Wanted: Furniture for Indiana Masonic Lodge

by Christopher Hodapp

If anyone knows of a Masonic lodge that is closing or consolidating, an Indianapolis lodge that is soon relocating to a new building is in need of lodge furniture. According to one of their Past Masters who dropped by the Museum today, 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 it all matches 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 yet, so it's not an immediate need. Obviously, the closer to Indiana, the simpler it will be to arrange transportation – but I'll let others sort that out.

If anyone can help, contact me at hodapp@aol.com and I'll put you directly in touch. 

Colorado Lodge Dedicates Idiosyncratic New Meeting Space

Photo: Bruce Hinde

by Christopher Hodapp

CORRECTION: I mistakenly thought the new building being used by Elk Mountain Lodge was a re-purposed grain storage silo. Brother David Moran tells me this is a brand new structure, and was never used as a silo. My apologies for jumping to conclusions.

On April 22nd, the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Colorado consecrated the new lodge hall of Elk Mountain Lodge 118 in one of the most unusual locations in the world — inside of a round, steel building that resembles a grain storage silo (photo above). 

Photo: WB David Moran

Photo: Elk Mountain Lodge Facebook page

Up until two years ago, their old lodge hall on the second floor at 111 Eighth Street in Steamboat Springs had served them well for almost a century, but the cost of upkeep and improvements continued to rise over the decades while their supporting membership shrank in size.  So Brother Ray Selbe, a member of Elk Mountain Lodge since the 1980's, came up with an innovative solution: a 900-square-foot loft area inside of a round, steel building on his ranch that houses his blacksmith shop and antique tool collection.

From an article on the Steamboat Pilot & Today website by John F. Russell:

Selbe, a practicing blacksmith, was building a shop where he could properly display a collection of blacksmithing tools he has been accumulating for several years. When the topic of the lodge needing a new location came up, he offered to build a mezzanine where the members could meet.

“We were building a new blacksmith shop, and suddenly we needed a place for the lodge,” Selbe said. “So we built a mezzanine level in the new blacksmith shop for the lodge.”

The new Elk Mountain Masonic Lodge is located above Selbe’s shop on his ranch located at 25245 County Road 42. The 900-square-foot lodge is built on the mezzanine level of the 1,800-square-foot blacksmith shop.

[snip]

The completion of the lodge put a smile on Selbe’s face not only because it gave the Masons a new place to meet, but because it ensures the organization still has a home in Steamboat Springs.

“My grandfather and my dad and uncles were all Masons — it was a family tradition, I guess,” Selbe said. “There were a lot of memories in that downtown location, but now we’ll make new memories.”

Photo: Elk Mountain Lodge Facebook page

Photo: Elk Mountain Lodge Facebook page

Like so many lodges, Elk Mountain began life downtown in their hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They were granted dispensation in 1902 and received their charter in 1904. 

Elk Mountain 118's former downtown lodge hall in Steamboat Springs
(Photo: Google Maps)

But Elk Mountain's new, modern lodge room is truly unique for the 21st century. For many years, these distinctive agricultural vessels have been converted into innovative homes and vacation cabins, but this is the first one I've ever encountered being turned into a Masonic temple. 

*   *   *

Read the histories of Masonic grand lodges throughout America over the centuries and you'll encounter countless stories of lodges meeting in unusual places like caves, above general stores, in barns, attic loft areas of log cabins — anywhere that could be successfully tyled, away from prying eyes and snoopy eavesdroppers. In Indiana we had two lodges that began life meeting on the top floors of operating grist mills in the 1800s: Millersville Lodge 126 and Wild Cat Lodge 311. (Adams Mill in tiny Cutler, Indiana is a museum today and area Masons have set up a historical re-creation of the original meeting space of Wild Cat Lodge No. 311 for the public to see and for our lodges to use.)

1864-era Masonic lodge room re-creation on top floor
of Adam's Mill, Cutler, Indiana.

Masonic Sightseeing in Lafayette, Indiana with Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research

by Christopher Hodapp

On Saturday, the Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research spent the day exploring Masonic sites around Lafayette, Indiana: the Tippecanoe Battlefield where the Grand Lodge placed a historical marker in 1966; the beautiful Battle Ground Lodge (which has just been restored following a wintertime flood from the roof); and the one of a kind J. H. Rathbone Museum of fraternal order ephemera from the Golden Age of fraternalism.

Masonic marker memorializing the death of Kentucky Grand Master Joseph Hamilton Daveiss
and other Masons at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Park.

While at the park, we had the opportunity to tour the on-site museum. We had 27 Masons and guests in attendance, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Next was a visit to the Masonic hall of Battle Ground Lodge 313.

WB Dave Hosler was our host for the day and gave a presentation at Battle Ground Lodge about a brother elected as Master of the lodge at age 24 who survived World War I, but tragically died in the flu pandemic of 1918 before he could be installed.

The lodge's entry features artwork by Indiana Masonic 
artist Steven McKim, originally a member of Octagon Lodge, 
which subsequently merged with Battle Ground lodge.

Our third stop for the day was at the J.H. Rathbone Museum. Located in a former Knights of Pythias meeting hall in Lafayette, the museum is one of the largest collections of costumes, regalia, artwork, medals, ephemera and rituals from literally hundreds of fraternal groups that flourished throughout the U.S. between the Civil War and the 1930s. Curator Ken Moder, members of the museum's board, and other local volunteers have been sorting and organizing in recent years, and there were several in our group who had been unaware of just how extensive the collection really is.

Joining us for the day was Heather Calloway, her husband Todd, and their son, Simon. Heather worked for many years at the Scottish Rite SJ House of the Temple in Washington DC, and she’s now teaching at IU in Bloomington in the Museum Studies department. A fascinating project is getting underway in Bloomington which will be of great interest to Masons and others interested in the subject of fraternal organizations, and Heather is spearheading it. News will be forthcoming.

My deepest thanks to WB Dave Hosler for handling the day’s arrangements and Ken Moder for opening the Museum for us. But I especially want to thank everyone who attended. The COVID pandemic and shutdowns hurled a large monkey wrench into our lodge plans over the last 14 months, and I was happy we were able to make this work out just before our Masonic year ends in mid-May. The consensus among everyone Saturday afternoon was that we should have other similar events like this in the coming years.

The Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research operates as a lodge under dispensation at the will and pleasure of the Grand Master, so we will have new appointed officers later this month. It has been my honor and pleasure to serve as Master of our research lodge over the last two years, and I thank all of our officers and members for their support.

For more information about the lodge, including membership or affiliation, visit our website at http://dlslodgeofresearch.net

Photos: Dave Hosler, Heather Calloway, Chris Hodapp

Need seating for lodge or church? Act before this Friday!

by Christopher Hodapp

I saw this circulated on Facebook today. Does your lodge or church need bench seating? A church in Boise, Idaho must get rid of all of their pews by this Friday, October 23rd. 

They are selling these 12-foot-long bench pews (with attached kneelers) for a paltry $25 apiece. It looks like they have 20 of them (or did before this announcement). 

The Facebook listing is HERE.

Act fast. And bring a big truck.

Reimagining the Modern Masonic Lodge Room

New lodge room at the Grand Lodge of California

Brother Bryan Godwin over on Reddit recently posted a photo (top of this page) of a newly constructed lodge room now available for use at the San Francisco headquarters of the Grand Lodge of California. This is a terrific contemporary design, and so rarely found in the U.S. Click the photo above to enlarge it - there's an awful lot of sacred geometry ingeniously packed into that space.

(UPDATE: The room was designed by architect and Brother David Hackett. The Grand Lodge also added a dining area with bar, study and lounge with a functioning fireplace. in their remodel. Here are two more angles of the lodge room itself that brethren posted on my Facebook page since I first put up this story.)

Let's be honest. Too many American lodge rooms have a tendency to either look stuck in 1929 (16-foot plaster walls painted in powder blue), or were covered from stem to stern back in 1958 with cheap, phony walnut panelling as though there had been a massive, nationwide closeout sale on the stuff at Ace Hardware that got pimped one summer to the entire fraternity in a Short Talk Bulletin. There's a certain uniform basement rec room feel to them.

Don't get me wrong - while I hate the cheap paneling nailed up in thousands of lodges like so many church recreation halls, insurance offices, garages, and basements throughout the fruited plain, I'm AM a big fan of the late 50s and early 60s contemporary architecture. 

There's a gulf of difference between cheap junk nailed up to cover up a problem versus thoughtful design. For instance, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania's Masonic Village in Elizabethtown has one of the very coolest 1960s A-frame lodge rooms I've ever been in.

Lodge room at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

But not this...

Be honest - isn't it time to redecorate?

Maybe the time has come to personalize your lodge room, or at least admit that our parsimonious Brethren from the Eisenhower Administration years sufficiently got their money's worth from all that mud brown panelling and blue shag carpeting. Maybe at long last it's finally time to redecorate again. 

If you are interested in reimagining your lodge room with a more contemporary approach, take a look at some modern French and Belgian lodge rooms. Many of their older rooms were wrecked during WWII under Nazi occupation throughout the country, so they had to build brand new ones or redecorate destroyed older ones. Plus, they are often in densely packed, tiny urban locations. They have MANY contemporary designs throughout those two nations. And their lodge rooms are designed for far fewer members than most of our older temples were.

For inspiration, I highly recommend two large format photo books packed full of their lodge room images:

Temples Maçonniques de France et de Belgique by Serge Moati and François Nussbaumer

A La Découverte des Temples Maçonniques de France by Ludovic Marcos and Ronan Loaëc

While expensive (the larger Marcos/Loaëc one has more examples), both are worth having. Both books contain new and older rooms with a huge variety of decor, plus many older rooms with updated contemporary designs. 

Here are a couple of random examples.

Not every design appeals to every taste. One man's idea of impressive is another man's idea of a hotel lobby. But in earlier times, our brethren were not shy about personalizing their lodge buildings and meeting rooms with artwork, custom furniture, unique detailing, and innovative designs. That festive, decorative spirit generally did not flourish in the mid- and late-20th century throughout the US. 

(Maybe it's because we pitched the booze out of so many jurisdictions...)

Notice how so very much in all of these examples is accomplished with lighting. Even plain white walls can become dramatic or soothing or otherwise evocative just with new, modern light sources and alternatives.

Think about the first time you actually walked into your current lodge room. Did it feel "special"? Did it feel like you were in a very different sort of place than anywhere else?

Didn't you WANT it to be?

Our lodge rooms are supposed to be a sanctuary from the outside world. They are supposed to make you feel like you are in a place that cannot be invaded by the problems outside the Tyler's door. They are supposed to make you feel like this is a unique place where important, comforting, reflective, and sometimes transformative things take place. All of the above examples accomplish that in a way that baby blue paint or basement paneling lit with flickering fluorescent tubes while a ceiling fan ticks overhead cannot.

Then, of course, there's another way to accomplish this besides paint, lights and furniture. The Scottish Rite Valley of Houston a few years ago built what amounts to a holodeck - a room surrounded on three sides by projection screens so that quite literally any backdrop or artwork can be displayed. Sixteen hi-def laser projectors are combined with computer generated wraparound imagery and a huge surround sound system. Virtual Reality Solomon's Temple anyone?

Just different ways of looking at it. Next time you walk in, try looking at your own lodge room with different eyes. And then make the most of it.

Lodge Carpets

Brother Loyd Caldwell, PM and Secretary of Dalton Lodge in Dalton, Georgia has for several years offered a unique visual aid for the "Winding Staircase Lecture" that appears in most US Fellow Craft rituals (Pennsylvania brethren will be asking "What winding staircase lecture?"). It is a 6' x 9' custom carpet with the proper visual cues for each step.

I haven't seen one in person, but the photo looks absolutely beautiful.

Check their website at www.masonicstairwayrug.com/

Which brings up another question. Is there a US or Canadian manufacturer of lodge carpets, with a checkered floor, a blazing star and tessellated border? The English companies have beautiful carpets, but the exchange rate and shipping makes them too expensive for most of us to comfortably suggest to our lodges.

Muncie, Indiana's Incredible Masonic Temple

I had the honor of speaking to a small gathering last night of Delaware Lodge in Muncie, Indiana. The event was to honor their 50 year members, and the excellent dinner was held in Muncie's beautiful Roberts Hotel. WM Tim Brinkmeyer also invited Senior Grand Warden Jeffrey Zaring and his wife Margie for the evening, and it was truly outstanding. The dinner was the highest quality, the surroundings were elegant, befitting the honors being presented. Everyone had a wonderful time. 

Everyone who came, that is. 

But what I saw after dinner gave me a long, sleepless night. The Muncie Masonic Temple is without question one of the most beautiful and majestic ever constructed for the fraternity. It was built largely by the gifts of the Ball family, creators of the Ball jar, and the patrons of Ball State University. The temple association sold the building in 1999, and today the first two floors are operated as a community center by the Cornerstone Center. The third floor remains home to two Masonic lodges, an OES chapter, and a Job's Daughter's Bethel. A new DeMolay Chapter is getting underway in the old Red Cross room, and the old Commandery asylum is there as well. 

But it is the two lodge rooms that literally take your breath away. The identically sized rooms are decorated with massive hand-painted murals depicting Old Testament scenes. The rooms are painted in a rich golden-ochre scheme, and are without the question the most beautiful I've ever seen anywhere in the world. 

The third floor of the Muncie Temple is one of the greatest treasures of Indiana Freemasonry, and few people even know about it. If the students of Ball State knew it, the college men would be lining up in droves to join. And if the Muncie Temple Association would start thinking like new members, perhaps they could see it with a fresh outlook and realize that this place must be saved at any cost. To let this majestic place simply wither and die from apathy, or worse, inaction and stubbornness, would be a disgrace. 

We don't have too many lodges. We have too many buildings. There are at least seven lodges in Delaware County. Instead of everyone paying to keep up five different buildings, why aren't they pooling their resources to preserve the best and most centrally located facility? As numbers decrease, we can no longer sustain a lodge building in every neighborhood. More important, this is a rare moment in time when the new public awareness of Freemasonry, a university town, a large group of young men and fate could all collide to protect and grow these downtown lodges. 

The is no reason why Muncie Freemasonry should not flourish with Ball State University right in its midst. One or two lodge officers can't do it alone. Their lodges need to act, and act fast.