Ohio's Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 Meeting April 27th

by Christopher Hodapp

Ohio's unique Goose and Gridiron Lodge 1717 will host their next meeting on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at the breathtaking Dayton Masonic Center. Lodge will open at noon and the brethren will retire afterwards downstairs to hold their excellent Festive Board. 

What makes "The Goose" unique, you ask? Unless someone pipes up and corrects my oftimes-fallacious memory, I believe they are the only regular Masonic lodge currently at work in the United States that is permitted by the Grand Lodge of Ohio to use England's Emulation Ritual instead of the typical American Preston-Webb work. 

The lodge will be installing its officers that day using the Emulation ceremony, as well. If you've never had the opportunity to visit an English lodge, or a Canadian one that uses Emulation, Ohio may be a quicker trip for you.

Because of the very special nature of the lodge, they try to travel around the state of Ohio throughout the year so members and guests don't always have to make a 5-hour round-trip drive to attend every time. 

In addition, they try to provide some extras before the meeting day for early arrivals. On Thursday, they will have a long field trip to Detroit, Michigan to visit the Detroit Masonic Center (largest Masonic building in the world); on Friday, there will be a tour of the National US Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB just outside of Dayton. And there will be an informal "meet and greet" dinner for members, guests, spouses and partners on Friday night.

WM Daniel Mossop and a certain "Anonymous" Dummy visitor

I got the opportunity to visit Goose and Gridiron last October. When I spoke at the lodge, the Brethren quite generously made me an Honorary Member, and I was deeply honored. If you've never traveled and seen a different – but perfectly regular – ritual besides your own grand lodge's accepted work, make your way to Dayton that weekend! 

If you intend to attend the meeting and Festive Board, CLICK HERE to register. Registration deadline is April 17th. 

HELP WANTED: Lodge Furniture and Vintage German Language U.S. Ritual

by Christopher Hodapp

I've been contacted by brethren from two Indiana lodges in need of some specialized items. If you're able to help with either of these requests, contact me directly ay hodapp@aol.com and I'll connect you with the appropriate brothers:

Fraternal Lodge Room Furniture Needed

If anyone knows of a Masonic lodge that is closing or consolidating, an Indianapolis lodge is moving to a new location later this year and is in need of a (hopefully matching) set of lodge room furniture. According to one of their Past Masters who dropped by our Museum, they are wanting to acquire an altar, the Master's and Wardens' pedestals, and all officers' chairs.

They'd also consider Secretary and Treasurer's desks if they match the rest of the pieces, and the J & B columns, if you have them. They do NOT need sideline seats.

He didn't give me a time frame, but they haven't broken ground on the new building yet, so it's not an immediate need. But they expect to be moved in before December. Obviously, the closer to Indiana, the simpler it will be to arrange transportation. I suspect they'd love to find something that can be reached within a day's drive from Indianapolis – but I'll let others sort that out.

German Language U.S. Ritual Material

Like many states in the midwest, early Indiana was settled by a large contingent of German, Swiss and Dutch immigrants, and we had a small handful of Masonic lodges here that performed their degree ceremonies and monthly work in the German language. (I think we had four or five such lodges at one time.) Lessing Lodge 464 in Evansville was the last chartered Indiana lodge that had official permission from the Grand Lodge to do their work in German — they ceased the practice in the 1960s, as I recall.

Lessing Lodge is now wanting to exemplify the degrees in German as a demonstration project — they believe they have enough German-speaking members and interested participants in the area to pull this off. But they haven't been able to find any sort of existing, German-language printed material of American Preston-Webb ritual. 

Any sort of material like this that may have existed at their lodge 60 years ago has disappeared long ago. As far as I've been able to find, we don't have anything in our Library/Museum. And it's entirely probable that there WAS no such printed material in the days when the German language lodges were active here — mouth-to-ear ritual instruction was the proper way of the Masonic world, regardless of language, up until the 21st century when we all got lazy and isolated. 

Obviously, Pennsylvania had a large German-speaking population, and I believe they still have some lodges today that do their degrees that way. But Pennsylvania's Blue Lodge degrees are so COMPLETELY different from the rest of the country that any German version of their work isn't really going to be appropriate in any other state (although, for demonstration purposes, maybe that's okay).

Another possibility might be material from a lodge in the American-Canadian Grand Lodge of Germany, although I don't know how closely their ritual tracks U.S. Webb Work.

It's certainly possible to scan Indiana ritual, feed it through translation software, and spend days trying to laboriously clean up the inevitable mistakes made by machine translations ("Welcome to the very Great Large Box of Indiana!"). But if anyone has already existing material, that would be extremely helpful. 

Again, contact me directly at hodapp@aol.com and I'll put you in touch with the appropriate brother.

Michael Poll To Speak To Louisiana's New Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 Festive Board Saturday 7/30/22

by Christopher Hodapp

Last year while everybody (including myself) was distracted by the Grand Lodge of Louisiana's recognition and establishment of amity with the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland, but not Louisiana's (for very good reasons), most of us missed another interesting development in that unique Masonic jurisdiction. 

The GL of Louisiana issued a charter for their own Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717, named for the London alehouse and the lodge that met there in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral when the premiere Grand Lodge of England was famously formed in June 1717.

Back in October of 2018, I posted a story announcing Ohio's chartering of Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717. That interesting 'observant-styled' lodge was established with the unique (for the United States) mission of studying and working English Emulation Craft degree rituals. Back in 2001 when we were establishing Lodge Vitruvian 767 in Indiana, getting dispensation from our Grand Lodge to work the English Emulation Craft rituals had been an elusive dream for us for many years until we finally dropped the subject out of frustration. Despite their widespread use throughout the United Kingdom and the rest of world's UGLE lodges, they are rarely seen in this country.

But Louisiana's new lodge won't be following the lead of the Ohio brethren. Their Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 joins ten other lodges within the Grand Lodge of Louisiana that currently are permitted to work the Scottish Rite Craft degree rituals descended from the earliest French lodges that predated statehood. These are often mistakenly referred to by American Masons as Louisiana's 'Red Lodge degrees' (as opposed to our usual 'Blue Lodges').

In addition to Louisiana, these Scottish Rite Craft degrees are also worked upon occasion in certain lodges in California, Hawaii, New York and the District of Columbia. But Louisiana's are by far the best known in the U.S.

According to Mike Poll, editor of the Journal of the Masonic Society, Louisiana's Goose & Gridiron 1717 is the first lodge  to be chartered by Louisiana's Grand Lodge in a century permitted to work these rituals.

Speaking of Michael, he will be delivering a Zoom presentation to the lodge's festive board tomorrow evening, Saturday, July 30th at 7:30PM (central). From their Facebook page:

Master Masons are invited to come learn more about Louisiana's peculiar Masonic history and the Scottish Rite Ritual and Degrees unique to our state, most specifically the New Orleans area.
Visiting Master Masons will be presented with education regarding the Scottish Rite esoteric work in lodge, with an open presentation to follow at the Festive Board.

 At 7:30PM, W∴B∴ Michael Poll, P∴M∴, Masonic Historian and Publisher, will present "The Other Scottish Rite Degrees: A little of what we know and don't know about the Louisiana Scottish Rite Craft Lodges" to those assembled as well as online viewers via Zoom at this link bit.ly/GG1717_SRTALK

NOTE: This will be a public talk and nothing will be discussed that is the reserved for a properly tilled lodge.
There will be a catered meal for $15 a plate for those who would like to eat during the Festive Board. If you plan to attend in person please RSVP at this link: bit.ly/GG1717_RSVP1

Goose & Gridiron No. 1717 is the only lodge in Louisiana outside of the 16th Masonic District working in this ritual, and the only Traditional Observance lodge in the US designated as a "Scottish Rite Craft Lodge." 

Visiting Brethren, please note: G&G No. 1717 has a dress code of a dark colored suit for business meeting attendees. Non-Master Masons may attend the festive board presentation.

Tickets available HERE.

GL of Ohio Officially Authorizes Virtual Stated Meetings

by Christopher Hodapp

As the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown enters its second month in many states, grand lodges everywhere are scrambling to find ways to permit basic lodge business to go on without holding in-person group meetings. Some are permitting executive meetings of lodge officers by phone or teleconference in order to authorize bill payments and other basic housekeeping business. But others have the sticky problem that their state constitutions have few or no options to skip or postpone their regular monthly business meetings. Extraordinary times sometimes demand unusual solutions.

MW Keith Newton, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ohio has issued a Dispensation to all Ohio Masonic Lodges to hold Virtual Stated Meetings using alternative methods available on the internet or conference calling. Such virtual meetings are not required by his dispensation, but it gives Worshipful Masters the permission to hold them. The GL of Ohio is currently recommending the Zoom conferencing platform.

This is not a minor problem. Ohio has one of the largest Masonic memberships of any state in the country, with more than 70,000 Masons and 450 lodges. Moreover, the state of Ohio enacted some of the earliest and most far-reaching restrictions on meetings in the nation.

The basic requirements of Ohio's Virtual Meetings are:

• A password protected secure tool for members to utilize for accessing a virtual Lodge Stated meeting (e.g. Zoom, GoToMeeting, WebEx, etc).
• An email to the lodge members sent from our Grand View membership program and posted on the lodges Grand View dashboard.
• The Worshipful Master or Warden in charge will proclaim the meeting open: “This Stated Meeting is symbolically opened in the Entered Apprentice Degree.”
• Conduct business of the lodge.
• Fellowship with our brethren.
• Education programs.
• The Worshipful Master or Warden in charge will proclaim the meeting closed: “This Stated Meeting is symbolically closed in the Entered Apprentice Degree."
• Ritual work of any type or nature, candidate examinations, and candidate balloting are not permitted.

Note that the GL is essentially permitting Worshipful Masters to open and close in an extremely truncated version of what is called in some jurisdictions 'ample form.' Reduced verbiage for openings and closings is usually only reserved for Grand Masters and Past Grand Masters under normal circumstances, but this dispensation is designed to prevent the use of actual Masonic ritual online by having the Master simply declare the meeting open and closed. 

The Grand Lodge accompanied the dispensation with detailed instructions on using Zoom, paying close attention to its password settings and its 'virtual waiting room' feature that can be used as the online equivalent of the Tyler's door before letting in a participant. 

(To enlarge the images of the dispensation, click the photos below.)

A note of caution: If you are new to the use of Zoom or similar platforms and have no experience as an online host, be sure you try a trial run or two with some friends to be certain you fully understand the password and waiting room controls and functions. Recent overblown articles in the media have made wild claims about hacking and 'zoombombing' meetings by online miscreants who drop in and invade meetings. In truth, these are not really the result of 'hacking' or some failure of encryption, but actually simple failure by the online host or moderator to adequately understand and use the password features.

The same goes for other grand lodges considering issuing similar guidelines. Contact your resident geek squad and get a Mason who is conversant with Zoom or other platforms to write a lodge-specific set of instructions to send out with your missives. Zoom is especially simple and free for less than 100 participants and meetings under 40 minutes (frankly EVERY Masonic business meeting should end in 40 minutes or less, inside of a lodge room or not), so it makes sense to recommend this widely-adopted platform at this time. 

Foreign Language Lodges in America

Brethren of Esperenze Lodge 317 receiving their New Jersey charter on June 27, 2018.
The lodge has actually been in existence for more than 40 years.

If you look through the archives of your own grand lodge, you will likely find a handful of lodges chartered by your jurisdiction way back when that worked in different languages, especially in the 1800s and early 1900s. While they were technically following your state's approved ritual, these lodges performed theirs in the native language their members were most comfortable with. German was by far the most common, but there were noteworthy Italian- and French-speaking U.S. lodges as well. Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington D.C. still have several of these today. D.C. especially has quite a number of chartered 'cosmopolitan lodges' that often serve foreign-born Masons temporarily living in that city in connection with government, lobbying or embassy jobs. Many others like Massachusetts, Florida, and California also have foreign language lodges. 

Those are properly chartered lodges under those mainstream jurisdictions. But there's a relatively recent and growing wrinkle in the realm of 'clandestine' lodges and Masons. With the influx of more foreign born immigrants into America's large urban centers, there are a growing number of independent lodges made up of Cuban, Central and South American, Filipino, or other foreign-born Masons who have been ignored (or even shunned) by mainstream Masonry in this country. To answer their desire to become Masons — or to attend lodges that work in their native languages from back home —  more 'clandestine' lodges spring up every day that cater to them specifically. Some have been connected with legitimate foreign grand lodges which have invaded U.S. jurisdictional claims by chartering lodges here. But a large number of them are independent, self-created lodges. And more than a few have been around for a very long time, operating off of the radar screens of our grand lodges.

MW Roger Quintana, the current Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey seems to have taken the bull by the horns in his jurisdiction. New Jersey being a densely populated state and just across the border from New York, there are scores of clandestine Masonic lodges sprinkled throughout that jurisdiction. Instead of going on the attack against them, or ignoring them altogether, the Grand Lodge of New Jersey is trying a different approach. Portuguese-speaking Brazilian Masons in New Jersey have been hunting a legitimate lodge to join, and so the Grand Lodge is reaching out to find new ways to bring them under the umbrella of proper recognition and regularity. In 2018, the Grand Lodge of New Jersey has announced the transformations of formerly clandestine Esperanza Lodge 317 in Union City and Perucho Figueredo Lodge 370 in Elizabeth into fully chartered and regular, recognized ones under the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. 

First regular meeting of Perucho Figueredo Lodge 370
under its charter from the GL of New Jersey

Further, New Jersey has just received applications to do this from another independent clandestine lodge, Solomon Lodge. According to MW Quintana's letter (see below), their members will be re-obligated at a special One Day Class, and the formerly clandestine lodge will be consecrated with a proper charter from the GL of New Jersey. 

(Similarly, numerous Prince Hall grand lodges in the US have special 'healing' ceremonies in order to re-obligate Masons who joined 'clandestine' lodges first, and then later wished to become PHA Masons. NJ's actions seem to be a lodge-wide extension of that sort of thing.)

Click image to enlarge

While other states have not talked much about this in public, his letter says that the Grand Lodges of New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania have also been doing similar lodge conversions in this manner. (If I'm not mistaken, this has also taken place in Florida with former Cuban lodges – please correct me if I'm wrong. And I'm guessing California has done something similar over the years.) 

I'm told that the Grand Lodge of Arizona has a standard ritual in Spanish, and a handful of other states may also have their own in various languages as well. This is no longer a situation peculiar to just the coastal states and cities, or to southern border states. For the rest of us across the U.S. who find ourselves with growing foreign-born populations and communities in our various states, it is downright foolish and short-sighted to ignore this vast and growing population. And this is not even remotely just a big city issue. Look at these startling statistics. 

According to a 2017 study by the Center for Immigration Studies,

Newly released Census Bureau data for 2017 shows nearly half (48.2 percent) of residents in America's five largest cities now speak a language other than English at home. Overall, the number of U.S. residents speaking a foreign language at home reached a record of nearly 67 million. The total number is up seven million since 2010 and has increased by nearly 35 million since 1990.

Among the findings:

• In 2017, a record 66.6 million U.S. residents (native-born, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants) ages five and older spoke a language other than English at home. The number has more than doubled since 1990, and almost tripled since 1980.

• As a share of the population, 21.8 percent of U.S. residents speak a foreign language at home — roughly double the 11 percent in 1980.

• In America's five largest cities, 48 percent of residents now speak a language other than English at home. In New York City and Houston it is 49 percent; in Los Angeles it is 59 percent; in Chicago it is 36 percent; and in Phoenix it is 38 percent.
• In 2017, there were 85 cities and Census Designated Places (CDP) in which a majority of residents spoke a foreign language at home. These include Hialeah, Fla. (95 percent); Laredo, Texas (92 percent); and East Los Angeles, Calif. (90 percent). Perhaps more surprisingly, it also includes places like Elizabeth, N.J. (76 percent); Skokie, Ill. (56 percent); and Germantown, Md., and Bridgeport, Conn. (each 51 percent).
• Nearly one in five U.S. residents now lives in a city or CDP in which one-third of the population speaks a foreign language at home. This includes Dale City, Va. (43 percent); Norwalk, Conn., and New Rochelle, N.Y. (each 42 percent); and Aurora, Colo., and Troy, Mich. (each 35 percent).
• In contrast to many of the nation's cities, in rural areas outside of metropolitan areas just 8 percent speak a language other than English at home

Consider that there are sixteen lodges today in New York's 10th Manhattan District, and they grew out of the enormous immigrant populations that came to America and settled in the New York City area. The Tenth Manhattan is home to lodges permitted to work Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish, and more, which differ—often substantially—from the traditional Preston-Webb rituals you find in almost every other state in the U.S. (with the notable exception of Pennsylvania's). It's not for nothing that this group of lodges refers to themselves as the 'Cosmopolitan Tenth,' which is how you'll find them on Facebook these days. Now, New Jersey has just established its own similar 6th District specifically geared to working with their newly christened foreign language and 'cosmopolitan' lodges in order to conform their sometimes very different rituals with current New Jersey practices.

This is a not a new idea, and by no means is it any sort of Earth-shattering innovation. A French-speaking New York lodge was asked to be the first lodge leading George Washington's funeral procession at Mount Vernon in 1799. Foreign language lodges were common a century and a half ago throughout America, and there's no reason why they shouldn't be again. 

Think of it a different way: Freemasonry is actually growing and thriving in Central and South American nations, where the bulk of our current immigration wave originates. Untold numbers of men join Masonic lodges in these Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking nations, only to find no lodges in which they feel comfortable or at home once in the U.S. Their only recourse is to establish or join a clandestine lodge, knuckle under and become proficient in English, or not attend at all. In other words, these are existing Freemasons living in our midst whom we are simply ignoring. It's long past time to be chartering new lodges in our jurisdictions that are permitted to work our official rituals (or at least close to them), just in a different language. 

Almost twenty years ago when faced with Masonic temples that were searching for rental possibilities, I suggested that lodges should be offering their dining room facilities for use by language tutors and schools to teach immigrants English, and/or Americans Spanish. It was clear then that there was already a growing need for such classes, and I suggested it as a new way to highlight the importance of Masonic halls in our communities once again. At that time, immigration wasn't really on many people's radar, and no one took it seriously. As the statistics above show, it's long past time to take it seriously now. 

While Masons haven't been paying attention, America has changed dramatically. Instead of decrying it or hiding from it as our membership continues to plummet, we need to see it as an opportunity to once again adapt to serve the society in which we reside - just as Freemasonry has always done in the past. Improving the world one Mason at a time is still our mission, no matter how our communities may change around us. Let's find a way to accommodate this upheaval in demographics instead of burying our collective heads in the sand. 

Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 Established in Ohio

The Grand Lodge of Ohio held its annual communication this past week. A new special purpose lodge was just chartered there with a very unique mission and method among American lodges: Goose and Gridiron Lodge No. 1717.

From their website:

The Lodge is named after the Goose and Gridiron tavern in London where the United Grand Lodge of England was organized in 1717.

While the lodge will be a legally constituted Lodge of Master Masons working under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, it will proudly claim its heritage as a English Emulation Lodge with a special mission: to practice and share the customs and rituals that imbue the fraternal experience in England and the Commonwealth. With Goose and Gridiron Lodge No. 1717 Ohio Masons may experience English Emulation Ritual and custom without leaving the state.

In addition to its study of Emulation Ritual, the lodge seeks to capture and practice many of the foundational elements of English Lodges, such as festive boards, philosophical education, dress, programs and charities. By doing so, the Lodge will provide an environment that is distinguished and warm, social and philosophical, exclusive and inviting.

Goose and Gridiron Lodge No. 1717 will meet four times a year in dedicated lodge rooms within the state of Ohio unless authorized by special dispensation of the Grand Master.
To become a member of Goose and Gridiron Lodge No. 1717 a Brother must be a Master Mason, join as either a plural or dual member and must remain in good standing with his primary Lodge.

I understand that several Ohio Masons who are also members of UGLE's Internet Lodge 9659 helped to get this lodge started, with some especially passionate remarks on the floor from RW Caid McKinley, PDDGM. 

They were also encouraged by Grand Lodge officers who attended UGLE's 300th anniversary celebration in London last year.

By the way, congratulations are in order to MW Jess N. Raines, the new Grand Master of Ohio for 2018-19 (photo). And to outgoing Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Rick Schau for his outstanding year.

---

UPDATE 10/16/2018

After I posted this message on Sunday, I was reminded that the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia has its own similar type of lodge. Chartered in 2001, Fiat Lux lodge No. 1717 works Emulation Ritual, uses English regalia, and follows English custom, even though it is an American lodge chartered by D.C. 

They meet up north at the Takoma Masonic Temple. 

Then today, I received the following announcement from Brother Mike Jennings up in Canada in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Alberta:

I am pleased to tell you that a group of mostly past masters in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Alberta AF&AM have just received dispensation to charter a traveling Craft Lodge of Past Masters focused on promoting masonic fellowship in a table lodge environment at suitable taverns, public houses and inns, also called the Goose & Gridiron Lodge #203. We have taken our inspiration from the lodges who met in and around 1717 at such places. We will be travelling around Alberta promoting the table lodge setting and we hope to be a suitable place for sitting masters to seek help from a group of past masters in matters pertaining to fellowship within their own lodge.

 

L'Union Française Lodge 17 in New York and the 'Cosmopolitan 10th District'

My apologies for the short notice, but I just found out about this coming Tuesday's event over on Jay Hochberg's blog, the Magpie Mason. Way too many of you guys in the northeast part of the U.S. don't know how lucky you are to live within an easy train ride of the greatest variety of Masonic lodges in the country. Take the opportunity to travel, and do it often!

The oldest lodge of the world-famous 10th Manhattan District, L’Union Française No. 17, chartered in 1797, will initiate four candidates this Tuesday evening, June 20th. The ritual will be conferred in French, and appropriately in the French Doric Room on the 10th Floor of New York's Grand Lodge building at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.

L’Union Française No. 17 will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree using the 'French Rite' ritual, which features rites of purification elements of Rosicrucian origin kept alive since 1797. UF17's degrees are similar to the ten famed, formerly French lodges in Louisiana that work what are often referred to as 'Scottish Rite Craft degrees' or as 'Red Lodges.' 

L’Union Française 17's Tuesday event details are:

Tuesday, June 20 at 6 p.m.Masonic Hall71 West 23rd Street, ManhattanFrench Doric Room, 10th floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted. 

Arrive EARLY, because the room is NOT large, and these evenings tend to fill up very fast.

Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall, and your current membership card is required to work your way into the lodge room. Brethren will retire to a nearby restaurant afterward ($50 per person, cash only).

The French Rite or 'Modern Rite' was originally developed by the Grand Orient of France in the 1780s (back when everybody recognized them). They decided that the hauts grades were quickly swelling up and getting out of hand, so they essentially took the 'Scottish Rite' degree system and limited it to just seven degrees. Also in New York's 10th District, Garibaldi Lodge confers their degrees using similar ritual, derived from the French Rite, but worked in Italian. 

UF17 is the oldest lodge in the 10th Manhattan District. It was chartered back on Christmas Day in 1797, but its origin was an earlier 1773 lodge known simply as "The French Lodge, formed by French Huguenot refugees and French soldiers who came with Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette for the American Revolution. Just two years after receiving their charter (originally #14—it's a long story), they were invited to be the first lodge to walk in the procession for George Washington's Masonic funeral service at Mount Vernon on December 30th of 1799.

The lodge had many early members who immigrated to New York from Louisiana and Saint-Domingue (the French name for Hispaniola for about ten minutes until Toussaint Louverture and the slave rebellions threw them all out and created Haiti in 1804). Another early member was Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Old Boney himself.

It was also John James Joseph Gourgas' lodge. He was actually born in Switzerland in 1777, and went on to become the first Secretary General of the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in 1826 and its third Sovereign Grand Commander from 1832 to 1851, during the misery of both the anti-Masonic period and the Cerneau mess. Which is a whole 'nuther story...

There are 16 lodges today in the 10th Manhattan District, and they grew out of the enormous immigrant populations that came to America and settled in the New York City area. The Tenth Manhattan is home to the lodges permitted to work Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish, and more, which differ—often substantially—from the traditional Preston-Webb rituals you find in almost every other state in the U.S. (with the notable exception of Pennsylvania). 

It's not for nothing that this group of lodges refers to themselves as the 'Cosmopolitan Tenth,' which is how you'll find them on Facebook these days: 

Abravanel, New York
Alba, New York
All Seeing Eye, New York
Anatolia, New York
Archimede-Roma, Baldwin
Brazilian, New York
Columbus-Davinci-Galilei, New York
France L.C.A.C., New York
Garibaldi, New York
Hellenic – Plato, New York
La Fraternidad, New York
La Sincerite, New York
La Universal, New York
L’Union Francaise, New York
Mazzini, New York
Parthenon, Long Island City