Historic Fraternal Lodges

Lodge Complaint

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fraternal orders proliferated across the U.S., and lodges built by Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks, and other orders became important community landmarks. Today, participation in fraternal organizations is on a steep decline. As numbers dwindle, more lodges have disbanded or vacated aging outsized facilities, leaving significant buildings at risk.

Since including lodges on last year’s 10 Most Endangered list, Indiana Landmarks helped save previously threatened lodge buildings in Vernon, North Vernon, and Bedford, but other sites remain imperiled, including Prince Hall Masonic Temple in Indianapolis.

Built in 1916 for Oriental Masonic Lodge No. 500, the monumental building’s details capture the Exotic Revival architectural style popular in the early twentieth century, with geometric brick patterns and keyhole windows intended to reflect Islamic architecture of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain.

Membership in the lodge declined after World War II and even further during desegregation in the ’60s and ’70s, when white families began fleeing the urban neighborhood. In the 1980s, the historically African American Prince Hall Masonic Temple Association bought the building to serve as a permanent home for its Grand Lodge of Indiana, and for decades the Prince Hall Masonic Association’s many lodges and chapters have used the building for ceremonies, meetings, and social events.