Elks Fight Foreclosure

In December, the Elks celebrated 105 years in New Haven and hosted dozens of kids at its annual Christmas party. That same month, an ominous sign appeared on the lawn of the Dixwell African-American fraternal organization’s home.

“Foreclosure sale by public auction on these premises,” the sign reads, outside the brick Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World lodge at 87 Webster St.

The group has fallen on hard times. The Elks owe over $22,000 in property taxes to the city, which filed suit against the organization in May 2011.

One year later, in May 2012, a judge issued an order for a foreclosure by sale. An auction date has been set for Jan. 19.

Jorge Lopes, the lodge’s ​“Exalted Ruler,” said he remains optimistic that the lodge will stay off the auction block. He said the Elks are looking to take out a loan to pay their tax debt.

If they escape the foreclosure, the Elks’ next challenge will be to rebuild the fraternal organization, which has dwindled from 500 members in its heyday to fewer than 100 today, Lopes said. The Elks, and their women’s auxiliary, the Daughters of Elks, will have to change to survive.

“A Struggle”

Lopes (pictured) acknowledged that fact while sitting at a table in the lodge’s darkened basement bar Thursday morning. The bar is open to Elks and Daughters and their guests. It’s a source of revenue, along with membership dues and rentals of the first-floor function hall.

Lopes, who’s 57, wore the standard Elks uniform — black suit, black tie, white shirt — but not the fez or ceremonial regalia that are reserved for special occasions.

He said the financial trouble started with the 2008 economic downturn. Fewer people came to the club. Membership dwindled. It became harder and harder to pay the lodge’s debts.

The Elks are aging; today’s average Elk is about 65. As members pass away, younger Elks are not taking their places. ​“It’s been a struggle,” Lopes said.

The shift, which is affecting all fraternal organizations, is a marked difference from when Lopes joined 20 years ago: ​“When I first came in, it was very busy, always packed.”

Lopes said when he was growing up, people his parents’ age all used to go to the Elks’ annual ball at the Goffe Street armory. From the 1940s to the ​‘70s, the ball was a not-to-be-missed ​“who’s who” affair, he said.

“At one point we had close to 500 members,” Lopes said. That was in the ​‘60s.

Despite today’s diminished membership, the Elks have continued to do what they’ve always done. The lodge is a gathering place and social outlet for members who work to organize volunteer activities of various kinds. The Elks are dedicated to ​“brotherly love” and ​“sisterly love” and helping their community, Lopes said.

At Christmastime, with no advertising other than word of mouth, the Elks hosted a holiday party with a line of kids out the door. They gave out presents and served food. At Thanksgiving the Elks make food baskets and deliver them to people who are sick or shut in. Each year the Elks host an oratory contest for high school students.

The Lodge Will Live On

Lopes said he believes New Haven’s Elks, know formally as East Rock Lodge No. 141, form the oldest fraternal organization in town. He said Lodge 141 formed 105 years ago, less than 10 years after the IBPOEW was established in 1899 in Ohio.

“The minority community was looking for a place to call their own,” Lopes said. Borrowing from the existing, all-white, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE), the founders of the IBPOEW added ​“Improved” to the front of the name and ​“of the World” to the end, and started their own fraternal organization.

In March, 2012, Lopes was elected ​“Exalted Ruler,” aka lodge president. A new crop of officers came in with him, filling the positions of Leading Knight, Loyal Knight, Lecturing Knight, Esquire, and Tyler. Each has a special role to play in Elks activities, which Lopes declined to speak about on the record.

The Elks also share a secret handshake and other customs known only to members. But Lopes said secrecy is not what defines the organization. Even the building itself doesn’t define the group, he said.

“The lodge is not the building,” Lopes said. ​“The lodge is the members. We will continue to be the lodge if we have to meet in our basements.”

But it won’t come to that, Lopes vowed. ​“I’m not going to accept that. We are going to be here.”

The Elks’ longevity depends on adjusting to new realities, Lopes said. ​“We obviously have to change what we’ve done in the past.”

The lodge will have to bring in new members. It will have to rent the hall out more often. ​“We realize that we have to pick up the activities,” he said.

And the lodge will have to ask for more help from members and from the community, which goes against the old way of doing things, Lopes said.

“We will survive,” he said. ​“I refuse to think any other way.” The lodge will probably not go back to where it was in its heyday in the ​‘50s and ​‘60s, but Lopes said he feels good about the direction in which it’s headed.

“I’m not going to be the last Exalted Ruler.”