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Billerica Lodge No. 2071, B.P.O. Elks

Billerica Lodge No. 2071 is the Billerica lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the fraternal order founded in New York City in 1868. The lodge was instituted on May 4, 1958, and its home, the Elks Hall, is on the north side of Webb Brook Road off Boston Road (Route 3A), at 14 Webb Brook Road. For decades the hall has been one of the town's function rooms, and the lodge has taken part in the town's Flag Day ceremonies, its holiday toy drives and its programs for veterans and children with special needs.

At the annual town meeting of 1961, on an article of the Planning Board, the town voted unanimously to rezone "the whole of land owned by the Billerica Lodge 2071 B.P.O. Elks located on Webb Brook Road," 8.74 acres on the north side of the road, from a village residence to a general business district. The assessors date the present hall to 1969. In 1978 the Elks Hall was among the new buildings tied into the town sewer. The lodge's advertisements in the Warrior yearbooks of 1981 and 1983 offered "Hall And Function Room Rentals" and a "Charity Blitz Each Thursday Evenings At 7:30," and its advertisement of 1997 invited players to its Thursday evening games "off Route 3A." The Polk directory of 1985 lists the lodge at 4 Webb Brook Road.

The hall has served many town occasions. The selectmen held their second annual Charity Ball there on November 1, 1986 and their third annual Selectmen's Ball on November 14, 1987, its proceeds going to landscaping at the new town hall; the Parents Advisory Committee of Special Needs Children held its third annual spring dance there in March 1990; and on October 11, 1991 it was the scene of the retirement party for Paul F. Talbot, the retiring town administrator. The Veterans' Services department held its annual Veterans' Breakfast at the lodge in 2010, 2011 and 2015, the Billerica Lions Club and the lodge hosted the free Billerica Health and Wellness Fair together from at least 2010 to 2013, and the alumni association of Shawsheen Valley Technical High School held socials and tournaments there in the 2010s.

The lodge's gifts to the town include the Veterans' Memorial flag pole, donated in 1974 by the four Billerica veterans posts and the Elks; money for the Recreation Commission, which thanked the Billerica Elks for monetary support each year from 1986 to 1994 and recorded the lodge's gift of a $1,000 cookout, with awards and a disc jockey, for the special needs recreation program each year from 1990 to 1993; a mountain bicycle for the police department in 1995; and a Super Las Vegas Night in 1999 for the library building fund. In 1990 the lodge invited town meeting to its annual Flag Day ceremony on June 17. From the 1990s the Veterans' Services department held a Flag Day ceremony each June 14 for the pupils of the elementary schools, at which the Billerica Lodge of Elks presented the history of the American flag, given in later years by the lodge's Exalted Ruler: Scott Smith in 2009, Bob Simons in 2010, Michelle Rayne in 2011, Richard Reid in 2012, Kenneth Maniscalco in 2013, Arlene Reid in 2014, Catelyn Hannon in 2015 and Dan Brady in 2016. Each December pupils of the Parker School and other town schools collected toys for the Elks to distribute to needy families. The lodge has given the Billerica Elks Scholarship and its Teenager of the Month awards to students of Billerica Memorial High School, listed in the Warrior yearbooks from 1988 into the 1990s, and the Massachusetts Elks Scholarship has also gone to Billerica seniors. Students of Shawsheen Valley Technical High School re-roofed the Elks gazebo, or pavilion, in 2003 and 2004, and in 2025 they installed footings and new metal handrails at the hall.

Billerica public men who belonged to the Elks include Arthur R. Hallenborg, selectman from 1932 to 1959, who belonged to the Billerica lodge according to his obituary; Arthur L. Doyle, selectman from 1977 to 1998, who sang as a vocalist at the Billerica Elks Lodge; Stanley J. Bocko; William G. Greene Jr.; and Brion M. Cangiamila. The lodge is still active on Webb Brook Road.

Billerica Lodge No. 2071, B.P.O. Elks

Billerica Lodge No. 2071, B.P.O. Elks

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