BEAUFORT LODGE - The first Masonic Lodge to be instituted in Beaufort was Beaufort Lodge and it was granted a dispensation on December 5, 1797. The Lodge was never chartered and therefore was not numbered. This dispensation was continued until 1798 at which time it became extinct.
JERUSALEM LODGE #35 at Straits - This lodge was chartered December 9, 1798 and lasted until 1811, which was after Taylor Lodge was chartered. It closed in 1811.
TAYLOR LODGE #48 - The next lodge in Beaufort was Taylor Lodge #48, which was chartered December 3, 1806 with seventeen charter members. The Lodge operated for six years but then surrendered its charter on December 5, 1812.
TAYLOR LODGE #69
In 1817, Taylor Lodge was re-instituted at a grand lodge meeting and given the number 69. On August 2, 1829, Taylor Lodge purchased part of lot 102, Old Town Turner Street from James Davis and a Masonic Temple was built. The lodge is one of the older lodges in North Carolina. One of the early lodge buildings, which is still standing (ODD FELLOWS LODGE #11, 212 Turner Street; (see below) was constructed by brothers who were brick masons working at the construction of Fort Macon. It is said that brick masons, who were building Fort Macon at that time, came over in their row boats and built the Masonic Temple at night. There are several accounts of the workers being allowed to have possession of broken bricks for free if they removed them from the fort site. It is interesting to note how the bricks are laid for the side walls, every fourth row the bricks are laid with the ends out. The name of that style of brick work is called 'Soldier Course.' Taylor Lodge operated for twenty-five years and again surrendered its charter in 1842.
1997 Survey: Large, 3-story, 3-bay brick building laid in Flemish bond was originally 2 stories with a side-gable roof that has since been raised to have a flat roof with corbelled cornice and recessed paneling. The original corbelled cornice above the second story, fine Flemish bond brick walls and rubbed brick jack arches are still intact. Building has 12/12 reproduction sash with brick sills and keystone lintels, a marble plaque above the entrance depicting the three links in a chain "F, L, and T" (Friendship, Love, Truth) and smaller plaques or tiles carved with "I, O, O, F" (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) inset beneath the cornice. The front entrance has a 6 raised-panel door set within an arched opening with keystone. The first brick dwelling in Beaufort, it was built in 1837 by brick masons who built Fort Macon. It was converted to the Odd Fellows Lodge by 1880.
On December 3,
1845, Franklin Lodge #109 was chartered with twenty-eight members. On March 8,
1868 they purchased the lot at 116 Queen Street and another Masonic temple was built
(charter of Taylor Masonic Lodge #69 had been surrendered). They purchased
the lot on Queen Street from Rebecca Stanton Fuller Pigott, widow of ship
builder Elijah W. Pigott.
The corner stone of Franklin Lodge was laid on Tuesday, June 8, 1868 according to a publication written by William Vernon Geffroy and published in the Goldsboro News. The laying of the cornerstone was celebrated by members of the lodge, and of the other lodges in town, all decked out in full regalia. The parade proceeded down Front Street to the Queen Street site. That building is now The Pecan Inn and formerly the home of the late Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Jones, Sr.
By the early part of the 1900s the Masonic membership had not grown much from its original membership and grew slowly until the early 1940s. Masonry began to grow rapidly at the onset and during World War II.
Franklin Lodge had steady growth until 1984, when it
reached a high of 384 members after beginning with 28 members.
Franklin Lodge #109 has had four members that served as Grand Master of The Grand Lodge of North Carolina, AF & AM. Two were John Nichols in 1872-1873 and Harry Patterson in 1938, who were once Franklin members, but were members elsewhere when elected Grand Masters. The late Harvey Ward Smith served as Grand Master during the year 1961. The most recent Grand Master from Franklin Lodge is Leonard Y. Safrit, Jr. who served as Grand Master in 2004.
HERO LODGE #248 618 Cedar Street
The present home of the Hero Lodge #248, a large 2-story concrete block and frame hall built, circa 1945‒1950, features the bungalow influenced clipped gable roofline seen on so many of the neighborhood's dwellings built from the 1920s until the 1950s.
Earlier Negro fraternal halls—the Odd Fellows and the Masons—at Queen and Pine streets, have not survived, leaving no record of their appearance. See 1913 Map.
