Widows! ...They look like widows.

They’re old; they’re elegant, they once were loved, they are definitely respectable, but they are now without men, and they are looking for someone new to love them.

I’m referring to temples, old and deserted, bereft of active lodges and up for sale. The Masonic Temple in Southampton has been on the block for two years. It was sold once, but the town balked at having the old building turned into a multiple-residence, so it’s up for grabs again. (It has a great location on a major thoroughfare and I dread the possibilities of its degenerating into a greasy flip-and-fry or video joint.)

STIRS SENTIMENT
I’m sentimental about old lodge buildings, especially forlorn ones. This one still has the insignia of The Craft on the windows, which marks its former use, and it is obviously not one of the stately mansions that dot the neighborhoods of Southampton. The lawn is cut and the unfenced grounds are tidy, but it is certainly deserted, a Lady in Waiting.

I meet a few such buildings as I pass through towns and pay impromptu visits. The doors are locked, the lights out (despite the fact it’s the third Wednesday of the month and a lodge should be meeting). Usually it’s my own fault for using old information or not calling ahead, but it’s still a disappointment. Amalgamation or a budget crisis are the usual causes for a lodge’s pulling up stakes and moving on.

CAN’T “SELL” A LODGE
Networking brought me an introduction to the Southampton temple. A friend from Sauble Beach called in August. “They’re selling the Masonic Lodge in Southampton!” he informed me. He isn’t a Mason, but he thought I’d be interested, and he was right. However, the Masonic Lodge was not for sale; just the building. A lodge is the brethren assembled, the same way the congregation is the church, not the structure. Frequently the bricks and mortar are confused with the active entity using the building.

Saint Lawrence* Lodge No. 131 was the owner and prime occupant of the temple for more than century before moving to Port Elgin two years ago. The lodge itself was instituted in February of 1860 and made the move into the Albert Street building upon its completion in 1877. It was a tall frame building in those days.

NEW LOCATION
The relocation after a hundred-years-plus wasn’t an easy decision but history doesn’t make it any easier for old bones to climb steep stairs. Then there was the weather. Those 19TH century walls lacked modern insulation, the storm windows leaked heat, and the prevailing westerlies off Lake Huron know no pity. The original members of St. Lawrence lived within walking distance of lodge. Now, with a membership extending over Southampton, Port Elgin, and Saugeen Township, automobiles have made shoe leather obsolete. St. Lawrence moved south into the premises already used by Port Elgin Lodge in what locals call “Port Elgin” but which political correctness calls “Saugeen Shores”. It’s a one-storey structure (no stairs) with a big parking lot. Curiously, it’s a payback of an arrangement of 100 years ago, when Port Elgin was a tenant in Southampton.

FEW REGRETS
Regrets? Some. But assuaged by comfort and convenience, and a line-up of seven candidates for initiation.

All that’s left of the old building is the roof, walls, and the square and compasses on the windows. It’s empty. The antique furniture is being stored by a member until some other lodge is in need

Is town is missing something? The Masonic Lodge in Southampton has a history paralleling that of the pioneer settlement of the Bruce Peninsula. Francis Hardwick Lynch-Stanton arrived from Toronto as a land surveyor ready to open the frontier. Roads were impassable in the summer so when dispensation was granted to start a new lodge, February was chosen as start-up time. Carrying the written dispensation and backed by the lodge in Owen Sound, three Masons went by sleigh to Kincardine for installation and returned to open St. Lawrence* Lodge.

Winter remained the time of peak attendance. Fishermen and sailors plying Lake Huron lived ashore until break-up and local farmers were on maintenance chores. One member, the lighthouse keeper on Chantry Island, rowed to lodge in a dory in spring and autumn and moved ashore after freeze-up.

MULTI-USE HERITAGE
Their lodge building was the first town hall for Southampton. It housed the first public school. Lodge historian Doug Johnson says that seventeen years after the lodge was instituted, it moved into the new building in 1877 along with the pupils and municipal officials. The lodge lived upstairs and other others stayed downstairs. The Rising Stars Public School relocated two years later, the municipal offices relocated in the center of town in 1879, and the lodge bought the land and building for $150. It was a good investment. Port Elgin Lodge became a tenant, along with the York Rite (for 100 years) and the Eastern Star, and the main floor remained a rental property.

In 1899 the frame building was given its present brick veneer, making it look almost modern.

WHAT NEXT?
So far no one has thrown a rock through the windows. Frost heave hasn’t shifted the walls----- yet. The building is an unused community asset that deserves better than neglect. How many municipalities still have their first town hall? Their first public school?

Maybe a marker is in order. At the very least, one of those blue Ontario Heritage historical plaques could show where the heart of the community first beat; if someone sets the wheels in motion. Ideally, the building could be insulated and returned to public service. The old girl has a lot of mileage left in her.

It’s even possible for the Lodge to set up its own historical marker, if that’s okay with the new owner. After all, we are a part of Southampton’s heritage.


Now that I’ve been introduced to the lodge and met some of the members, I’ll drop in the next time I pass through Saugeen Shores, and I’ll definitely spend time with the historian, Doug Johnson. He knows how one of their members supplied troops in the Riel Rebellion and how a brother or two made it to The Canadian Senate.

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*OF INTEREST
Why was “Saint Lawrence” picked as a name for the lodge? The saint was martyred in 258 AD in a gruesome manner. He was chained to a grate and cooked alive. Tradition has it that he informed his tormentors that they should turn him, because one side was done. His saint’s day in August coincides with a meteorite shower, sometimes called “St. Lawrence’s Tears”. The charter Master of the lodge in Southampton was a Roman Catholic, which might account for the lodge being given a saint’s name.
 

Happy to Meet Again !