The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building, at 123-125 North Market in

Benton, Arkansas Benton is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Arkansas, United States and a suburb of Little Rock. It was established in 1837. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 30,681. In 2019 the population was estimated at 36,820. ...

, is a historic building that served as an

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...

meeting hall. E. Y. Stinson built the building in 1913 on land purchased from Saline Odd Fellows Lodge No. 174; the Odd Fellows bought the building back the following year. The Odd Fellows used the second floor of the building as a meeting hall; the ground floor was sold to a hardware store, as Odd Fellows lodges were discouraged from meeting on the ground floor of a building. During its time in the building, the Odd Fellows Lodge included several prominent local businessmen and politicians as members, including a Saline County sheriff. The lodge was also responsible for hosting major Benton social events, such as

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

picnics. The lodge's membership began to decline during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and it sold the building in 1971. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004.

References

Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Buildings and structures in Saline County, Arkansas Buildings designated early commercial in the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Odd Fellows buildings in Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Saline County, Arkansas Benton, Arkansas {{SalineCountyAR-NRHP-stub