703-705 N Second Avenue
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows had quite the network in early Dodge City and they kept growing out of their lodge quarters. Masonic organizations like Knights Templar and DeMolay obviously met at the Masonic Temple but fraternal societies and auxiliaries as well as several labor unions met at the Odd Fellows Hall. By 1925, the IOOF was evaluating new building sites.
Until the 1910s, the lots directly north of the Carnegie Library were mostly residential. An L-shaped house at 707 Second Avenue was converted into a bicycle shop and battery service station around 1917.
The Odd Fellows selected this location for their new home. Initially, plans called for a two-story building with a basement but that changed when the Dodge City Commercial College expressed interest in leasing an entire floor. The main floor and basement were leased to the Gum Motor Company with the lodge room situated on the third floor. Construction was well underway in January of 1926.
The “fireproof” building was constructed with reinforced concrete and brick curtain walls as well as a spectacular number of windows.
A dedication ceremony was held on July 6, 1926, which was the 50th anniversary of the Corona Lodge. More than 300 people attended despite the event coinciding with wheat harvest.
Brothers Richard and Taylor Gum moved their automotive stock into the building the day of the dedication ceremony but their grand opening wasn’t held until a bit later because the interior of their showroom hadn’t yet been painted.
Dodge City Commercial College moved to its new quarters with 175 students for the Fall term in 1926.
Gum Motor Company moved to a different location in October of 1933 and the vacant spaces were advertised for rent the following month. In February of 1934, the Odd Fellows offered up the building for children to roller skate after the City determined downtown sidewalks were off limits.
After completely remodeling the main floor and basement, the Dodge City Daily Globe moved to the Odd Fellows building in 1935. An auto dealership storefront didn’t fit with a newspaper business so distinctive stonework with carved letters spelling “DAILY GLOBE” was added to the building’s façade.
The recently rebranded Dodge City Business College moved to 205 W Spruce Street around 1939. Their space on the second floor was then occupied by Dodge City Broadcasting Co. and the radio station KGNO.
Gordon Sanders is pictured here at the KGNO microphone on September 3, 1949.
This photo from July of 1950 shows the front of the building before the main floor windows were filled in with glass blocks.
The Globe coverage map is shown here around 1955.
A circulation audit was captured in April of 1958 with classic newspaper imagery, down to the pack of Pall Malls on the desk.
Jess Denious, Jr. is shown here in his office at the Globe.
It’s worth acknowledging most people currently entering the workforce can’t smell these images.
The glass in the main floor windows was replaced with glass blocks sometime before the library moved to First Avenue in the 1960s.
After KGNO enlarged its transmitter location to accommodate studio and office staff, they relocated in February of 1969. YMCA occupied space in the building from around 1970 to 1975. The Globe also used second floor rooms for offices.
Put this photo of General Manager Tro Robinson in the dictionary next to “foreshadowing.”
Grace Ann Bjorklun moved Grace Ann’s School of Dance to the old Odd Fellows room on the top floor around 1981 and she operated there until about 1987. The room was vacant for a bit until Barbara Snook moved her studio into the room around 1990. Beginning around 1993, the studio was called Top of the Globe. The room was vacant again by 1997.
Since the 1990s, other cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics studios have occupied the space in the Odd Fellows room as well as the upper floor of what became the newspaper’s annex to the north. The last sign on the door advertised Southwest Elite Gymnastics, Dance and Cheer.
After being sold and downsized several times, the no-longer-daily Globe began the slow process of vacating the old Odd Fellows Hall in 2021.
I took this photo on December 30, 2021 and although you can see the main floor windowpanes had been restored, the upstairs windows looked rough.
I stopped by again on July 5, 2022 and most of the old business records had been shredded.
By the time I strolled by again on March 20, 2023, it was…lit.
Not long after the Globe moved to First Avenue, Celestial Fashion moved into the newsroom. The old KGNO studio is being used for recording music.
This is how the former Odd Fellows Hall looks today:
Although the building isn’t currently full, it is being utilized and cared for. It just needs the right person with the right amount of dollars. Many thanks to Nathan Adamson for showing me around the studio. It’s a treasure!
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