Rochester Red Men's Club collection

The modern Improved Order of Red Men claims that its heritage can be traced back to secret patriot groups before the American Revolution, such as the Sons of Liberty and Sons of St. Tammany. What is clear is that the original Order of Red Men was founded at Fort Mifflin, outside Philadelphia, in 1813. After two rocky decades, the group reorganized into the Improved Order of Red Men in 1834 at Baltimore, with the Baltimore "tribes" coming together to form the Grand Council of the United States in 1847. The organization used "Indian" titles and regalia for its members, even though it only allowed white men until 1974. The group was once one of the largest fraternal organizations in the United States, with over 150,000 members by 1880 and over 500,000 in the 1920s. BY 2011, however, membership had fallen to 15,000. Besides its fraternal elements, the Red Men also used its dues to fund mutual disability, health and death benefits for members.

Detailed information on the history of the Red Men's Club in Rochester has been hard to locate. While newspaper records indicate meetings at numerous lodges around the City of Rochester from at least the 1890s into the 1960s, the available material fails to provide an organizational history of the group, and it appears the Red Men in Rochester tended to maintain secrecy around their internal affairs. It is, however, clear that many lodges (local chapters) had their own meeting halls, and that a centralized Red Men's Hall existed at 46 North Fitzhugh Street starting in 1925. They exited this location in the early 1950s for a new building at 1001 Lexington Avenue.