New Elks lodge has familiar feeling
Published 11:01 pm Thursday, August 13, 2009
EVERETT — It’s not as big as the grand old place, but it’s brand spanking new, it’s a room with a view and they can call it their own.
After nearly two years of meeting in a temporary location, the Elks Club has moved into its new digs at 2802 Hoyt Ave., at the intersection with California Street.
The club has been using the meeting room on the main floor and the lounge on the second floor since early July. The lounge has a view of Possession Sound.
A grand opening ceremony is planned for October.
“It feels great,” said Doug Berry, a member of the club’s board of trustees. “Everyone feels good being in our own building now.”
Work began two years ago on the five-story, 18,000-square-foot building. While waiting for the structure to go up, the club met at Normanna Hall, which belongs to the Sons of Norway.
The new Elks Club is on the former site of the Grifols Biomat Plasma Center that burned in January 2005.
After years of declining membership and deferred maintenance on its former headquarters a block away at 2731 Rucker Ave., the club sold the building in 2007 to Skotdal Real Estate for $2.5 million. A seven- story, 200-unit condominium is under construction there.
The Elks built their new building for about $8 million, said Gary Davis, chairman of the board of trustees for the Elks. The top three floors contain nine view condominiums the club is planning to sell to the general public soon. Prices have yet to be set.
The former building had a gym, a swimming pool, racquetball and basketball courts and a barbershop in addition to the meeting hall and ballrooms. It was built for a membership that reached as high as 5,000 in the club’s heyday in the mid-20th century.
Now, membership is just below 900, Berry said. The new building doesn’t have any of those frills.
“We don’t have enough room for that kind of thing,” Berry said.
In the past 30 years the Everett Elks Club fell prey to the same societal forces that caused a drop in membership in many other philanthropic service clubs.
Still, the Elks are raising money for scholarships, handing out food baskets, sending dictionaries to schools on the Tulalip reservation and hosting parties for mentally challenged children, to name a few of the activities, Berry said.
The club gets about 30 people at its meetings, Davis said.
A few items did make it over from the old club. A set of chandeliers from the club’s former meeting room now hang in the new hall.
As people walk through the front door, they’re greeted by a giant, mounted elk’s head.
Another one watches over the meeting room. A third awaits hanging on the wall in the upstairs walkway.
Monday, the club plans to open the lounge to members for dinner. It’s considering serving lunch to the public and resuming the popular monthly seafood buffets it offered in the old location.
The meeting room can double as a banquet hall and that room, along with the lounge and restaurant, are available for rental to the public for events, Davis said.
Each room holds about 175 people. Either room or a combination may be rented at any one time, Davis said.
“We’re flexible,” he said.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
