Organizations in New York

A deep look at the history, oldest lodges, membership process, and notable members of fraternal organizations across New York.

History of Fraternal Organizations in New York

New York is the birthplace of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and that single fact places the state at the center of American fraternal history. On the night of February 16, 1868, in a boarding house on Elm Street in lower Manhattan, an English-born comic singer and actor named Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian gathered a group of theatrical performers and journalists, mostly working in the bowery and Broadway theaters, into a social club originally called the Jolly Corks. Within a few months the Jolly Corks reorganized themselves with a more dignified ritual and a new name, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and chartered themselves as New York Lodge No. 1, the mother lodge of every Elks lodge that has followed in any of the fifty states.

New York City was already, by 1868, the most fraternally dense city in North America, with Masonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and dozens of ethnic mutual benefit societies meeting in halls scattered across Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Elks' founding was therefore both an outgrowth of and a contribution to a fraternal culture that had been gestating since the colonial period. Brooklyn Lodge No. 22, Buffalo Lodge No.

23, and Rochester Lodge No. 24 all followed within a few years, and the order spread west and south from there to become a national institution. Beyond the Elks, New York State developed an unmatched range of fraternal life. The Knights of Columbus, founded in nearby New Haven in 1882, established its strongest concentration of councils in the Catholic ethnic neighborhoods of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.

The Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Lions, the Rotary, and dozens of ethnic benefit societies including the Workmen's Circle, the Sons of Italy, the Polish National Alliance, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians all developed enormous New York memberships. fraternalfinder.com indexes the active lodges, councils, and clubs across the state, and the order-by-order tour below traces how New York's exceptional fraternal heritage has aged into modern civic life.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in New York

New York Elks Lodge No. 1 is the senior lodge of the entire Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Founded as the Jolly Corks on February 16, 1868, in a Manhattan boarding house by Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian and a small group of theatrical performers, the lodge reorganized itself within months as a fraternal order with a more elaborate ritual, electing the elk as its emblem reportedly because of the animal's combination of strength and tender treatment of its kind. The original Jolly Corks meeting on Elm Street has become one of the most famous founding moments in American fraternal history, and February 16 is observed each year as Elks' Founders Day across the country.

Brooklyn Lodge No. 22, chartered in 1878, served the heavily fraternal Brooklyn community before consolidation with New York City. Buffalo Lodge No. 23, chartered in 1879, became the dominant Elks lodge of upstate New York and grew through the city's Lake Erie shipping and industrial economy.

Rochester Lodge No. 24, also chartered in 1879, anchored the Genesee Valley and grew with the Eastman Kodak and optical-instrument industries. Albany Lodge No. 49, Syracuse Lodge No.

31, Utica Lodge No. 33, Troy Lodge No. 141, Schenectady Lodge No. 480, Yonkers Lodge No.

707, and Niagara Falls Lodge No. 346 round out the senior upstate lodges. The New York State Elks Association is one of the largest in the BPOE and supports an extensive charitable program including the New York State Elks Major Project for therapy services for children with disabilities. Hoop Shoot tournaments, the Drug Awareness Program, the Elks National Foundation scholarship program, and substantial veterans' programs across New York's many VA facilities anchor the modern Elks calendar.

New York Elks have also been particularly active in supporting the Saratoga Springs Veterans Home and the State University of New York scholarship programs.

Loyal Order of Moose in New York

The Loyal Order of Moose has long had a strong New York presence. New York Moose Lodge in Manhattan was among the order's earliest east coast lodges, and Brooklyn, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Yonkers, Schenectady, and Utica all developed substantial Moose lodges by the 1920s. The Moose found a strong base in the working-class neighborhoods of the state's industrial cities, particularly along the Erie Canal and the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. Mooseheart, the children's home in Illinois, has long been a particular point of pride for New York Moose, and the order's New York lodges have for generations sent funds, members, and occasionally orphaned children to the campus.

Moosehaven in Florida likewise draws New York Moose for retirement years. The Women of the Moose chapters across New York organize hospital volunteer programs, holiday charity drives, school clothing initiatives, and senior outreach. Modern New York Moose lodges remain centers of working-class fraternal social life, with substantial active memberships in Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and the Capital District. New York Moose Association members have for decades organized major charitable bus trips to Mooseheart and Moosehaven, and the state's lodges have been particularly active in supporting local children's services, food pantries, and youth athletic leagues.

The Long Island, Westchester, and Hudson Valley Moose lodges have maintained substantial active memberships through generational change.

Eagles, Knights of Columbus & Other Fraternal Orders in New York

The Fraternal Order of Eagles is well represented across New York, with aeries in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and many Hudson Valley and Long Island communities. The Eagles' national campaigns in disability rights, diabetes research, and Mother's Day recognition have substantial New York fundraising support. The Knights of Columbus, however, are perhaps the most numerically dominant Catholic fraternal force in New York. With the order's founding in nearby New Haven in 1882, KC councils began appearing in New York City within a few years and quickly spread to Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and the Catholic ethnic neighborhoods of every major New York city.

Today the New York State Council oversees approximately 600 councils with tens of thousands of members, placing New York among the very top KC states by council count. KC councils support seminarian education, Catholic schools, Special Olympics New York, parish food drives, and major post-9/11 and post-Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The state's KC fourth-degree assemblies are highly visible at parish events and patriotic observances throughout the year. New York is also home to the Workmen's Circle, the historic Jewish fraternal benefit society founded in 1900, which retains a meaningful presence in metropolitan Jewish communities.

New York Fraternal Lodges by the Numbers

New York currently hosts approximately 250 active Elks lodges, around 100 Moose lodges, more than 80 Eagles aeries, and roughly 600 Knights of Columbus councils statewide. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows retains a presence in older industrial cities and Hudson Valley towns, with active lodges in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and many smaller communities. Lions Clubs International is well represented through New York's multiple districts, with several hundred clubs and tens of thousands of members. Rotary, Kiwanis, and Optimist clubs add tens of thousands of additional members.

Ethnic and benefit societies including the Sons of Italy, the Polish National Alliance, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Order of Sons of Italy in America, the German-American Steuben Society, the Workmen's Circle, and dozens of smaller groups add further hundreds of thousands of members across the state. Given New York's population of about 19 million, total active fraternal and ethnic-society membership likely sits in the 750,000 to 1,000,000 range across all orders, making New York by far the most fraternally rich state in the country.

How to Join a Fraternal Lodge in New York

Joining a New York lodge follows the standard procedures of each order. The Elks require candidates to be 21 or older, U.S. citizens, of good moral character, and willing to affirm a belief in God; sponsorship by an active member and lodge approval are required. New York Elks initiation fees commonly run from $75 to $250, with annual dues from $100 to $300 depending on the lodge.

The Moose welcome candidates 21 and over with a sponsor and a brief enrollment ceremony, with annual dues generally in the $40 to $90 range. Eagles aeries follow the FOE's standard procedures with men joining the Aerie and women joining the Auxiliary. The Knights of Columbus admits practical Catholic men 18 and older; New York's KC has widely adopted the Supreme Council's online enrollment system, which has streamlined recruitment in college towns and growing suburbs. Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, and Optimist clubs welcome guests to meetings and have straightforward application processes.

With the largest density of lodges, councils, and clubs in the country, New York offers prospective members an exceptionally wide range of choices, and most lodges encourage prospects to attend a public dinner or charity event before formally applying. The sheer density of fraternal life in New York means prospective members can usually find a lodge or council within walking distance of home in any major city. Many New York lodges and councils hold weekly public events that serve as low-pressure introductions before formal application.

Notable New York Fraternal Members in History

New York's fraternal rolls include some of the most prominent figures in American history. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Masons, and several other fraternal organizations, and his Oyster Bay Sagamore Hill home was visited by fraternal delegations throughout his life. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president and a Hyde Park native, was a Mason and a member of multiple civic and fraternal orders.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York City was a longtime Elk and a frequent guest at New York lodge events. Governor and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller came up through Hudson Valley civic life that overlapped with fraternal circles. Governor and Senator Hugh Carey was a Knight of Columbus. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a Knight of Columbus and an active fraternalist.

Babe Ruth was an Elk and a Knight of Columbus, and Ed Sullivan was an Elk and a Knight. Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington were Elks. Charles Vivian, the Elks founder himself, lived and worked in New York's theater district. Modern New York governors, mayors, and members of Congress across both parties have continued the lodge tradition, often as Knights of Columbus, Elks, Lions, or Rotarians.

Brooklyn Lodge No. 22 alone has counted dozens of judges, journalists, and athletes among its membership over the past century and a half.

Frequently Asked Questions: New York Fraternal Lodges

Sources & Further Reading

• https://www.elks.org
• https://www.mooseintl.org
• https://www.foe.com
• https://www.kofc.org
• https://www.ioof.org
• https://www.lionsclubs.org
• https://www.rotary.org
• https://www.kiwanis.org
• https://www.nyselks.org
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_and_Protective_Order_of_Elks
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vivian_(actor)
• https://www.workmenscircle.org