The Cesare Battista Lodge #27 has a long and proud history of serving the Italian-American community of Northwest Indiana. Formed in 1919 as the Loggia Cesare Battisti Musicale, the group soon joined forces with a large Chicago-area fraternal organization that morphed into the Italo American National Union, which eventually merged with the Italian Sons and Daughters of America.

After decades of meeting in halls throughout the area, the lodge built a clubhouse in 1956 in East Chicago, and then a new, multi-million-dollar facility in 1989 in Schererville. Dubbed Villa Cesare, the new clubhouse boasts three banquet rooms, a commercial kitchen, indoor bocce courts and an outdoor gazebo.