A 1927 Dance, a Bayside Lot, and a Local-History Mystery
Nearly a century ago, Rockaway Masons threw a major summer party to help build a temple.
The date was August 28, 1927. Rockaway Lodge No. 1036, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Rockaway Square Club planned a cabaret and dance at Monte Carlo-by-the-Sea. There would be vaudeville entertainers, music by Mike Landau and his musicians, and, according to one newspaper account, an expected crowd of about 2,000 Masons and friends.
It was not simply an evening of entertainment. The proceeds were intended to finance a permanent Masonic temple in Rockaway Park.
Rockaway Lodge No. 1036 had been chartered by the Grand Lodge of New York in 1924. The lodge was created during a period when the Rockaways were increasingly becoming a year-round community, not merely a summer destination. Its members belonged to the generation that saw the peninsula as a place to invest, organize, and build for the future.
In March 1927, Rockaway Lodge and the Rockaway Square Club purchased property overlooking Jamaica Bay for their proposed home. Period newspapers placed the site on Beach Channel Drive near Beach 121st Street, while other reports described it as near Beach 122nd Street and Bayside Drive. The tract reportedly had 106 feet of frontage along Beach Channel Drive and a depth of 137 feet.
The differing descriptions have made the exact site difficult to identify. Based on my research and a comparison with today’s map, I believe the former property may have been located somewhere near present-day Beach 138th Street and Beach Channel Drive. That is not a final identification; it is a research conclusion that needs confirmation through a deed, title record, old map, family document, or a reader’s memory.
The land was reportedly acquired from the real-estate firm of Friedman Sherwood. Emanuel S. Berge, Frederick T. Davies, and Edward Schacher served on the purchase committee. J. Wadsworth Carpenter was the lodge’s first master, and Gustave M. Stark served as master during the 1927 temple drive.
The effort was ambitious. A Masonic temple would have given the lodge a permanent home for meetings, ceremonies, dinners, and charitable work. It would also have served as a visible sign that Rockaway had become a place where community institutions could take root.
The fundraiser at Monte Carlo-by-the-Sea was part of that effort. One account reported that the event would help pay a $4,000 second mortgage on the property. Charles Wille, the Monte Carlo’s proprietor, reportedly donated use of the inn.
There is something distinctly Rockaway about the plan. The Masons hoped to use the peninsula’s famous entertainment culture—music, dancing, hospitality, and a large summer gathering—to finance a building that represented stability and permanence. They were trying to turn a resort party into a civic landmark. What happened afterward is less clear.
Rockaway Lodge No. 1036 did not leave behind the large surviving archive available for some older local lodges. It was comparatively short-lived, and the trail becomes difficult to follow. Newspaper reports show its members active in Masonic, charitable, business, and civic circles, but the temple itself is still elusive.
Was a building ever started? Was the bayside property sold? Did it become part of later development? Why did the lodge ultimately disappear? And is there a Rockaway family with the missing program, photograph, ledger, membership certificate, or story that explains what happened?
As a Rockaway native and the Historian of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586 in Astoria, I am researching this story for a book about Freemasonry in Queens and the way local lodges reflected the borough’s growth. Rockaway Lodge No. 1036 is one of the most intriguing cases because it leaves behind both a clear public ambition and an unresolved ending.
If you have information about Rockaway Lodge No. 1036, the Rockaway Square Club, the Monte Carlo-by-the-Sea fundraiser, or the old temple site near Beach Channel Drive and today’s Beach 138th Street, I would be grateful to hear from you. Old clippings, photographs, programs, letters, lodge booklets, property records, and family recollections may all help preserve this overlooked piece of Rockaway history.
Brete Murphy was born and raised in Rockaway and is the Historian of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586 in Astoria. He is writing a book on the history of Freemasonry in Queens and how its lodges reflect the borough’s growth and changing communities. Readers with information about Rockaway Lodge No. 1036 may contact him at breteblue@yahoo.com.
