The Masonic Lodge in Brighton, United Lodge No. 29 - Legacy Writ Large
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The Masonic Lodge has been established in Brighton since 1855. The Masonic Temple has been a fixture on Main Street since 1955, serving the role of lodge meeting place as well as an important event venue for the community. Due to declining membership, United Lodge No. 29 sold the property at 153 Main Street and the building has been re-purposes as a multi-unit residence. The lodge itself will carry on and plans to merge with another lodge outside Brighton. However, members of the lodge insisted that an important legacy from the lodge should remain in Brighton, in tangible financial form. In this spirit, the lodge donated $300,000 to the Brian Todd Memorial Community Fund.
Below is the full brochure from the Brian Todd Memorial Community Fund which includes information about the donation, the history of the lodge and the work of the Fund. Feel free to pass this around. |
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| btmcf_brochure_31_jan_2020.pdf |
Lots of information about the history of the Masonic Lodge in Brighton can be seen on the Brighton Digital Archives web site, including portraits of many of the members of the lodge, and two publications about the history of the lodge found in the archives of the lodge when the vault was cleared out in August 2018.
In August 2018 the vault in the Masonic Temple was emptied and Abigail, (middle in this pic) the archivist from the Northumberland County Archives, along with her assistant, Kate (to the right), worked with Michael Hunter, a member of the lodge, to analyse the documents and artifacts with a view to moving some items to the archives in Cobourg. Many important historical documents from the vault, along with some artifacts, are now sitting on the Brighton shelves in the Northumberland County Archives, protected, preserved and catalogued according to an agreement between the county and the municipality.
Volunteers from the Brighton Digital Archives photographed all of the dozens of portraits that were hanging on the walls of the Masonic Wall during the archival project in August 2018. Many of the resulting digital images have been posted to the BDA web site, with more to come. The original portraits were returned to families connected to the subject of the portrait.
I had special interest in the archival project at the Masonic Temple because my grandfather, Lloyd Ames, had been the chair of the Building Committee which organized the construction of the Masonic Temple, opening for its first event in April of 1955. Lloyd Ames was a life-long mason and was very proud of the portrait the lodge presented to him at a banquet in his honour in 1973. It was one of the many portraits photographed by the BDA during the archival project, and now it hangs in my home, with a bit different frame, but a lot of pride and gratitude.
It has been said that Lloyd Ames, among others, would be sad to see their beloved lodge end its long and productive service in Brighton, but I expect he would have been glad to see the archival records and artifacts from the lodge preserved in a safe place and, in the case of the portraits, displayed in places of honour in community homes. I know he would have been delighted that a financial legacy from the building he built and loved would benefit the community for years to come. The legacy of the lodge lives on in Brighton.
It has been said that Lloyd Ames, among others, would be sad to see their beloved lodge end its long and productive service in Brighton, but I expect he would have been glad to see the archival records and artifacts from the lodge preserved in a safe place and, in the case of the portraits, displayed in places of honour in community homes. I know he would have been delighted that a financial legacy from the building he built and loved would benefit the community for years to come. The legacy of the lodge lives on in Brighton.