Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Delta Lodge 153

Ancient Free and Accepted Masons

Delta Lodge #153

920 Lovell Rd Lovell Maine 04051

In May of 1869, twenty-one Masons for Pythagorean Lodge No 11 of Fryeburg, Maine who lived nearer Lovell, petitioned for dispensation to hold meetings in Lovell, Maine. The dispensation was granted May 5th, 1869 and the first meeting was held June 24th, 1869. At this meeting a committee was appointed to present a draft of By-Laws at the next stated meeting on July 1869. A charter was granted May 4th, 1870 and presented on August 11th, 1870, when a delegation of Grand Officers of The Grand Lodge of Maine, presided over by John H. Lynde, Grand Master, constituted and appointed the following fifteen men a regular lodge of Free and Accepted Masons under the title and designation of "Delta Lodge No 153" to convene within the Town of Lovell.

David B. Byther                    George H. Moore

Stephen E. Wentworth                Isaac E. Stover

Augustus H. Walker                Spencer K. Parker

Marshall Walker                Charles H. Brown

James E. Farrington                Albion Heald

Gardiner Walker                Dean H. Wiley

Joseph L. Parker                Perley Hartford

Barnes Walker

For the first fifty years meetings were held in a rented Lodge room over the village general store. When Delta Lodge was constituted, in order to procure a suitable hall and the necessary furniture, it was obliged to contract a debt of five hundred dollars; the members deemed it prudent to "divest themselves of all pride except the pride of honor" congregating and working on carpeted floors, uncushioned seats, unpapered and unpainted walls, thereby keeping expenses down so that something could be paid on the debt yearly. Not until in January of 1893 was the hall papered, or carpet laid. In 1889, the lodge, never having had a standard Ritual procured one for the first time.

In 1919 the Lodge voted to purchase the Lord Building (so-called) in Lovell Village, and in 1919/1920 the members gave generously of their time and money to prepare the building for occupancy by 1920.

This site is still under construction thank you for looking.