228 Port Republic Rd

From the National Register nomination

Two-story mixed-use building (meeting hall, commercial spaces) with a slight setback from the street and a poured-concrete front sidewalk area. Built of weatherboard-sided frame construction on a parged stone rubble foundation, with three single-leaf paneled wood and glass doors, 2/2 double-hung wood sash, a shed roof, and attached to one side wall an outside flight of stairs leading to the second story. The nearly unaltered building retains most of its original materials and features such as a wood cornice with brackets and a frieze, but is deteriorating due to neglect and deferred maintenance. The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World, a black organization modeled on the white BPOE, was founded in 1898 in Cincinnati. Like other black lodges, Port Republic Road's Elks Lodge also contained businesses including a barbershop and beauty parlor in 1926 and a restaurant, the Dew Drop Inn, in 1951. The second-floor lodge room also doubled as a dance hall in 1926. (Randolph and Bass, "Waynesboro Port Republic Road Historic District;" Rates of Waynesboro, and Palmer, "Negro Secret Societies,” 211.)