BRATTLEBORO-Since 1910, 196 Main St. has been the location for Brattleboro Lodge of Freemasons. Over time, there have been hundreds of Freemasons who have met there for fellowship, learning, and planning programs to benefit members and the community.
However, the Lodge's board of directors said in a news release that "increases in maintenance costs, new areas of community interest competing with the Masons, and the recent Covid pandemic have affected the levels of membership, and consequently the funds the lodge officers need to maintain the building."
As a result, the board of directors has begun consideration of what the future of the Lodge Building should be, saying "the hope has been to have it remain in the hands of the Masonic fraternity, especially as it is located in the historical designated area of downtown Brattleboro."
Freemasonry has existed in (1)Brattleboro for 213 years - since 1811, with the founding of Columbian Lodge. Brattleboro Lodge was later founded in 1881, and existed in town with Columbian Lodge until the mid-1960s, when it decided to merge with Brattleboro Lodge, according to the news release.
Among the well-known area citizens who have been members of Brattleboro lodge are Gov. Ernest Gibson Jr., U.S. Sen. George Aiken, Lt. Gov. Jack Burgess, architect Richard Morris Hunt, Kittredge Haskins, Pliny Burrows, Jacob Estey, Christie Crowell, Spero Latchis, and Richard Hamilton, as well as many others.
The directors say they "have been in a quandary over whether to hang on to the building to preserve its place in Brattleboro history." Other options under consideration are to sell it and try to rent space for their monthly meetings or to explore whether they can raise enough money from selling the building, add it to funds they have currently, and buy a lot on which to place a modular building or a smaller, more efficient structure.
Vermont agencies and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation have been contacted to discover whether grants are available for upgrading the lodge building for greater public use, such as renting office space to businesses or professionals as meeting space.
"Unfortunately," the directors say, "the matching funds required would be more than what the directors felt they could afford to pay. A handful of local business organizations and agencies have been contacted about partnering in the use of the building, but at this time no interest has been shown." At this point, they say, they don't see many alternatives for the use of the building that would still allow the Freemasons to use it for their meetings and other activities.
If a group, business, agency, or individual in the areais interested in working with the Freemasons on developing better uses for the building that would serve both the Freemasons and the community, they should contact Steve Farrington at 802-257-0464 or [email protected].
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.