A Masonic Lodge, Lounsbury Lodge #751 A.F. & A.M. was instituted September 2, 1877 and was named for Mr. George Lounsbury who was Grand Master of Masons in Illinois in 1874 and 1875. A charter was granted October 4, 1877 to the following Master Masons after whose names is given to the office to which each was elected or appointed:
Edgar Isbell - Worshipful Master
Charles Jamison - Senior Warden
George B. Stevens - Junior Warden
Henry G. (Luke) Willmarth - Treasurer
Leroy Powers - Secretary
John W. White - Senior Deacon
Albert G. Gleason - Junior Deacon
Robert Purcell - Senior Steward
Charles T. Miller - Junior Steward
Charles B. Otis - Tyler
Parris Sinnett, George Ela, George Ohnsman, Hiram N. Lombard, Leonard Ingalls, George W. Gillson, A.M. Whadon, W.A. Loomis, William H. Loomis, Thomas Blakey, John F. Skinner, George Burlingham, Joseph P. Brown.
Their first meeting place was probably over Hank Abbott's Drug Store at 111 South Cook Street. August W. Meyer built a two-story brick store building in the cattail pond at the northeast corner of Hough and Main Streets and this lodge occupied the northeast corner of the floor, the Vemilya Hotel occupying the rest of the floor until the fire of 1898 broke out in the store (no water works or fire department as yet) and the whole block burned out. No property of the Masonic Lodge was saved and all records were burned.
Their next home was on the third floor of the Commercial Hotel at 232 East Main Street. From there they moved to the second floor over the Schroeder Hardware Company at the southwest corner of Cook and Station. There a new chapter was written in their history. They wanted a hall of their own posession and to put their outgoing rent into a home which they could arrange and occupy according to their needs and taste.
A Masonic building Corporation was organized, composed and officerized by the members of the lodge. So in 1931 they bought from the Methodist Society the former church building on South Cook Street. The tall steeple which graced the northeast corner and the shorter one at the southeast corner and its colored windows were of the English Gothic style. After its belfry was twice struck by lightning and rebuilt, both steeples were removed. The members did much of their own work of every kind in remodeling and refurbishing. After a very few years of good management, the last obligation on the purchase of the property was paid off. They have a large membership which includes many fifty-year members.
Edgar Isbell - Worshipful Master
Charles Jamison - Senior Warden
George B. Stevens - Junior Warden
Henry G. (Luke) Willmarth - Treasurer
Leroy Powers - Secretary
John W. White - Senior Deacon
Albert G. Gleason - Junior Deacon
Robert Purcell - Senior Steward
Charles T. Miller - Junior Steward
Charles B. Otis - Tyler
Parris Sinnett, George Ela, George Ohnsman, Hiram N. Lombard, Leonard Ingalls, George W. Gillson, A.M. Whadon, W.A. Loomis, William H. Loomis, Thomas Blakey, John F. Skinner, George Burlingham, Joseph P. Brown.
Their first meeting place was probably over Hank Abbott's Drug Store at 111 South Cook Street. August W. Meyer built a two-story brick store building in the cattail pond at the northeast corner of Hough and Main Streets and this lodge occupied the northeast corner of the floor, the Vemilya Hotel occupying the rest of the floor until the fire of 1898 broke out in the store (no water works or fire department as yet) and the whole block burned out. No property of the Masonic Lodge was saved and all records were burned.
Their next home was on the third floor of the Commercial Hotel at 232 East Main Street. From there they moved to the second floor over the Schroeder Hardware Company at the southwest corner of Cook and Station. There a new chapter was written in their history. They wanted a hall of their own posession and to put their outgoing rent into a home which they could arrange and occupy according to their needs and taste.
A Masonic building Corporation was organized, composed and officerized by the members of the lodge. So in 1931 they bought from the Methodist Society the former church building on South Cook Street. The tall steeple which graced the northeast corner and the shorter one at the southeast corner and its colored windows were of the English Gothic style. After its belfry was twice struck by lightning and rebuilt, both steeples were removed. The members did much of their own work of every kind in remodeling and refurbishing. After a very few years of good management, the last obligation on the purchase of the property was paid off. They have a large membership which includes many fifty-year members.