Empty, no-bid Elks building once scene of holiday fun

As the old Colfax Elks Lodge building sits empty for another Christmas and New Year’s Eve, former members reminisced about the prominent social gathering place.

The future of the place became dimmer last week when it failed to attract any bidders when offered by the county at a $60,000 minimum bid. The building is now known as the Community Education and Training Center.

In its heyday with a membership of more than 900, the Colfax Elks Lodge was the place to be every Friday and Saturday night, according to former members. Dinner, dancing, wine tasting and even dinner theater invited people county-wide to the lodge.

“It was the highlight of our world,” said former Elk Exalted Ruler John Henry of Colfax.

He remembers serving German dinners, spaghetti dinners and happy hour on Wednesdays.

Henry also remembers the wine tasting dinners very well.

“Nobody knew anything about wine,” he said. “We didn’t have wine connoisseurs back then.

“We’d have 10 kinds of wine and set them on a table and the crowd would determine the best. When we’d run low on the best wine, we’d pour the leftover wine into the popular ones and mix it up. After a couple of drinks, you couldn’t tell.”

Bill Tempel of Colfax, retired Colfax dentist, was an Elks member for more than 20 years and joined because his friends talked him into it, a decision he never regretted.

“It was the only social watering hole in Colfax,” he said. “I would join some friends one evening to play cards, and on the weekends, there was usually a dance. That all ended unless you went out of town.”

“I think that was a real blow to Colfax when it closed.”

Tempel, also a former Exalted Ruler, said the Elks was a place to meet socially with friends, “and have a party and have a meal.”

Jim Repp, also a former Exalted Ruler, said when the Elks closed more than 12 years ago, there’s been something missing in Colfax ever since.

“It was the most popular place in town,” he said.

Repp said every Friday night the lodge served steak dinners and bands played every weekend.

“It was packed,” he said. “We served between 250 to 300 steaks every Friday night. If you didn’t get there early, you didn’t get to eat.”

Repp said the lodge also hosted parties, Reno nights and had exercise and steam rooms for members.

“We used to meet a lot of friends there,” he said.

Repp also remembers all kinds of parties during Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Holidays at the Elks brought residents from all over the county into the parties.

“Everybody came to town and had a good time,” he said.

Henry remembers the dinner theaters performed at the lodge.

Repp said he also remembers the plays that the late Arden Johnson and Louise Braun produced. He said he remembers “South Pacific,” “Cabaret,” and “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” being performed in the Elks building.

“They were a great bunch of gals,” he said.

“It was certainly an important part of our town,” Henry said.

Repp said both the Elks and Eagles lodges were popular.

Tempel said one reason the Colfax Elks Club failed is because the younger men weren’t interested in what the lodge offered and the older members got tired.

Tempel and Repp both said that law enforcement had a major role in closing the club.

“The state patrol, sheriff and city police parked by the Elks every Friday and Saturday night,” Tempel said. “They stopped and arrested several people who were Elks members and our out-of-town members stopped coming.”

Does he think Colfax could have another Elks Lodge?

“My thought is that I came from a little town in Montana, smaller than Colfax and they just built a social center.

“Colfax needs a community center,” he said. “It’s sad that an area with as much wealth as this community has that we can’t have a community center,” he said. “You don’t need a place with a bar, just a place to play cards and have a meal and meet friends.”

“I don’t think Colfax could do the same thing now,” Repp said.

“When you get in your late 70s and early 80s, you don’t socialize as much.”

“There’s still life in that building,” Henry said.

“A senior center would be a great thing to do. It would take some work and I don’t know who would ramrod it, but we need it,” he said.