Dear Vance: This old postcard shows “Elks Rest” in Memphis. What was this place, and where was it? — M.A., Memphis
Elks Rest, as it looked then (above) and now (see below) in Forest Hill.
Dear M.A.: The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, often shortened to BPOE, was (and still is, in some areas) one of this country’s largest and most prestigious fraternal organizations, second only to the Masons, I’d say. I don’t know that for certain, since my family never joined anything, believing that simply being a Lauderdale carried enough prestige. Even so, our family never had an Elks Rest, and for more than a century, Memphis had a really nice one — with an unfortunate emphasis on “had.”
Police believe the old bronze elk was carted away and sold for scrap.
First things first: The Elks were formed by an Englishman named Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian. A successful actor and singer in London, he moved to New York City, where (according to an Elks history) “other actors and performers gravitated towards his magnetic personality.” The group first called themselves the “Jolly Corks” and they were mainly a social club, but as their numbers grew they began to focus their efforts on philanthropic endeavors. I’m not sure why they selected an elk as their image (though similar groups chose a lion or a moose), but in 1871, a charter was established in New York City for the first Elks lodge.
A marker for one of the Elks buried at Forest Hill.
The Elks history notes that “membership grew rapidly,” and that’s an understatement. In the next few decades, the Elks organized more than 2,800 lodges across North America, and Lodge #27 opened in Memphis in 1884 as the first one in the South. The Elks first met in members’ homes, before opening an impressive lodge on Jefferson, but the Elks are best-known here for the incredible structure they erected in 1927 at the corner of Front and Jefferson. The Elks Club and Hotel was one of this city’s landmarks, a stunning 12-story edifice that contained a restaurant, swimming pool, gymnasium, bowling alley, and all sorts of amenities. It also held an upscale hotel, which was later renamed the King Cotton, and it was this building that was demolished by dynamite in 1984 to make room for the Morgan Keegan (now the Raymond James) tower.
The clubs took care of the Elks when they were living. The Elks Rests took care of them after death. More than 80 lodges purchased plots in local cemeteries to provide a final resting place for their members. The Elks Rest in our city was established in the early 1900s in Forest Hill Cemetery. An Elks history explains: “Scattered across the United States in peaceful corners of the landscape are sacred plots of ground — some small and simple, others quite grandiose — wherein rest the remains of Departed Brothers, still side-by-side in fraternal unity, though their final summons to the Celestial Lodge came as far back as a century ago.”
Each Elks Rest was guarded by a wonderful, life-size (or close to it) bronze statue of an elk, usually perched on a high stone base. A marker attached to the base reads: “In Memoriam. Erected by Memphis Lodge No. 27, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the U.S. of America, 1912-1913.” An engraved clock is stopped at 11 o’clock, a time which, again according to their history, “has a tender significance. Wherever an Elk may roam, whatever his lot in life may be, when this hour falls upon the dial of night the great heart of Elkdom swells and throbs. It is the golden hour of recollection, the homecoming of those who wander, the mystic roll call of those who will come no more.”
That same history acknowledges that some may find this burial location unusual: “While we can’t fully understand all the social factors which induce an Elk to want to be buried in an Elks Rest as opposed to some more traditional family plot, we must accept it as irrefutable proof of a strong commitment to the Order, certainly on the part of the deceased Elk, but also by the Lodge which consecrated the site in the first place.”
The graves of the Memphis members are marked by rather simple carved stones, and they include men from all walks of life (and yes, this was a men-only group). At Forest Hill, you’ll find insurance salesman Frederich Dichtel (1870-1923), feed dealer Harry Hasenwinkle (1869-1923), salesman Clarence Hopkins (1868-1924), Peabody Hotel steward John W. Bell (died 1904), and more than a dozen others. Among them is John Joseph Marron (1873-1943), who served as the longtime manager of the Elks Club here.
The old postcard presumably shows the Elks Rest shortly after the statue was unveiled. Floral tributes carry such Elks attributes as brotherly love, justice, charity, and fidelity.
The bronze elk watched over these graves for more than a century, but a visit to this place today shows a far different scene. On a December morning in 2014, cemetery workers arrived to discover the statue missing, its legs hacksawed at the hooves. Security cameras showed a pickup truck entering the cemetery the day before, and less than an hour later leaving with its bed covered in a tarp. Police believe the old bronze elk was in the back, carted away and sold for scrap. The statue was never recovered, and only the stone base marks the Elks Rest today.
