COURT SQUARE — Construction workers started to remove parts of the decorative facade on the former Elks Lodge building on 44th Drive Tuesday, just a week after local residents began a push to landmark the site.
A crew at the building, located at 21-42 44th Dr., had removed a large chunk of the front molding by early afternoon — a facade adorned with carvings of a wreath and an elk's head that residents say is one of the property's most interesting characteristics.
"They're basically going to cut down the heart of what makes the building special," said Amadeo Plaza, head of the Court Square Civic Association, who feels the dismantling is an attempt by the property owner to prevent the site from being landmarked.
"It seems like, oh, ok what makes this building special is the facade, let's take the facade down," Plaza said. "I think we all know why it happened so quickly. The timing just is very convenient."
He and other local residents, along with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, recently launched a campaign to preserve the Lodge after developers told the LIC Post in December they planned to demolish it and build condos there and on the lot next door, at 41-30 44th Dr.
The developers — Alwest Equities and Planet Partners — did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Tuesday. It's not clear if they're the same parties behind 44th Drive Owner LLC, an entity that bought both properties in February, city records show.
Orestes Gonzalez, a local photographer, watched from the street as a worker drilled through the front of the former Elks Lodge Tuesday afternoon, and compared the sight to how the owner of the former 5Pointz graffiti Mecca whitewashed over the artwork there in 2013.
"[This is] just what they did to 5Pointz, where the developer came in and destroyed what was worth saving," he said. "This is hearbreaking."
Other residents who witnessed the dismantling of the building Tuesday morning said they were originally told by a man in charge that the crew was doing asbestos abatement there. Workers told a reporter that afternoon that they were taking samples of the building ahead of demolition.
There are no active work permits on file for either the former Elks Lodge or the vacant lot next door, records show.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said he asked the DOB to send an investigator to the site Tuesday to potentially issue a stop work order there.
"We have been in touch with the Mayor's office and Department of Buildings all day and have determined that there are no permits on file for this work," he said.
"Clearly our call for landmarking the building has led the owner of the property to start to dismantle some of the more architecturally significant parts."
The DOB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Locals say the century-old building is one of the few distinctive, historical properties that remains in rapidly developing Long Island City.
It was built in 1908 and originally served as a clubhouse for the Queens Elks Lodge Number 878, a local chapter of the social group the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, according to Bob Singleton of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.
It was renovated a few years later by renowned architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle, who is thought to have added the carvings on the facade, according to Singleton's research.
"This is is a black eye to the borough of Queens and I think everybody from the Queens Borough President down should be outraged," Singleton said.
But he said the dismantling won't stop his group and other residents from pushing to landmark the site.
"This is a misguided effort to perhaps derail the landmark application by the community," he said. "That will not be successful."
