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By 1907 — present
The orders that outlived the insurance age: The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks kept South Bend Lodge No. 235, and built for it the Elks' Temple on West Colfax Avenue, which Howard in 1907 calls "one of the architectural ornaments of the city," the lodge meeting every Monday evening with James B. McCance as exalted ruler. The lodge still stands in the state's own records a century later — the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission's permit list carries B.P.O. Elks 235 of South Bend as an active fraternal-club permit in 2024 — and the lodge keeps its hall on McKinley Avenue, its ballroom and bowling lanes working as an event house. The Fraternal Order of Eagles kept South Bend Aerie No. 435, meeting every Wednesday at the Eagles' Home, 321 North Michigan, with the Lady Eagles beside it; its hall stands in the present record on North Main Street. The Loyal Order of Moose kept Lodge No. 555, meeting Tuesdays in Moose Hall at 230 South Michigan in 1921, J. J. Morgan dictator, with the Ladies' Legion of the Moose on alternate Wednesdays. These three orders — less secret than social, their ritual published in outline by themselves — were the form of the lodge that survived the twentieth century best, trading the insurance book for the club license, the charity ball and the veterans' and children's programs; the Elks' own national record shows South Bend's lodge supplying a district deputy for northern Indiana in the 1920s, H. J. Holland of Lodge No. 235, the lodge's esteemed leading knight in the 1921 directory.
Sources:
- Howard (1907), societies chapter — Elks Lodge No. 235 and its Temple; the Eagles' officers.
- Polk (1921) — Elks No. 235; Eagles Aerie No. 435; Moose No. 555, with halls and officers.
- B.P.O. Elks, national headquarters' published lodge news (1924) — H. J. Holland of South Bend Lodge No. 235, district deputy.
- Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, commission agenda permit list, 1 Oct. 2024 — B P O Elks 235, fraternal club permit, South Bend.