Hometown Highlight: Stamford's Fraternal Order of Eagles

There's an old, established house along Tresser Boulevard and East Main Street where Elm Street joins the two. Passers-by can tell from just by viewing that the house has been there longer than anything around it.

Atop the house - which is technically not a house, but an aerie - sits a little plaque reading FOE. Inside, they are anything but. The house is the meeting place for the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a charitable non-profit started more than 120 years ago with a chapter in Stamford membered by some of the town's most established names.

Originally started in 1898 by a group of performing artists in Seattle, Washington, Stamford's chapter was founded by lawyers, doctors, council members and community leaders, said member Mary Buzzetto, who was tending bar Wednesday afternoon.

"We're 107 years old," Buzzetto said. "We've seen a lot of prominent Stamford citizens come through as members."

Nationally, the group has had President Ronald Reagen, Sean Penn and Bob Hope as members. In Stamford, members have carried the name Spelke, Scalzi and Considine, she said.

"And look what's happened to it now," one of the bar-goers joke to a round of laughter.

Buzzetto said the group has a charitable focus, through members watching out for each other and translating that to a national stage. She said the house is kept up by many of the members lending their various expertise, and it's that giving nature that keeps the group moving.

"We have a cancer fund, a kidney fund. We donate to organizations that fight child abuse," Buzzetto said. "We've committed to a nationwide fundraising effort to raise $25 million to fight childhood diabetes, and I think we're on goal for that.

The airie - what the Order calls it's gathering places - plays home-away-from-home to a solid portion of Stamford's hardest-working, blue-collared local community. They build out or repair necessary issues that arise in the airie.

"It's nice to belong to a club with a volunteer base that gets so much done," Buzzetto said. "We're cheaper than a bar and we've been here forever. You can look at the place and see everything's been built around us. We were always here. If you're looking for somewhere to feel comfortable, this is a beautiful place to find yourself sitting."