Port Townsend Elks celebrate history

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The Port Townsend Elks Lodge is set not only to celebrate the 150-year history of the Elks as a nationwide service organization, but also the nearly 123-year history of the Port Townsend Elks Lodge in particular.

The Port Townsend Elks Lodge was founded April 20, 1895, and the Elks Lodge building, at 555 Otto St., is slated to be the venue for a celebration of Elks history Feb. 17, beginning with cocktails at 5 p.m.

Mel Mefford, one of the Port Townsend Elks who maintains the local lodge’s history, noted that the Port Townsend Elks Lodge was the seventh Elks Lodge to open in the state of Washington, after Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Bellevue, Spokane and Walla Walla.

“Downtown Port Townsend was a happening place, even back then,” said Mefford, an Elks member for 57 of his 80 years. “But they envisioned an even more metropolitan Pacific Northwest.”

“They expected Port Townsend to become the next Seattle,” agreed Paul Snider, 72, a fellow Elk for the past 20 years. “The railroad was supposed to come here.”

The Port Townsend Elks Lodge began with only 22 charter members. While membership has since declined slightly from its peak of more than 1,000, Mefford placed its current membership at 756, “with 13 in the pipeline right now.”

Mefford’s collection of historic documents includes handwritten minutes of Elks meetings dating back to 1895, but he’s also embraced what he sees as positive changes in the organization, such as its inclusion of women as members in 1995.

“That’s been the most significant change,” Mefford said. “We used to be a boys’ club, but the women have been such a great asset.”

Snider joined the Elks because a friend promised, “You’ll enjoy helping others while having fun yourself.” Mefford became a member to repay the kindness the Elks showed him, when he was recovering from a gunshot wound in Madigan Army Medical Center in the mid-1950s.

“Over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the Elks always came from Tacoma and Olympia to give us gifts and entertainment,” Mefford said. “Since I joined, I’ve been fully supportive of the Elks’ veterans programs.”

Mefford estimated that the Port Townsend Elks Lodge raises at least $18,000 for veterans (Elks and nonmembers alike), as well as $24,000 for scholarships and more than $11,000 for children’s medical therapy.