Washington Fraternal Lodges

About Fraternal Organizations in Washington

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

History of Fraternal Organizations in Washington

Washington State holds a singular place in American fraternal history because it is the birthplace of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, one of the largest and most influential American fraternal orders. On February 6, 1898, Seattle theater owner John Cort and six fellow theater proprietors gathered in a downtown Seattle saloon to settle a labor dispute over musicians' wages and ended up forming a new fraternal order they initially called The Order of Good Things. Within months they had renamed it the Fraternal Order of Eagles, adopted a constitution, and begun chartering aeries up and down the West Coast. That Seattle origin story remains the foundational fact of Washington fraternalism.

But the state's fraternal life is far from limited to the Eagles. Seattle Elks Lodge No. 92, chartered in 1888, is one of the oldest Elks lodges west of the Mississippi and historically anchored the Pacific Northwest's BPOE membership. Tacoma Elks Lodge No.

174, chartered in 1891, and Spokane Elks Lodge No. 228 in the late 1890s established the other two corners of Washington's Elks triangle. The state's logging, mining, fishing, and rail trades, combined with the late nineteenth and early twentieth century waves of Scandinavian, Finnish, German, Irish, Italian, and Japanese immigration, produced an unusually diverse fraternal landscape. Sons of Norway lodges in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Everett, and Poulsbo.

Suomi Finnish lodges in Hoquiam, Aberdeen, and Astoria-area towns. Italian mutual-aid societies in Black Diamond and Roslyn. Japanese American community associations along the Puyallup and White River valleys. The Loyal Order of Moose, the Knights of Columbus, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Lions Clubs, and Rotary, founded in Chicago in 1905, all spread quickly into the state.

Seattle Rotary chartered in 1909 as one of the earliest clubs after Chicago, and the Pacific Northwest became an early Rotary stronghold. The Knights of Columbus arrived with Catholic immigration into Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, Yakima, Walla Walla, and Vancouver. Washington's mid-twentieth-century military expansion, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Naval Base Kitsap, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Fairchild AFB, brought a wave of veterans into local fraternal life that continues to define lodge memberships in the Puget Sound region. Today Washington's fraternal life remains vibrant in part because of strong lodge buildings inherited from earlier generations, in part because of unbroken charitable programming, and in part because the state's identity as the cradle of the Eagles gives Washington fraternalists a sense of historical purpose.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in Washington

Seattle Elks Lodge No. 92, chartered in 1888, is one of the oldest BPOE lodges in the western United States. The lodge has occupied multiple historic clubhouses in downtown Seattle and on the Eastside and remains active today, drawing members from the city's professional, technology, maritime, and arts communities. Tacoma Elks Lodge No.

174, chartered in 1891, anchors the South Sound. Spokane Elks Lodge No. 228, chartered in the late 1890s, has long been a centerpiece of fraternal life in the Inland Northwest, and its substantial historic clubhouse near downtown Spokane is a landmark of the city. Other historic Washington Elks lodges include Bellingham No.

194, Everett No. 479, Walla Walla No. 287, Yakima No. 318, Vancouver No.

823, Wenatchee No. 1186, Olympia No. 186, Aberdeen No. 593, Bremerton No.

1181, and Port Angeles No. 353. The Washington State Elks Association funds a Major Project that supports therapy services for children with disabilities throughout the state, plus statewide Hoop Shoot competitions, scholarship work through the Elks National Foundation, and substantial veterans' programming at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. The Washington Elks Therapy Program for Children, run from a Pasco campus, is one of the most extensive state-level Elks projects in the country.

Loyal Order of Moose in Washington

The Loyal Order of Moose came to Washington in the early twentieth century and grew quickly in the timber, mining, fishing, and shipyard towns. Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, Bremerton, Everett, Bellingham, Yakima, Wenatchee, Walla Walla, Olympia, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Centralia, Longview, and Vancouver all chartered Moose lodges, and many remain active. Washington Moose lodges have historically drawn members from longshoremen, mill workers, railroad employees, and Boeing-line machinists, with strong representation in the Puget Sound's heavy industries. Mooseheart and Moosehaven receive consistent Washington fundraising.

The Women of the Moose chapters in Washington maintain robust youth and educational programs. The state's wildfire and earthquake preparedness needs have made some Washington Moose lodges informal staging points for community emergency response over the years.

Eagles, Knights of Columbus & Other Fraternal Orders in Washington

The Fraternal Order of Eagles was founded in Seattle, Washington on February 6, 1898 by theater owner John Cort and six fellow theater proprietors, originally calling themselves The Order of Good Things. They quickly adopted the name Fraternal Order of Eagles, chartered Aerie No. 1 in Seattle, and began chartering aeries throughout the Pacific Northwest, then across the United States and Canada. Although the international headquarters today is in Grove City, Ohio, the FOE's Seattle origin remains its defining historical fact, and Aerie No.

1 in Seattle is treated by Eagles members nationwide as a kind of mother aerie. Tacoma, Spokane, Everett, Bellingham, Yakima, Olympia, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and dozens of smaller Washington communities chartered aeries soon after the founding. Washington Eagles led the early FOE legislative campaigns that produced Mother's Day in 1914 (the FOE was instrumental in the federal observance), workers' compensation laws, old-age pensions, and ultimately key provisions in what became the Social Security Act of 1935. The order's modern charitable focus on diabetes research, children's hospitals, the Jimmy Durante Children's Fund, and disaster relief continues to draw heavy Washington support, and the state aerie remains one of the largest in the United States.

The Knights of Columbus also has a strong presence in Washington. Seattle Council 676, chartered in 1902, anchors a state council with roughly 25,000 members across nearly 200 councils. Tacoma, Spokane, Yakima, Walla Walla, Vancouver, Everett, and Bremerton each anchor large parishes within the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Diocese of Spokane and Yakima. Washington Knights run major Tootsie Roll drives for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, sponsor seminarians and religious sisters, run Coats for Kids drives in winter, and partner with Catholic Community Services and Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington on refugee resettlement and family support.

Washington Fraternal Lodges by the Numbers

Washington has approximately 70 active Elks lodges with combined membership around 30,000, around 50 Moose lodges with roughly 25,000 members, around 80 Fraternal Order of Eagles aeries (including the founding Aerie No. 1) with about 50,000 members, and around 200 Knights of Columbus councils with roughly 25,000 members. Lions Clubs are widely chartered with more than 300 in the state. Rotary, Kiwanis, and Optimist clubs maintain strong presences in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, Bellevue, Everett, Vancouver, Yakima, and Spokane.

Total Washington fraternal and civic membership is estimated at more than 175,000 once auxiliaries are included. Density is highest in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, and Clark counties, with notable concentrations along the Olympic Peninsula and across the Tri-Cities and Yakima Valley.

How to Join a Fraternal Lodge in Washington

Membership requirements in Washington follow the standard order-by-order pattern. The Elks require U.S. citizenship, age twenty-one, belief in God, and sponsorship by a current Elk; investigation and a lodge vote follow. The Moose admit men twenty-one and older with sponsorship.

The Eagles welcome men eighteen and older through sponsorship and an investigation, and Washington Eagles aeries are particularly active in welcoming new members given the state's role as the order's birthplace. The Knights of Columbus is open exclusively to practical Catholic men eighteen and older. Initiation fees and annual dues vary by lodge but commonly run between seventy-five and two hundred dollars. Lions, Rotary, and Kiwanis are coed civic clubs admitted by invitation.

Visiting an open house or a fundraiser, an Eagles spaghetti dinner, an Elks crab feed, a Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast, a Moose karaoke night, is the most reliable path into a Washington lodge.

Notable Washington Fraternal Members in History

Washington's fraternal roll includes John Cort, the Seattle theater impresario who co-founded the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1898 along with his six theater colleagues. Senator Warren G. Magnuson, the long-serving Washington senator, was associated with multiple civic clubs in Seattle. Senator Henry M.

Jackson, Scoop Jackson, was a longtime supporter of fraternal civic work in Everett and the Puget Sound region. Governor Daniel J. Evans was associated with civic clubs across the state. Boeing executives have historically participated in Seattle-area fraternal life.

In the entertainment world, performers tied to Seattle's theater and music traditions have lent their names to Eagles benefit events for more than a century. Multiple Seattle Mariners, Seahawks, and Sounders players have appeared at Elks Hoop Shoots and Knights of Columbus charity events. Catholic leaders, including Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Archbishop Alexander Brunett, and Archbishop Paul Etienne, have worked closely with Washington's Knights of Columbus state council. Spokane and Tacoma have long produced civic-minded fraternal leaders, and the state's military officer community at JBLM and Naval Base Kitsap continues to feed lodge memberships across the region.

Frequently Asked Questions: Washington Fraternal Lodges

Sources & Further Reading

• https://www.foe.com/
• https://www.foe.com/about/history/
• https://www.elks.org/lodges/
• https://www.waelks.org/
• https://www.kofc.org/
• https://www.washingtonstatekofc.org/
• https://www.mooseintl.org/
• https://www.historylink.org/
• https://www.lionsclubs.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_Order_of_Eagles