Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, March 20, 1910, Page 17

PART TERER HALF-TONE PAGES ONE TO FOUR, THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE. OMAHA, UNDAY MORNING, 1910. FOR ALL THE NEWS THE OMAHA BEE LEST IN THE WESI \ —_— ;\'I.\'lil,li COPY FIVE CENTS. OMAHA ELKS HAVE LUXURIOUS QUARTERS IN NEW HOME Elegantly Furnished Apartments of the Elks Olub House and Magnificently Equipped Lodge Room Now Give the Local Herd Much COomfort and an Uncommon Cause for Great Pride NG = ELLO BILL Whenever you hear this cheerful salutation you may know there's an Elk in the neighborhood. They are not secret passwords or mystic signs of recognition. It's merely a friendly greeting flung at one Elk by another. You have heard it on the street; maybe it meant nothing to you and was unnoticed, but to the members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks it s the greeting of brotherhood. Nearly twelve hundred Elks are in the Omaha field today. In 18/36 there were twenty. In 1886 the Elks' club rented two small rnoms above the old Boyd theater at Fifteenth and Farnam streets. Today the Elks' club has a building of its own, the Granite block at Fourteenth and Harney streets, and has one of the most luxuriously appointed suite of lodge rooms in the city This shows briefly what has been wrought in local Elkdom in twenty-four years. There were dark days, however, among the bright ones; there were days when the burden of debt hung heavily over the struggling lodge; there were days of grief and disappointment. But the spirit of Elkdom, which grows stronger as the years go by, was strong within the order, obstacles were met and overcome and the present flourishing and popular lodge is the result. Forgetting for a moment the days of the past, let us look at the Omaha lodge in its new home. During the last month the Elks have deserted their old stamping grounds in the Ware block and are now browsing in fresher, greener flelds in their own building. The Elks' headquarters building is located on Fifteenth street between Harney and Farnam steets. The first and second floors are occupled by stores and offices; the third and fourth floors are devoted exclusively to club rooms. The building has a sixty-six-foot frontage on Fifteenth street and extends to the cast eighty-eight feet. Since the Elks purchased the Granite block an addition has been annexed to the east 22x37 feet and five stories in height. Fisher & Lawrie, hitects, with offices in the Paxton block, bullt the Granite block, and the same firm remodeled the building, built the annex and created the new Elks' building. In style of architecture the bullders have followed closely the Avstrian art. To reach the Elks' quarters one enters the building en Fifteenth street, passes through a long, well lighted corridor, eight feet wide, to the elevator. The second floor is devoted to offices. Reaching the third floor, the visitor steps from the elevator to a hallway 15x24 feet. Wide doors open to the main foyer of the Elks' rooms. This i: a spacious reception room 14x41 feet. From the foyer are entrances to the coat room, the secretary's offices, woman's retiring room, the parlors, library and billlard room. The parlor is & grand room facing on Fifteenth street 30x28 feet in dimensions. Adjoining the parlor on the north is the library, 12x28 feet, and mnext to that the billiard room, 22x46 feet, both heving windows on Fifteenth street. Next to the billlard room are the card rooms, 19x38 feet. There is no bar room in the Elks’ heaguuarters. 3 \I1 the third floor rooms are according to the Italian style of architecture, All are spacious and well lighted, an idea followed out by the architects In every modification. The parlor, library and billiard rooms all face on the street; the billiard room also receives light from the alley on the north, as do the card rooms. The hall and the secretary’s offices are “outside rooms,” receiving light from the east. Messrs, Fisher & Lawrie are especially complimented on their fourth floor work. Here is located the lodge room proper. A hallway 15x17 feet leads to the main lodge room and two anterooms. The _— = oy g PR IN TRE VEJ TIBULE = 0o Todge room—where the Elks herd together Friday nights for busi- ness sessions—i{s a spacious assembly rcom 63x54 feet. It is finished according to the Elizabethan style, similar to the architecture in the Auditoglum hotel, Chicago. It has an elghteen-foot ceiling, heavily beafed, with a touch of the craftsman’s art. All the wood work in the lodge room is of heavy quarter-sawed oak, the wain scoting itself rising twelve feet above the floor. One of the most striking features in the Elks' building is the elevator. No gulding band runs the machine, for the boy of the ordi nary passenger elevator is lacking. All one has to do to ride in the Elks' elevator is te press the button. It is automatic and does the work itself. The elevator was installed by the Otls Elevator company of New York and Chicago. The firm has offices in the First National bank building, in charge of D. B. Marshall. It is the only public automatic elevator in Omaha, although the firm has the contract to install a similar machine in the new Hamilton apartments. Press the button; that's all you have to do to ride in the automatic elevator. When you want the car to come for you you touch the electric button at the elevator shaft, the same as you would ring the bell for the ordinary car. The car will come to your floor at once. You open the door yourself, press the number of the floor that you want and the ear rises automatically and stops at your destination The Presbyterian, Wise Memorial and Clarkson hospitals are equipped with similar cars. . This type of passenger elevator is espe- clally serviceable in apartment houses, hospitals and even in la private residences. It may be mentioned in passing that the Otis Flevator company has installed automatic cars in the palaces of the emperor of China, the mikado of Japan and the king of England. In the London underground railway the Otis people have placed 146 passenger elevators; the Metropolitan Life Insurance company's bnilding in New York City, fifty-two stories high, has forty elevators, and the Eifel tower in Paris also has the Otis cars. The new Brandeis theater building and the City National bank building will be equipped with cars made by this company. Cars in the bank building will be operated by the electric flash light signal system, the first of its kind established in Omaha. From the standpoint of art the visitor to the Elks' building cannot help but be impressed by the wall decorattons. The firm of .G. A. Fuchs, Son & Blind, fresco artists, 4 South Fourteenth street, bad the contract for this work. Every wall and every ceiling in the building shows the work of skillful artists with palate and brush Probably the most striking, the most impressive and most beautiful of the artists’ creation {s the large painting in the parlor above the fireplace. This was done on the wall, unlike the usual canvas work with the gilded frame. The picture shows the bull Elk in his native baunts; there is a beautiful landscape, with woods and brush and running water, and in the background lofty mountains. It Is a beau tiful scenic view. In the halls on the third and fourth floors are paint ings, also done on the wall, showing scenes of the wildwood, and lands of the Indian and the Elk. The pictorial painting was done by G. A Fuchs. Throughout the building, on every floor, from the hall on the main floor to the ceiling of the lodge room, is seen the work of G. A. Fuchs, Son & Blind. None of the walls are finished plain, but are trimmed in hand-painted designs. The work has ellcited much praise from the Elks and the visitors to the lodge rooms and is a great credit to the artists. Furniture, rugs, draperies and curtains on the third floor were furnished by Miller, Stewart & Beaton. The Fourth floor furnishings in the lodge and anterooms were supplied by the Omaha Printing company. There is not an old plece of furniture, an old rug or a curtain in the entire building. In furnishing the third floor Miller, Stewart & Beaton paid especial attention to harmony. All the fur- nishings are of the most costly goods. The furniture is of solid ¢ <O CORNER 1N THER READING ROOM. mahogany throughout, the rugs are imported Saxony or Royal Wiltc= ' and the draperies of velour and French galoon and the curtains of French net. The foyer is furnished in red. Furniture is of Eliza- bethan design in solid mahogany, upholstered with Panne plush to harmonize with wall decorations, rugs and draperies are of velour, trimmed with French galoon. Wilton of a soft brown shade. ; Parlor and library furniture is of colenial deSign in solid ma- hogany. Chairs and Tuxedo davenports are upholstered in green Panne plush to mateh the portiers and draperles, which are of green velour. The curtains are of French net. A solid mahogany table of lerge dimensions is a part of the parlor furniture and smaller read ing and writing tables are located in the library. Billiard and pool tables are of the latest type, large size and highest price. The billiard room is furnished with solid mahogany settees, upholstered in green Panna plush. The draperies are of Monks cloth, with French net curtains to match walls. The card room is furnished in craftsmen's style, of the soft brown shade, conforming with walls The Omaha Printing company deserves considerable credit for the furnishings fn the lodge room proper. This is the secret domain of the Elks, where strangers dare not trespass. The spaciousness of the hall, which covers nearly the entire fourth floor of the building, has lent a degree of massiveness and grandeur to it furnishings the Omaha Printing company adhered to the idea of largeness and grandeur. There and Jdime beyond the ordinary to the desks, the stations of the various officers and the seats of the brothers. The portiers The rug is of Royal In selecting the is size sion About the four walls are massive settees, comfortable with high backs, soft cushions and body conforming shape. the most part, are stationary. Steam radiators are cleverly hidden behind the settees so there are no pipes of any kind in evidence. fettees are placed upon a raised platform extending around the hall On the four sides of the lodge room are the stations of the officers. These are built according to the style of furniture char aeteristic of the reign of Henry II of England. ( holstering is of panne plush of the costliest grade of furniture alone to furnish the lodge room rt Los Angeles These settees, for ons and up- It took a carload The Masonic temple was furnished along the same lines as the Elks’ Robert M. Irwin of Indianapolis had charge of the con- tract for the Omaha Printing company in installing the lodge room turniture. After the various pleces had be were measured to order, it took but a single Iat into place Plumbing and heating apparatus in the Elks' bullding was in ctalled by J. J. Hanighen, whose headquarters are at 1408 Harney street. The contract for this work was one of the most in the buflding. An entirely new was installed, including furnac job is a very satisfactory one toilet rooms and lavatories lodge room. n made, for all pleces day to put the entire important heating plant of the latest model boiler, piping and radiators. The Hot and cold water are supplied to all Fittings in these rooms are of the best oven work style, porcelain is used throughout and all toilet rooms ara finished in marble. Elks’ headquarters are brilllantly lighted throughout. The fixtures in the halls and on the first and second floors were installed by the Standard Electric company, 319 South Thirteenth street, of which Edward F. Schurig is president and treasurer. Lighting effects in the Elks' rooms on the third and fourth floors were installed by the Burgess-Granden company of 15611 Howard street. The contract for lighting also amounted to several thousands of dollars. All the chandeliers in the Elks' rooms are of special pattern, with the emble- matie clock, designating the hour of eleven, always in evidence. The fixtures are after the Elizabethan style. In the main lodge room on the fourth floor are five massive chandellers, one in the center and one in each corner. These are suspended by heavy chains. Each chandelier has eleven branches, from which are suspended flaming globes. Here again the symbol “‘eleven” is brought into prominence. In the foyer on the third floor are three massive chandellers, also supported by massive chains. The center lights are after a special pattern, with the Elks' clock prominently displayed. In all the rooms there are myriads of wall lights and also fittings for electric fans. Billiard and pool tables are exceptionally well illuminated by brilliant clustars of lights, John H. Harte, the contractor, 1609 Webster street, was the huilder of the new Elks' home. The contract for the remodeling of the old Granite block and the erection of the addition was one of the most important ones in establishing the new home for the lodge. The contractor’s work called for an appropriation of upwards of $32,000, probably the largest item in the expense of the lodge. Besides remodeling the old structure, which n itself amounted to a large job, the contractor undertook the erection of the annex on the east, 28x37 feet. The annex is five stories in height, with a basement. Mr. Harte's work was an important one and was satisfactory in every way. Historlcally the Omaha lodge of Evks has had a varled career. It was the thirty-ninth lodge instituted in the country and bears that number. An actor gave the first suggestion for the establishment of a lodge of Elks in Omaha. Thomas W. Keene, the famous Shakes perian player, and himself an enthusiastic Elk ifi the east, was play ing in a drama at the old Boyd theater in the fall of 1885. E. E. Whitmore was the treasurer of the opera house. Mr. Whitmore be. came interested in the order through the suggestions of the Shakes- perian player and before the dawn of 1886 the movement to organize a lodge here was well under way February 7, 1886, Omaha lodge No. 39 became a reality. The charter was granted on that date and the lodge formally Instituted by Dr. Simon Quinlan of Chicago, now deceased, assisted by a delegation of Chicago Elks. The services were conducted in Kouny’s hall, southwest corner of Fourteenth and Dodge streets. There were twenty charter members, as follows: John Francls A B Dwight G. Huil Dr. H. W. Hyde Harry L. Hall Joseph W. Garneau E. E. Whitmore W. C. Gregory fands F. Woodbridge I. W. Miner D. W. Van Cott Davenport Thomas F. Boyd R. C. McClure Frank C. Morrissey W. E. Annin Chester C. Hulett W. N. Babcock Six of the charter members were local newspaper men. Of the original charter mémbership six are now living and In good standing in No. 39; the others have since died, have transferred their member ships to other lodges or have lapsed. The Omaha lodge are Sands F. Woodbridge, 1. W. Miner, the se cretary; D. W. Van Cott, A, B. Davenport, Thomas F. Boyd and Alfred Soren. son. They have been made life members of the order. six now active in the The first lodge rooms maintained by the lodge old Boyd theater at Fifteenth and Farnam streets. The lodge had two rooms, with a floor space measuring 20x78 feet. From the Boyd theater bullding the lodge removed to more commodious quarters in the Continental block, Fifteenth and Douglas streets lived for five years Then came dark days In the history of the lodge. Although many members had been added sinece the installation, finances ran were above the Here the club (Continued on Page Four)