The Odd Fellows

This photograph apparently dates from about the same time as most of the others in this post card series. Judging from the unpaved street, I'd guess the date to be 1908 or so. The outward appearance of the building never did change much, except that I remember two very small cannons out front. Don't know the story behind those.

I was going to say that, from what I remember, the Odd Fellow's Hall was used as a City Hall, but now that I think about it, it was used by everybody and his aunt for anything, really. I remember that it stood unlocked pretty much all the time, except for the sheriff's office in the back of the building. Anybody could and did walk in and out to do just about whatever they wanted. Everything from town meetings to bake sales took place there.

I used to see this building nearly every day for ten years, because it was just two doors down from the Manawa Advocate building, where I used to work. The firehouse was right between the Advocate and the Odd Fellows hall -- the buildings stood shoulder-to-shoulder, practically cojoined. All three have since been demolished; I believe the Odd Fellows hall fell in the 1990's, but that's just a guess.

What I associate the building with is Boy Scouts. I joined a troop that met in the upstairs rooms, but it didn't last, or I quit it, I don't clearly remember which. Some years later, Dave Sabrowsky and Cliff Stern started a boy scout troop of sorts. I qualify that only because we didn't bother with uniforms or merit badges, although they did teach us out of the Boy Scout handbook, and we got to do all that camping, making fires, and playing with knives that makes scouting a lot of fun.

My only other significant memory of this building was of the billiard hall in the basement. I don't know if it was left over from the days of the Odd Fellows, or if it came along later. It was a room right out of a movie about Chicago speakeasies; I remember a huge billiard table under a table-length shaded hanging lamp, heavy leather-padded chairs around the walls, dark velvet curtains on the windows, and one of those beaded score keepers hanging from the ceiling. I only saw it once, though, so my memory could be pretty sketchy on this one. For sure there was a billiard room, though.