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Elks Lodge

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1874. 111 Main St.

Originally the Mullen Building, this became Lodge 557 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1902. The fraternal order added the third-story lodge hall, a bastion of the strongest and most enduring of the mining town fraternities, which served as surrogate families for many bachelor miners. Of the twenty-three fraternal organizations with fifty-three individual lodges that once were active in Gilpin County, this is one of the few survivors.

Somehow a huge stuffed elk with a seven-foot rack was carried up the narrow staircase and planted in the middle of the lodge room, where the Eastlake back bar is adorned with two smaller elk heads. The false-front brick cornice bears a white frame pedimented entablature with classical garlands and a central clock. Windows, especially a third-floor oriel and a second-story round-arched opening with leaded glass lights, brighten the facade.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

First National Bank Block
Harrah's Glory Hole Saloon (Meyer Building)
Gold Coin Saloon and Lady Luck Casino
Teller House
Masonic Temple (Register-Call Building)

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Elks Lodge", [Central City, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-GL16.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 195-196.

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