The Grand Lodge of Kentucky is one of two state organizations that supervise

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

lodge Lodge is originally a term for a relatively small building, often associated with a larger one. Lodge or The Lodge may refer to: Buildings and structures Specific * The Lodge (Australia), the official Canberra residence of the Prime Ministe ...

s in the state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. It was established in 1800. The

Grand Lodge of Virginia The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia, commonly known as "Grand Lodge of Virginia", claims to be the oldest independent masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins ...

(GLVA) established Lexington Lodge #25, the first Masonic lodge west of the

Alleghany Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountains, Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to lan ...

, in what is now

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

, on November 17, 1788. GLVA established other lodges in Frankfort, Georgetown,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and Shelbyville. The process to separate from the GLVA started on September 8, 1800, and was completed to form the Grand Lodge of Kentucky on October 16, 1800; the first Grand Master was William Murray. Half of the original Grand Officers were from the Lexington Lodge, which was renumbered to Lexington #1. Members of Lexington Lodge #1 would include

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...

. By the 1820s, the 55 Lodges in

had a combined membership of 1800. However, the tide of

Anti-Masonry Anti-Masonry (alternatively called anti-Freemasonry) is "avowed opposition to Freemasonry",''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1979 ed.), p. 369. which has led to multiple forms of religious discrimination, violent persecution, and suppression in so ...

caused a reduction to only 1300 members in 37 lodges by 1840.Kleber (1994) pg. 358. Membership in the 20th century was 100,675 in 479 lodges in 1961, and 83,000 in 457 lodges by the end of June 1989. By 2012, membership had fallen below 48,000. According to the 2020 edition of List of Lodges Masonic, membership had further fallen to 33,536 in that year, with only 351 active lodges. A Grand Hall for the Grand Lodge was completed in Lexington on October 26, 1826, after plans for it started in 1813 and begun in 1824. While being built, the Grand Lodge was blessed to meet with fellow Freemason

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...

in 1825. Also among the notable events of the building was use as a hospital during a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak in 1833, as well as the only two Indian Masons received in Lexington. After three years of discussion, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge were moved to Louisville in 1833. After the Grand Hall was destroyed by fire on 1837. When a new Grand Hall was built on the site of the original on September 1, 1841, the Grand Lodge returned to Lexington until 1858, when it returned to Louisville, where the headquarters remains to this day. After the Anti-Masonic movement petered out, the Grand Lodge founded several institutions. In 1841 the

Masonic University The Masonic University was an educational facility operated by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky in La Grange, Kentucky, located twenty miles northeast of Louisville, in the mid-nineteenth century. Among its faculty was Kentucky Chief Jurist and Confed ...

was started in La Grange, but it closed in 1881. The Grand Lodge later founded an Old Masons' Home in Shelbyville in 1901, and a Masonic Widows and Orphans Home in Louisville in 1867, due to the number of widows and orphans caused by the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the ensuing

Spanish influenza The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

outbreak caused overcrowding, and a larger orphan's home was constructed at the present-day location (the Saint Matthews area of Louisville), with residents moving to it in 1926. The largest concentration of orphans at the home was 632 in 1930. The last orphan left in 1989, resulting in the home being solely for senior care. Both now accept residents who do not have Masonic connections.Grand Lodge of Kentucky Free & Accepted Masons
Masonic Homes KY
The Home is the oldest Masonic foundation in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

.Kleber, John E. ''The Encyclopedia of Louisville''. (University Press of Kentucky, 2001). pg.593.

Gallery

Image:Masonic Widows and Orphans Home 2.JPG, Masonic Widows and Orphans Home

References

Bibliography

External links

Official SiteMasonic Homes of Kentucky
{{Grand Lodges in the United States

Organizations based in Kentucky Freemasonry in the United States 1800 establishments in Kentucky Organizations established in 1800