Adams Elks Celebrate 100 Years

ADAMS, Mass. — The local Elks invite the community to celebrate its 100 years in Adams this Sunday.

Melissa Martin said Adams Elks 1335, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, will celebrate its centennial year of service to the community on Sunday from noon to 3.

"It's a milestone. A lot organizations and lodges themselves don't physically last 100 years," Martin said. "We are looking forward to another 100 years."

The Adams lodge was instituted on May 8, 1916, and held its first 275 meetings at the Odd Fellows Hall on Park Street with a total of 50 members. The exalted ruler, or lodge president, was Theodore R. Plunkett.

Now the lodge is located on 63 Center St. and has a membership of 217 men and woman. It is one of more than 2,000 lodges across the nation with more than 850,000 members.

The Elks purportedly was created by a group of bon vivants a few years after the Civil War who gathered on "dry" Sundays to partake of prestocked beverages. The gathering of mostly entertainers sought to formalize their club along benevolent and fraternal lines, with the elk as symbol. Traditionally a man's club, it opened its membership to women in the 1990s.

Martin has been an Elk for 17 years and joined with her husband when she moved to Adams.

"I have seen a lot of changes and have actually been president, which is called exalted ruler, five times," she said. "Maybe 20 years ago they allowed women in. There were no women back then, and it was primarily for businessmen and lawyers."

Sunday's celebration starts at noon at the lodge at 63 Center St. for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.

Martin said the lodge will be presented with plaques around 1:30 from Elk dignitary Michael F. Zellen of the Saugus/Everett lodge who is the endorsed candidate for the grand exalted ruler, or national president, for 2016-17.

Lunch will start around 2. There will also be raffles.

Martin said the Adams Elks have supported scholarships, veterans, and many other local activities. 

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