Westporters descend downtown this weekend for twin draws: the library book sale and Fine Arts Festival. Most activity will be by the river; if merchants are lucky, folks will wander into stores to buy belts or socks or whatever is on sale these days.
As we do the rest of the year, we’ll completely ignore a building that sits near the heart of downtown, yet is as far removed from it as Sarah Palin is from actually governing Alaska.
What’s up with our Masonic Hall?
What goes on there? Has anyone ever been inside the “lodge”? Who is the current Worshipful Master? What would happen if a woman tried to join? Does anyone know an actual Mason? What do the Masons actually do?
And is anything more spookier than being located above a funeral home?
The Masons have been in Westport since 1824 — more than a decade before the town’s founding. They’ve been in the present building since 1902. Which — and I’m just speculating here — is the last time anyone heard anything about a Masons’ meeting. They do keep a low profile.
To be fair, the Masons are not stuck in the John Quincy Adams administration. They have a website.
Unfortunately, though the words look normal, I could not decipher them. Here, for example, is what appears under something called “Temple Lodge Table Lodge June 25, 2009”:
In the Spirit of Kipling:
The cannons were all ready and aligned. The Brothers were all trained and prepared.
And so the battle began.
Table Lodge 2009
Cannons to the South, Cannons to the West, Volleyed and Thundered. Half a liter, half a liter, half a liter downward as we all took part in the festivities. The toasts were all sincere and well delivered, the timing only improved with practice. To all those who spoke and those that par took, it was truly a great night. But to all of us to a man, the last toast should be dedicated to those who served best; in the kitchen and in the Lodge to the chiefs and stewards, for the food was of quality and the powder in good supply. So from those of us that charged the Valley and those that stood by, join me as we pay tribute to those Noble Servants.
Ready….Aim…..Fire……Good Fire….Fire All.
VIVAT! VIVAT! VIVAT!
How cool is that!
Though please forgive me if I skitter past the Hall this weekend, on my way to the library book sale. I just feel more comfortable with things written in the English language.
I thought: ‘masonic temple’ engraving was just left over from earlier times, that it was historically protected buidling so the funeral home couldn’t cement over the engraving, and that the entire building was a funeral home.
Looking forward to the follow-up report from inside The Temple.
Nope. The dead people are only on the ground floor.
Dn – I’ve been a Mason since 1977. Nothing terribly “spooky” or “mysterious” about the Freemasons. There is information about the Masons all over the Internet.
Dan, Bravo. That is hands down the spookiest building in town. The spookiest road? Partrick? Didn’t you do an article on that? If a witch wasn’t hung at the crossroads in 1691, I’ll give away my original Black Sabbath album.
Nope — never did a story on Partrick, nor even heard the witch story. But I’m pretty sure an ancestor of Horace Staples was burned around that time — maybe in Fairfield?