Important 1908 Elks Lodge Terracotta Building Detail

This is an amazing decorative piece of architectural salvage. It came off of a much loved 1908 landmark Elks Lodge. Sadly this is one of the only remaining pieces saved from the recking ball and is worthy of a good home. The lodge was designed by the celebrated architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle. The total terra cotta ornament consists of 9 different parts with the high relief Elks head as the keystone. It is in wonderful condition with only a few tips of the leaf and elks antlers chipped off. This is a good size artifact that is inches wide and 24 inches tall. Imagine this over a new entrance way or even better as a fireplace mantel.


Harold Van Buren Magonigle (1867–1935) was an American architect, artist, and author best known for his memorials. He achieved his greatest success as a designer of monuments, but his artistic practices included sculpture, painting, writing, and graphic design.[1]

Born in New Jersey, Magonigle worked for Calvert Vaux, Rotch & Tilden, Schickel and Ditmars and McKim Mead & White before opening his own practice in 1903. He was the designer of the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum in Canton, Ohio and the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri both commissions won through competitions. He designed the Core Mausoleum (1910–1915) at Elmwood Cemetery.

Magonigle and sculptor Attilio Piccirilli collaborated as architect and artist on two familiar monuments in New York City: the Monument to the USS Maine in Columbus Circle, and on the Fireman's Memorial on Riverside Drive and West 100th Street. He also designed the setting for Albert Weinert's Stevens T. Mason Monument in Detroit, Michigan, and for Robert Atken's Burritt Memorial in New Britain, Connecticut.