The Moose Lodge - Part 2, The Original Building

The original Kokomo lodge building was constructed around 1910 on the northeast corner of Buckeye and Taylor Streets. The gaudy Victorian architecture was familiar to the era. The brick building boasted four thick columns in front with a steep stairway ascending to a large covered porch.

The only inhabitant of the spacious porch was a modest sized, stuffed moose mounted on a wheeled platform; its sad demise being indicated by the round bullet hole conspicuous in its side. It stood alone on that platform through many seasons. The porch would have provided a great vantage for watching parades, but none came that direction, so I don’t remember ever seeing anybody keeping company with that silent sentinel of the Loyal Order of Moose.

The front door opened to a spacious lobby with a couple of large antlered Moose heads sticking out of the opposing wall. The office, to the left, was in the front corner. A counter ran the length of that end. Double doors to the right of the counter opened onto the Ball Room . That was the main entertainment center, where the lodge had its weekend dances.

Stair cases at the other end of the lobby led up and down. The more conspicuous one led to an upper level whose floor plan matched the one below. The stairs opened to a front lounge with windows looking down on the porch. The large room behind, usually reserved for solemn lodge meetings, was often commandeered for weekend activities.

The other staircase on the main lobby, less conspicuous, led to the basement. It housed the Club Room, which was a stag area, a place for men only. Members had a key to the door, or were “buzzed entry” by a button in the office.

I was down there only once that I remember. Dad took brother Don and I to the lodge one Sunday when I was about eight or nine, and we were allowed to see that inner-sanctum of male bonding. It was a large windowless room, dark, emitting an odor of tobacco smoke and stale beer. There was an old mahogany bar against one wall, lined with stools.

A couple of pool tables stood nearby, card tables sat off to one side, and slot machines lined another wall - a “speak-easy” out of the past. Dad gave us a few coins with which to play the machines and the one-arm bandits promptly stole them.
GO TO: Part 3, The Old Lodge Burns