The Lounge and Kelly Room are open to Elks Members and their guests:
Our Hours are:
Monday - Saturday: 12:00 noon - until close
Sunday: 10:00 am - until close
The Bar area offers 16 bar stools and the Kelly Room offers 3 high-top tables with stools, positioned near the wood-burning fireplace. We feature several flat screen TV's, a regulation size pool table and two game machines.
At a minimal charge, we offer small bites for your eating pleasure: including bar-pizzas, hot pretzels, chips, peanuts etc.
Please note: children are not allowed to sit in the bar area.
We offer a regulation pool table in the lounge area for all to enjoy. A 25 cent charge per game applies. Most Tuesday Evenings our pool league plays. Please come in and support our team.
Our lodge meeting room also functions as a Great Hall for your needs. We are handicapped accessible with access at our main front door ramp. Please contact Mel Doremus at the lodge (908-668-9727) for information regarding hall usage and availability.
We offer 3 RV Hookups on a "first come, first serve" basis. We do not have any dumping facilities, as these hookups are for electric only. Please call the lodge ahead of time to check availability and terms at 908-668-9727.
Our Watchung Hills Elks members can join the pool as a separate membership, either as an individual or family. We sell daily and season-passes to all Elks Lodge 885 members, who are permitted to bring guests. Please contact Kim DeVizio for additional details.
Guests of pool-pass-holders may visit the pool for an additional $10.00 charge per day.
Please note: all members and their guests must adhear to all posted safety regulations. Pass-holders and guests are restricted from bringing their own alcoholic beverages to the pool; please make use of the cash bar at the Lodge.
Our outside gatherings are great fun using our covered pavilion, which features an oversized gas grill. The small bandstand area is situated perfectly with the sloping grounds, and stage for show stopping entertainment. Several large tables are scattered around the grounds for a perfect picnic.
Please contact the lodge (908-668-9727) and leave a message for Mel Doremus for terms, usage and availability.
This building, orginally the stables to the Hofheimer Estate, is a "work-in-progress" project for the lodge. Our recently added handicapped accessable bathrooms to serve our guests when there is an event at the pavilion and grounds.
Future improvements and renovations are being planned for this building.
Located on the grounds of our seven-acre tract, is one of the most beautiful man-made grottos in the East. Hundreds of feet long, forty feet high, the natural stone semicircular mass, borders on what was an 18-foot deep pool, complete with a dam of which water once flowed.
The club's acreage is on the former Nathan Hofheimer Estate, once a New Jersey showplace covering hundreds of acres. Hofheimer was one of the original founders of General Motors Corp., and at that time had already made a financial success in the (automobile) electric light bulb industry.
It sits above an abandoned copper mine shaft that goes vertically underground for nearly 165 feet, and was constructed with the help of European craftsmen hired by Hofheimer. It is reportedly a replica of a German grotto.
The rehabilitation of the Hofheimer Grotto is one item on our list of priorities. An agreement between Somerset County, Warren Township and the Elks has been forged to clean up the grotto for public use, but stalled for years due to a lack of resources. In the meantime, with the help of local scouting troops, we have clear the pathway, adding benches and a table.
"We invite the general public and nature lovers in particular to visit the club’s grounds and view this tranquil setting. We are sure you will see a spot of beauty never dreamed existed.