Across Main Street from the Post Office at the southeast corner of Main and Vine Streets is a building that is not all that remarkable in appearance, but it is without a doubt the business structure in Montevallo with the most paradoxical story to tell about its owner and the tenants who have come and gone since it first opened. This is the two-story Masonic lodge building that is owned by Montevallo’s Central Lodge No. 70 of Free and Accepted Masons (F. & A. M.).
The first thing to note about the Masonic building is that it is the only building still standing on Main Street or in the town’s business district whose original owner and occupant has not changed since it went into service. The second thing to note, and what makes the story of this building paradoxical, is that the street level of this building has been home to 10 or more different business houses in its lifetime.
The Masonic lodge, which has occupied the top floor since 1926, has been the only occupant there for 93 years and continues to be today. Conversely, the movement of tenant businesses in and out of the street level, sometimes more than one in a single year, couldn’t have been more frequent and varied.
The building was constructed by the Masonic lodge in 1926 following a fire that destroyed a 100 year old building they had purchased in 1875 following the total destruction of their previous lodge in the famous cyclone of 1874 that wrecked most of the town. The building that burned had previously been Denson’s Mercantile Store and it would be logical to assume that the new 1926 building was constructed on the same site. The lodge building destroyed in the cyclone had been located on the bluff overlooking Shoal Creek above the “Little Spring” and approximately where the city hall is today. Central Lodge No. 70 has been a viable and active Masonic lodge in Montevallo since 1845, three years before the town was first incorporated in 1848.
The photo of the Masonic building’s cornerstone commemorates the founding year of the lodge as well as the year the new building was constructed.
Freemasonry is a worldwide secret fraternal organization that sprang from the ancient trade of stone masonry and extends back to Biblical times. It is known for the degrees of achievement its members attain over time, its pageantry, and indulgence in arcane ancient ritual. Membership is restricted to men but female associates of the Masons may belong to an auxiliary organization called the Eastern Star. The teachings of freemasonry enjoin morality, charity, and obedience to the law of the land and, although not a Christian institution per se, all applicants must also believe in the existence of a Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul. Estimates of the worldwide membership in the early 21st century ranged from about two million to more than six million.
The “square and compasses” image you see carved into the center of the cornerstone represents architects’ tools and is the universal symbol for Freemasonry. The “G” is there to remind Masons that Geometry and Freemasonry are synonymous terms described as being the “noblest of sciences,” and “the basis upon which the superstructure of Freemasonry and everything in existence in the entire universe is erected. In this context, it can also be a non-denominational reference to the “Great Architect of the Universe.”
Masonic lodges spread widely within the British Empire and have played an important role in the lives of small town male citizens in Alabama since the earliest days of settlement. Respected and influential businessmen, educators, and elected officials everywhere were active and committed members and earned positions of prominence within the hierarchy of their respective lodges. In the Montevallo area there were also lodges in the mining communities, such as Boothton and Piper, as well as in nearby Calera and Siluria, and the small Bibb County town of Randolph on the railroad south of Brierfield.
The leader of a Masonic Lodge is the “Worshipful Master.” In Montevallo: the First 100 Years, Eloise Meroney listed every Worshipful Master who held the position from 1845 until 1916. Among them were future Alabama governor, Rufus, W. Cobb; owner of Montevallo Mining Co., William F. Aldrich; local physician, Dr. James W. Acker; Mr. Aldrich’s partner, James L. McConaughy; Francis M. Peterson, second president of Alabama Girls Industrial School; Charles L. Meroney, owner of Meroney Mercantile; attorney and mayor, E.S. Lyman; T.W. Palmer, president of Alabama College; and E.H. Wills, business manager of the college.
Central Lodge No. 70, while not the busy and influential social order for local men that it was in the early to mid-20th century, remains a viable organization today and continues to hold its secret bi-monthly gatherings upstairs in the building on Main Street it built and where it has been based for almost 100 years.
(Mike Mahan included a chapter about the Montevallo Masonic Lodge and his father’s involvement in it in his memoir, “No Hill Too High for a Stepper” – chapter 24, page 281. The book can be ordered through www.newsouthbooks.com)
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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