Arlington Lodge 58

Arlington Lodge 58. . , In 1775, Prince Hall (a freed slave) and fourteen other African Americans joined Lodge No. 441, Grand Lodge of Ireland (a military lodge in Boston. After the British vacated Boston, the black masons were left with limited powers but desired to spread the tenets of Masonic teachings. Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of England for a charter and received a Warrant for African Lodge No. 459 in 1787. Prince Hall Masons broke ties with England in 1827 and established a Grand Lodge of the United States of North America in 1847. The number of African American fraternal orders surged after Emancipation and proliferated as blacks faced the loss of many political rights towards the end of the nineteenth century. African American lodges nurtured solidarity, fostered self-organization during disenfranchisement and segregation, and offered insurance policies to members who were refused service by white-owned companies. By 1850 there were 4,334 local Prince Hall lodges with the majority located in the southern states., African American masons established The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1875. On April 26, 1888, 21 masons were given dispensation to hold meetings in Alexandria (now Arlington) County. The following year, Arlington Lodge No. 58 consisting of 13 masons was formally established and its officers were installed including: Henry L. Holmes (Worshipful Master), Tipper Allen, S.H. Thompson, James Tunston, John Alexander, Edmund C. Fleet, Sr., Robert E. Smith, Abraham Pinn, and Henry Thomas. These members created and joined numerous other fraternal societies (including the defunct Stevens Lodge No. 1435, Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, 1884) to foster a stronger African American community in Arlington County. For more than a century, Arlington Lodge No. 58 (84 Master Masons as of 2015) has and continues to make charitable contributions to the greater community., Left: Henry Louis Holmes (1855-1905), the first Worshipful Master of Arlington Lodge No. 58, served as Alexandria County's Commissioner of Revenue from 1876 to 1903. He was an alumnus of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, founder of the Butler-Holmes subdivision (now part of Penrose), and a prominent politician. In 1896, the Washington Bee referred to him as "well-known by all representative men of both races.", Center: The 1956 officers of Arlington Lodge No. 58 in Masonic regalia. Several members hold a staff with a badge at the top denoting their role within the lodge., Right: William F. Milton, Jr. (1928-2010) of Arlington Lodge No. 58 is the only member to date to serve as Most Worshipful Grand Master of Prince Hall Masons for Virginia., Arlington Lodge No. 58 held its meetings in Odd Fellows Hall (circled in red) at 1600 Columbia Pike from 1892 to ca. 1960. Odd Fellows Hall suffered substantial damage from a fire in 1965 and was razed. Over 700 individuals buried in the associated African American cemetery to the rear of the lodge were disinterred in 1968. A Sheraton Hotel presently occupies the site. Arlington Lodge No. 58 constructed its first building in Nauck in 1994.