Elks Marks 125th year
Butler Elks Lodge 170 will mark its quasquicentennial Friday, which is a fancy way of saying July 10 is the 125th anniversary of the lodge's founding.
According to the lodge's history, a charter was granted July 10, 1890, and J.B. Black was elected the lodge's first exalted ruler.
A 50-year-member, Jon Campbell of Butler has been present for a good bit of the lodge's history, serving a stint as exalted leader himself, starting in 1968.
The former city treasurer and county register and recorder of deeds doesn't make many meetings these days.
“I go Memorial Sunday,” he said, referring to the first Sunday in December when it is mandatory for all Elks lodges to conduct a memorial service for members who died during the year.
“When they finally put me in a box, I'd like someone to carry a candle for me,” said Campbell.
Campbell said the Butler lodge has nearly 700 members, but at one time membership numbered nearly 1,600 when the lodge building was located at North Main and Pearl streets.
That building was opened in 1951 and contained a lounge, a dining room and what was called the men's grill.
It was also the site of a long-running bingo game.
Campbell said, “We had a successful bingo game we ran there for years and years.”
Campbell said the Sunday night game in the lodge basement attracted more than 100 people weekly.“We were turning away business, no two ways about it, every Sunday night,” said Campbell.In addition, said Campbell, “There was hardly a better place to go have dinner. Nationwide Insurance was right across the street. We fed Nationwide lunch for years.”Patrick Brown, a 13-year Elks member, said the old lodge “was a great place for people from up north who were traveling to a ballgame to stop.”“Practically anyone could get in the dining room,” said Brown. “You had to be a member or be with a member.”“They had a shot-and-a beer bar, but they had a cocktail lounge on the main floor for wedding receptions,” Brown said.Campbell said the lodge was the scene of St. Patrick's Day and Italian Day parties, its annual Flag Day observances, monthly members' nights and events such as “Tom and Jerry Night.”Current Elks Secretary John Prokopchak said the night was named after a traditional winter drink, eggnog with brandy and rum added and served hot.“When the lodge was downtown, on the Monday before Christmas, all the merchants who were members would get together after 9 when the stores closed. They would come to the Elks and meet,” said Prokopchak.“We still celebrate 'Tom and Jerry Night' on the Monday before Christmas,” he said.But by the end of the 20th century, times were changing for the Butler lodge.Campbell said the dining room had closed, and the bar was practically deserted most days.“The insurance and utilities were getting to be $1,500 a month,” Campbell said.“It was becoming too much of an overhead. It was getting too hard to keep the building paid,” said Cynthia Skebe of Butler, a 19-year member and the second woman to join the Butler Elks and the first to serve as exalted ruler in 2001 to 2002, in another sign of changing times.“I was installed as a regular member in 1996,” said Skebe. “They closed the auxiliary. I think it was just due to the times.”“We sold the old building to Westminster Church,” in 2000, said Brown. “They tore it down and made a parking lot.”Brown said the lodge bought property on the south side of the city and built a new lodge in 2000 at 80 Kaufman Drive.But members say it is the camaraderie rather than the physical building that makes a successful lodge.“What you put in you get much more back out of it,” said Campbell. “Whenever I'm in a town I ask 'Where's the Elks Club?'”“It's given me a lot of self-pride and enjoyment,” said Skebe.“I bar tend a couple of days,” said Skebe. “It keeps me in contact with the membership.”And the lodge is looking to keep its membership up and help Lodge 170 reach its sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary.“You have to be 21 to join,” said Skebe, “and the bulk of our membership is older. But we are trying to do a lot of things socially to bring in younger members.”“This year we've tried to get a lot of different people involved,” said Jane Prokopchak, the current exalted ruler, serving her fifth nonconsecutive term.“I think most people who join become very actively involved,” Prokopchak said.“And some people just join so they have a place to go and socialize and enjoy themselves,” she said.
Jay Frederick of Butler, a 36-year member, said the lodge had a life members only lunch June 17, open to members 65 and older who had at least 30 years as a member, and 60 out of 147 eligible people attended.“Many hadn't been in the club for years, many had never been to the lodge on Kaufman Drive,” said Frederick.“But there's just something about the Elks. They don't come by for years, but they continue to be dues-paying members. But then something will trigger them and the next thing they are running for office,” said Frederick. He added this is what happened to him.But he added, the Butler Elks remain very committed to charitable causes: donating on the state level to the Home Service Program which provides a visiting nurse to patients in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties, and on the national level to the Elks National Foundation.“People think the Elks are just another club,” said Frederick. “But we give to Meals on Wheels, the Scouts, the YMCA youth programs. We try to keep it in Butler County.”
