Saving history, one building at a time

Masonic Hall Renovation Goes Forward on Danville Green

By Sharon Lakey

It takes a com­mit­ment to keep a town’s his­to­ry alive, and Danville’s Masons of Wash­burn Lodge #92 appear to be in it for the long haul. The big, brick build­ing on the Green has been their home since 1894, but it has been a grace­ful pres­ence there since 1831.

At first glance, the build­ing looks like a church, so it makes sense when one learns that the Calvin­ist Bap­tists, who formed in 1792, built it for their con­gre­ga­tion at a cost of $3,100. One of the found­ing mem­bers in the Calvin­ist Bap­tist Church in Danville was Charles Sias, the first cap­tain of the first mil­i­tary com­pa­ny in town. In our Society’s his­tor­i­cal records, a note reads that in the church a “revival took place from 1833 to 1836” but also relates “the church dis­ap­pears from the min­utes of the Danville Asso­ci­a­tion in 1852.” The build­ing stood emp­ty until the Wash­burn Lodge pur­chased it as their new home in 1894.

The Masons, of course, have their own inter­est­ing his­to­ry that dove­tails with the build­ing. Just before the Bap­tists built their church on the Green, Danville became the hotbed of the Anti-Mason­ic move­ment, and the old North Star led the charge. Danville’s William Palmer, the first and only gov­er­nor in the nation to run on the Anti-Mason­ic tick­et, was elect­ed Gov­er­nor of Ver­mont in 1831, the same year the church was built.

The move­ment was so strong that by 1834 almost every Mason­ic lodge in Ver­mont had rescind­ed their char­ters, and Danville was no excep­tion. Hav­ing been grant­ed their orig­i­nal char­ter as Har­mo­ny Lodge #14 in 1797, they sur­ren­dered it in 1829 and were declared extinct in 1849. But 20 years lat­er, the Anti-Mason­ic move­ment for­got­ten, they reformed as Wash­burn Lodge #92 and met on the top floor of the present Balivet house on the Green. Seek­ing a more per­ma­nent home, they pur­chased the aban­doned church on the Green at pub­lic auc­tion for $285. The broth­ers com­plet­ed exten­sive ren­o­va­tions in the late 1890s, replac­ing the win­dows with stained glass and adding a domed ceil­ing in the main hall. There they enjoyed many years of activity.

But, as all home­own­ers and orga­ni­za­tions know, it takes a strong com­mit­ment to keep both alive. Den­nis Larrabee of Walden and Buck White of Bar­net, both present mem­bers of the Wash­burn Lodge #92, met to dis­cuss the past and present plans for the Lodge. “At one time, the Masons in St. Johns­bury had 500 mem­bers. They’re down to around 40 now,” said Den­nis. “At one point, we were down to around 70, too. We had to con­sid­er whether keep­ing such a large build­ing was practical.

“The build­ing com­mit­tee looked at all the options,” shared Den­nis. “There are a num­ber of builders among the broth­ers, and we con­sid­ered build­ing new or join­ing with the St. Johns­bury Lodge. But in the end, we decid­ed to stay on the Green, our home.” In a newslet­ter pub­lished by the Wash­burn Lodge in 2007, a writer explains the rea­son­ing behind the deci­sion: “What is our Lodge build­ing to us? It is our PRESENCE in Danville…We have been giv­en a gift by the Broth­ers who came before us. We have a whol­ly owned, archi­tec­tural­ly unique brick build­ing in very good repair locat­ed On the town green.”

Accord­ing to Den­nis, who is a retired con­struc­tion ana­lyst, there had been a minor upgrade in the 1960s when it was vot­ed to put a cement floor in the base­ment and build a new kitchen. But in 2007, the Lodge began in earnest to ren­o­vate and upgrade the build­ing. “We planned this in three stages,” he said. “The first stage was to ren­o­vate the base­ment, replac­ing the old kitchen with com­mer­cial grade fix­tures. We also poured a new floor with an inte­grat­ed heat­ing sys­tem, so the base­ment kitchen and din­ing could be heat­ed all win­ter. Also includ­ed in stage one were plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal repair.

The cost of these improve­ments was a big com­mit­ment for the Lodge—they took out a $90,000 loan to com­plete the work. Forty thou­sand still remains on that loan, but they are mak­ing their pay­ments every year. “We have a great team of cooks,” explains Den­nis. “Last year we catered a large wed­ding out at the Cur­tis Vance Memo­r­i­al Orchard.” We also cater ban­quets, wed­dings and host Bin­go every week from 5:30–9:00, along with a light sup­per. Bin­go saved us,” said Dennis.

The sec­ond stage in the ren­o­va­tion began ear­li­er last sum­mer. When the paving was being com­plet­ed around the Green, Den­nis was asked for input and he was able to get the pavers to include some nice park­ing near the build­ing. They also put in a hand­i­cap ramp at the front entrance. Both front doors were tak­en down to wood and repaint­ed by one of the broth­ers. “This spring we are sched­uled to replace the met­al roof, com­plete mason­ry repairs, add new gran­ite stone for the win­dow sills and paint the bell tow­er, sills and roof trim,” explains Larrabee.

Con­tin­u­ing this phase of the ren­o­va­tion, the Lodge is seek­ing, and has received, his­toric preser­va­tion grants. The Free­man Foun­da­tion and Preser­va­tion Trust of Ver­mont award­ed the project $30,000. Anoth­er $1,000 was award­ed by the Pleas­ants Fund in Greens­boro, VT, which will go towards the paint­ing of the tow­er. A grant under review for $2,000 would pro­vide funds for the labor of paint­ing the tow­er and roof trim. Larrabee’s Build­ing and Sup­ply will fur­nish all the paint for the project, but that is high work on the tow­er and will require a pro­fes­sion­al painter.

In stage three the win­dows will be addressed as well as the pos­si­bil­i­ty of get­ting the vault­ed ceil­ing back into the sec­ond floor hall where Lodge meet­ings are held. Accord­ing to Buck White, “the ceil­ing is still there, but it is cov­ered over,” not­ing there has been some water dam­age. He has been in the bel­fry area, pho­tograph­ing the struc­ture of exposed beams and join­ery that was part of America’s ear­ly 19 cen­tu­ry architecture.

In a cen­ten­ni­al print­ed pro­gram held on Sat­ur­day, June 21, 1969, Wor­ship­ful Mas­ter, Everett H. McReynolds wrote, “It is with great broth­er­ly friend­ship that we gath­er on this day to cel­e­brate our 100th year of Mason­ry.” In read­ing over the list of past Mas­ters print­ed in the pro­gram, one sees names that are strong­ly con­nect­ed to Danville’s his­tor­i­cal past as well as those com­ing for­ward into the present. Because Mason­ry is a fra­ter­nal soci­ety, and one that keeps its rites secret, it is no won­der that it would raise a few eye­brows, but Buck points out, “The Masons are not clothed in dark­ness, and it isn’t a cult. My dad nev­er asked me to join. Instead, he wait­ed for me to tell him I was inter­est­ed. When I did, he was pleased to intro­duce me. I had to ask for a peti­tion to join, and that is how I became a Mason. As far as I know, we’ve nev­er black­balled any­body.” To be viable now and in the future, the orga­ni­za­tion con­tin­ues to reach out to the com­mu­ni­ty. Eigh­teen local orga­ni­za­tions were sup­port­ed with either mon­e­tary dona­tions or use of the Lodge facil­i­ties and equip­ment last year.

On Sun­day, April 7,  Wash­burn Lodge #92 extend­ed a pub­lic invi­ta­tion to all cit­i­zens to see the work that has been done on the build­ing, includ­ing details about what is to come. Ear­ly vis­i­tors enjoyed cof­fee and dough­nuts; a light lunch was served around noon. There were guid­ed tours, led by the broth­ers, who took vis­i­tors through the build­ing and answered questions.

To view a pho­to album of the build­ing and the intend­ed projects, click here.