Masonic Temple (Ferndale, California)
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Masonic Temple (Ferndale, California) | |
 | |
| Location | 212 Francis Street Ferndale, California |
|---|---|
| Built | 1891 |
| Architectural style | Eastlake-Stick |
| Part of | Ferndale Main Street Historic District (ID93001461 [1]) |
| Added to NRHP | 10 January 1994 |
The Masonic Temple in Ferndale, California is located at 212 Francis Street, in an Eastlake-Stick style building built in 1891. The Masonic Hall is a contributing property in the Ferndale Main Street Historic District which was added on 10 January 1994 to the National Register of Historic Places.[1] Ferndale Masonic Lodge Free & Accepted Masons #193 holds meetings in the building.
Charter member and first worshipful master of the Ferndale Lodge for two terms in 1869 and 1870, Seth Louis Shaw (March 23, 1816 – November 23, 1872), was a lifelong Mason, starting in Nashville, Tennessee, where he became a master Mason and later worshipful master of the same lodge.[2] After traveling to California in the Gold Rush, Shaw was one of the charter members of the Humboldt Lodge in Eureka, California before the founding of the Ferndale Lodge.[2]
The Ferndale lodge was chartered on 14 October 1869 by the grand lodge in San Francisco.[3] The earliest meetings of the Ferndale Lodge were held over a store at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Francis Street, now the site of a repurposed gas station.[4] In 1872 Shaw's son, Joseph Armitage Shaw, was worshipful master of the Ferndale Lodge.[2] In 1874 and 1875, the Lodge worked on building a new hall which is now the I.O.O.F. Hall on Main Street.[4]
The most disastrous fire in the town's history, on 6 and 7 September 1875, burned both the store and the hall.[4] All that survived was a ledger and one minute book from 1874.[4] The new hall building that was being built, escaped the flames, but in 1876 the lodge found the cost of the new building too much and sold a half-interest to the Odd Fellows.[4]