They say God works in mysterious ways, and that's certainly true when it comes to The Elizabeth, 18 N. Market St., Elizabethtown. When The Marriage Hub bought the building, the former home of the Elizabethtown Moose Lodge, the nonprofit's leadership had specific plans for the space.
"We work with couples in crisis at The Marriage Hub, and we offer three-day marriage retreats," explained executive director Jeff Kime. "We had been struggling to find housing for our couples, who come from all over, so when we purchased this building, we planned to convert it into a boutique hotel with three floors of rooms, conference rooms and offices."
Their timing wasn't perfect. It was early 2020, and within a few weeks, the pandemic shut everything down. Once work could begin on the building, the cost of materials had skyrocketed.
So, the nonprofit pivoted. "The good thing was more housing had opened up locally. More people opened their homes as Airbnbs during the pandemic, and a few new hotels opened, so we decided just to renovate the building and run our ministry out of it," Kime stated.
Cost estimates approached half a million dollars for renovation and demolition required to make the building habitable, but Kime was able to work with volunteers to get much of the work done for free.
The building has a long history in Elizabethtown, including serving as a hotel in the 1800s. In 1922, the Elizabethtown Moose Lodge voted to purchase the hotel, having outgrown its previous location on West High Street. The Moose members recruited Lancaster architect C. Emlen Urban to construct a new building for their Lodge. Urban had everything from the old hotel torn down except for part of the original foundation that still stands in the basement. The new lodge opened in February of 1924. Over the years, the Moose Lodge housed a second-floor ballroom, a 690-seat movie theater, a restaurant, a bowling alley, bars and meeting space.
When the Moose organization moved to its current located on Maytown Road in 2019, the building was in need of repair and much of the lower level had been damaged by flooding over the years.
"We had a lot of work to do when we came in," Kime noted, adding that the team ripped up carpets, tore out walls and replaced ceiling tiles throughout the site. The movie theater was transformed into an event space, featuring a state-of-the-art projection and sound system.
Some original features of the building, including art-deco light fixtures in the theater space, were restored, and fundraising is currently underway to restore the 1939 theater marquee on the front of the building, with a few updates. The word "Moose" will be replaced by "The Elizabeth" (named for an Elizabeth who ran the original hotel), and the sign will feature digital messaging. The estimated cost of the marquee restoration is $90,000.
On the second floor of the building, Exhaltt Performing Arts Academy has moved into the ballroom space, and Kime hopes to bring in more community groups.
"We're excited to use the building for more community events," Kime said, noting that hundreds of people recently participated in a Christmas tree lighting in the parking lot before coming inside for fellowship in the theater space, where family-friendly movies are shown regularly.
"Our first goal was to make everything workable for the ministry," he said. "It's been fun renovating. This was a gorgeous building in its day."
For more information or to donate to the marquee project, visit http://www.theetownelizabeth.com.
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