Wiscasset’s Lincoln Lodge 3 opens to visitors
Visitors to Lincoln Lodge’s open house Dec. 1 included, from left, Sherrie Hersom, Jean Huber, Marge Di Vece, Sheila Sawyer and Linda Lupton. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Lincoln Lodge Worshipful Master David Sawyer, right, will soon pass the gavel to incoming master Ken Boyd of Alna. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Lincoln Lodge #3 on Fort Hill Street, Wiscasset has a newly renovated entrance. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
The meeting room of Lincoln Lodge #3. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Items on display at Lincoln Lodge’s open house included a portrait of Nathaniel Coffin, who supervised construction of the Lincoln County Courthouse in 1824. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Visitors to Lincoln Lodge’s open house Dec. 1 included, from left, Sherrie Hersom, Jean Huber, Marge Di Vece, Sheila Sawyer and Linda Lupton. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Lincoln Lodge Worshipful Master David Sawyer, right, will soon pass the gavel to incoming master Ken Boyd of Alna. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Lincoln Lodge #3 on Fort Hill Street, Wiscasset has a newly renovated entrance. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
The meeting room of Lincoln Lodge #3. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Items on display at Lincoln Lodge’s open house included a portrait of Nathaniel Coffin, who supervised construction of the Lincoln County Courthouse in 1824. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper
Past met present Sunday at Lincoln Lodge #3 on Fort Hill Street, home to Wiscasset area masons. The lodge, in a 1792 building, had an open house.
“The membership was pretty excited for people to come into our lodge and see some of the renovations we’ve done and also some of our historic memorabilia,” said the lodge’s worshipful master, Wiscasset’s David Sawyer. Sawyer said the lodge has called the historic two-story building home since 1919.
“We know from our records the building was constructed ... as a private home in 1792, the same year that the lodge was founded,” said John Blagden. A past lodge master, he now serves as chaplain. Blagden said the town bought the building at some point, and for a time the building was Wiscasset Academy. Much later, the building was a grammar school.
Many of the lodge’s early photographs and documents were on display on the first floor. In one corner was a framed 48-star American flag, a gift to the lodge in 1923 from famed 19th century Artic explorer Donald B. MacMillan. The flag flew on the schooner Bowdoin during one of MacMillan’s trips to Greenland. There were also vintage oil lamps, glassware, books and other items once used for masonic ceremonies. Visitors could take a peek inside the lodge’s vault where the archives are stored; and see the spacious meeting room on the second floor where members meet on the Thursday evening on or before the full moon.
Sawyer will soon pass the gavel to Alna’s Ken Boyd.
The recent renovations included remodeling the front entrance and installing energy-saving windows on the second floor.
The holiday season is a busy time for the masons with their annual cement mixer fundraiser for food pantries, and their second annual Bikes for Books campaign in full swing at Wiscasset Elementary School. By reading books, students earn chances at new bicycles. Last spring, Lincoln Lodge gave away a dozen bicycles in the drawing.
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