Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Masons hold final meeting in Chester
CHESTER >> Brothers of the Masonic fraternity from throughout Delaware County and the region gathered Thursday evening to mark the close of the centuries-long history of Chester No. 236 Free and Accepted Masons in the city.
Over 50 Masons from area lodges and about a dozen guests were in attendance for the final event at the Masonic Temple, Ninth and Welsh streets, which began with a dinner reception, followed by a closed lodge meeting and an open meeting for both brothers and guests.
Chester Lodge Worshipful Master Joe Walls reminded members that “it’s not the building that makes the lodge” before surrendering the warrant (charter) to District Deputy Grandmaster of the 36th Masonic District David J. Coffman at about 8:25 p.m. The turning over of the warrant brought a 147-year history of the lodge and 97-year history of the current temple to a close. The brothers of Chester Lodge will now join the once city-based Penn Lodge #709, which now meets in Concord Township, as a “for sale” goes on the city temple.
A series of brothers rose to speak at open floor, describing the temple as “a hotspot in the city of Chester,” with its Wunderlick Hall cafeteria and auditorium filled for dinners and stage productions, and wives and daughters in at-
tendance as members of appendant bodies and affiliated organizations such as the Order of the Eastern Star and Job’s Daughters. Multiple brothers referenced their fathers and grandfathers whom they followed into Freemasonry.
“The first time I came into the building was in the mid-’60s when I joined (youth fraternity) DeMolay,” said Arthur Bartholomew following the meeting. “My grandfather and father were past masters of Penn Lodge, and then I became a past master of Penn Lodge.”
“This was the first time I stepped in this lodge, and it’ll be the last time… I wish I had been here sooner,” Concord Lodge #625 brother John Clark said at open floor, who took a circuitous route to Chester Lodge’s final meeting.
“Back in the ‘60s when I was at Sun Ship, just about everybody belonged to this lodge,” he said following the meeting. “It was probably one of the focal points of Chester. Fifty years ago, (the appearance of the temple) was a diamond.”
Clark admitted he felt he “wasn’t smart enough” at that time to seek sponsorship for initiation, referencing the extensive ritual memorization of Masonry. “Now I’m involved in Concord Lodge,” he said, adding that what happens in the lodge “is just the tip of the iceberg.
“No matter what you need… it’s like having the Yellow Pages,” he said of brothers’ aid to one another, citing a hunting trip to North Dakota when he called a local lodge for advice on the unfamiliar hunting grounds.
Along with recollections
“The first time I came into the building was in the mid-’60s when I joined (youth fraternity) DeMolay. My grandfather and father were past masters of Penn Lodge, and then I became a past master of Penn Lodge.” — Arthur Bartholomew
of success for Chester Lodge and Masonry, members also lamented the nationwide decline in fraternal organizations over recent decades. “This generation doesn’t want to come out,” said Charles S. Monteith Sr., Most Excellent High Priest of Chester Chapter Royal Arch No. 258 (a Masonic appendant body), after the meeting. “If they don’t start coming together they’re going to lose not just us but the (volunteer) firehouses as well.”
Monteith gave smartphones as the latest example of new technology keeping the general public isolated from group activity, pointing to the rise of television and air conditioning in households correlating to the national decline in membership since 1960. “Everybody stopped sitting out front – you lost a little bit of the neighborliness,” he said.
Chester Lodge #236 has seen the rise and decline of fraternalism in America since its installation on Feb. 23, 1849. The lodge’s roots trace back further to Chester Lodge #69, which existed from 1796 through 1838, succumbing to a national anti-Masonic sentiment that existed in the 1820s and ‘30s. Members of the original lodge were unable to reinstate their warrant, instead receiving a warrant for Chester Lodge #236 on Dec. 4, 1848 from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Masonry would continue to expand in Chester in the 19th century, with Lucius H. Scott Lodge #352 growing out of Chester Lodge in 1864-’65 before merging back into Chester Lodge in the late 20th century, sharing the same temples throughout their history.
As Chester became an industrial hub during World War I, Masons relocating to the city for employment formed Penn Lodge #352, meeting at Chester Lodge’s temple before moving to Concord Lodge’s. The process will now come full circle as the members of Chester Lodge make the same westward migration.