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Published by the Southwest News Company of Kansas City, this week’s postcard shows the old Elks Lodge No. 26 that for over half a century was located at Seventh and Grand. The imposing Shingle and Brownstone building was designed by William Walters of Oshkosh, Wis., and served as the Wisconsin state building at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. It faced the lagoon there directly between the Illinois building and the Palace of Fine Arts.
Its architectural style at that time was deemed Modern Domestic, despite the fact it comes closer to a classical Shingle style. At the conclusion of the fair the building was purchased by a Wamego, Kan., banker, disassembled piece by piece, then moved to Kansas City and reassembled on a vacant lot at Seventh and Grand.
A group of local businessmen opened a private gambling establishment in the building which failed after only a few months. It was then used as overflow by the Midland Hotel right across the street to the south. A local Elks lodge, then meeting in an upstairs room at the old New York Life Building, purchased the property in 1899 and occupied the structure until they moved to the old Armour home near Armour Boulevard and Main streets in 1951.
The City Union Mission utilized the property until 1961 when, aged and worn, it was razed to make way for a surface parking lot that occupies the site today. Anthony’s Restaurant is located catty-corner to the southeast of where the Lodge building once stood. Lodge 26, however, is still alive and well according to Mike Grinnell, the manager of the Lodge now located near 99th and Holmes Road in south Kansas City. Elks Lodge No. 26, once the home lodge of former President Harry Truman, recently celebrated its 127th year.
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