History of the Lodge Hall

    This is the Lodge Hall in which meetings have been held the past 134 years.  During the first years of our existence Lodge meeting rooms were hard to come by, and meetings were held in several locations.  The Lodge rented rooms for their meetings from the Sons of Temperance Organization, Warren Parker, and Mr. Holt - all locations unknown.  At one time the Lodge room was above Miller's Drug Store.

 

    Always seeking a better place to meet, the building committees of Wathena Lodge No. 64 and Phoenix Lodge No. 41, I.O.O.F., recommended that their lodges rent the upper floor of the T.M. Hamilton hall.  There was a store front on the ground floor.  The two lodges followed the recommendation of their building committee and in January, 1871, rented and furnished to their satisfaction the upper floor of the hall from Mr. T.M. Hamilton.  We rented from him for 12 years and in 1883 Phoenix Lodge No. 41, I.O.O.F., purchased the building from Mr. Hamilton and we have continued to meet there ever since.