Reading Lodge No. 254
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Reading Lodge No. 254 traces its beginnings to a preliminary meeting held by twenty-three Masonic brothers in December of 1878. They met at the Good Templars’ Hall in the town then known as Reading. The majority of this small group were members of Northern Light Lodge No. 190 in Millville and also Western Star Lodge No. 2 in Shasta.
The town’s earliest name had originally been Redding; named after a prominent official of the railroad company, Mr. Benjamin B. Redding, who had also served as a California Secretary of State. That name, however, only lasted for three years until a State Assembly Bill authored by Assemblyman Klots in 1874 authorized the town’s name change to Reading in honor of Major Pearson B. Reading who was a prominent settler and the recipient of the Buena Ventura land grant in which the town resided. The town’s new name was adopted by the Lodge even in its earliest minutes of the preliminary planning meeting in 1878, and successively through the months that followed up to and including their Charter on October 16, 1879. In 1880, another State Assembly bill, authored by J.S.P. Bass, repealed the Act of 1874, and ever since then the town has been named Redding. The Lodge retained its name of Reading as adopted in its earliest meetings held when the town held the same name. To further add to this little bit of confusion, both names are pronounced “red-ing” and not “reed-ing”.
Reading Lodge No. 254, F. & A. M. received its dispensation on February 22, 1879 signed by Grand Master John Mills Browns, which allowed its members to proceed to do Masonic work and then received its Charter on October 16, 1879. Its first Worshipful Master was Chauncey C. Bush, who later was elected as both the Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge and also as Worthy Grand Patron of the Order of the Eastern Star of California. The first candidate ever raised was Erastus Dickinson in 1879, who later became Master of the Lodge and was the grandfather of two other Past Masters of the Lodge, Russell and Harry Thompson.
The Lodge met for the first ten years in the Good Templars Hall in Redding then moved to the Odd Fellows Hall, which still stands on the corner of Butte and Market Streets. In 1890 the Lodge authorized a committee to form a building association for the purpose of erecting a Masonic Temple in the City of Redding. The first corporation was formed and it acquired land at Market and Tehama Streets in Redding. In the following months, bids were received as well as rejected and the final contract was awarded to a Stockton firm for $27,290. In 1892 the corporation caused to be constructed a combined Lodge and hotel known as the Temple Hotel. Over the next few years many financial problems arose and the Lodge moved back to the Odd Fellows Hall in 1896 and subsequently to Jacobson’s Hall in 1902 which was the second story of a mercantile business owned by Charles Jacobson, a member of the Lodge. The corporation sold the Temple Hotel building in 1905 and dissolved the corporation in 1906.
Another committee of the Lodge in 1907 commenced to establish a new building corporation known as the Shasta Masonic Temple Association with the combined investment assistance of the Royal Arch Chapter and the Eastern Star Chapter. The location of Yuba and Market Streets was selected, purchased and Reading Lodge first met in the “Downtown” Temple in December of 1910. That building was occupied by Reading Lodge and other Masonic Bodies for 61 years. In 1971, an urban renewal project for the City of Redding was cause for the dissolution of that Temple Corporation and the formation of a new corporation known as the Redding Masonic Temple Association which built the 15,000 square foot temple located at 160 Masonic Avenue. The dedicating Grand Master of Masons of California and the Worthy Grand Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star described it as one of the most beautiful in the state and worthy of our support. That building has served its three owners as well as many other Masonic organizations well for 35 years and in efforts to downsize in reality to the size of our fraternity today, was sold in December of 2006. The latest building to house Reading Lodge is just east of the old lodge on Masonic Avenue.
No short history of this Lodge would be complete without the mention of the consolidation of Kennett Lodge in 1925. Kennett was a copper mining town just 15 miles north of Redding. Kennett Lodge was chartered in 1915, but after World War 1 realized a substantial economic decline with the falling price of copper. This relatively young Lodge joined Reading Lodge after the town became less and less of a community as the copper mining industry dwindled. Today the town of Kennett lies well under the waters of Shasta Lake about two miles north of Shasta Dam.
Reading Lodge also made history in 1985 when, after three years of planning and countywide advertising, it hosted the largest gathering of Master Masons in the history of California Masonry with 2,442 Master Masons signing the Tiler’s Register and assembling at the tiled Redding Rodeo Grounds to witness the famous Oklahoma Indian 3rd Degree. Seventeen peace officers tiled the area, with the help of Redding’s Mayor who closed the street and river access for the day, braved the 111-degree heat and together with a committee of over 100 brothers fed and entertained the unbelievable crowd for almost twelve hours. The results of that day – besides unparalleled fraternalism – were good food, excellent entertainment, education, two heart attaches and unification of the entire Redding Masonic Family and a final burning of the Temple Mortgage.
Reading Lodge No. 254 again made history in 1996. A few Grand Masters have had the privilege to make their son a Master Mason; one was Grand Master Charles Alexander (and his entire corps of Grand Officers) who were invited by Reading Lodge No. 254 to put on a 3rd Degree for his son. What made this a historical event is that, unlike his predecessors, M.W. Alexander had no knowledge that the candidate was his son until he was brought into the Lodge room that evening.
Reading Lodge No. 254 notes with admiration and historical interest that five of its members have also served as Mayor of the City of Redding, including Howard Kirkpatrick. Eleven of its Past Masters have been favored with appointments by presiding Grand Masters as Lodge Officers including Myron Tisdel, Loyal Taylor, Michael Sanders, Howard Kirkpatrick and Floyd Prather and three have been elected to serve in the Grand Lodge line, two of whom served as Grand Master. Most Worshipful Gilbert C. DeForest served in 1944 and Most Worshipful Howard D. Kirkpatrick served in 2003.
