Last month we watched the Mayor, the Marshal, and Councilman Knapp, along with two schoolboys, chase a rebellious pig down Second Street. This month we continue our 19th-century walking tour to the Masonic Hall (#4) at the corner of Avenue C, site of the forgotten outhouse.
The application to organize a Masonic Lodge in Snohomish was made in April 1876, and when approved the following November, it was named “Centennial Lodge No. 25†in celebration of the nation’s centennial year. It was the first Masonic Lodge organized north of Seattle and its charter members are a who’s who of early Snohomish’s founders and business leaders.
The first meetings were held in a room over H. D. Morgan’s saloon that was both noisy and cramped. In 1878, Brother Joseph Getchell sold fellow members a lot across Second Street from his home (that we visited in August), for $100. The Blackman Brothers, also lodge members, built the 30 x 60 foot, two-story structure for $1,850.
News of the sale was published in the Northern Star, January 1, 1879.
Of particular interest to members of the Snohomish Historical Society, 1878 is the year that Hycranus Blackman also built his family home at 118 Avenue B, now the Blackman House Museum.
During the first meeting in May 1879, as related by Stan Dubuque in River Reflections, Part I on page 86 reads:
“A serious shortcoming was discovered by a Brother and the following motion carried unanimously … that contractors build an outhouse and bring the bill into the Lodge.â€
Good thing because the first floor was rented out for County business, including the District Court. Eleven years later, 1891, county offices and records were moved into the new courthouse on Avenue D.
And on April 26, 1958, the Centennial Lodge dedicated its new hall at Sixth and Avenue B, home base to a still active community organization.
Fraternal Lodge face off in 1886 across Avenue C. The roof on the right belongs to the Knapp and Hinkley Livery.
It’s assumed that even the memory of the forgotten outhouse was long gone when the original hall was demolished, and the land sold for the parking lot that it is today.
Masonic Hall, 1903. Lodge members moved into their new hall in May 1879, along with County officers who rented space on the first floor. Facing the afternoon sun, the handsome structure was photograph in 1903, most likely to show off the recent addition to the east that included a kitchen and perhaps an indoor toilet.
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Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, October 17, 2012.