The Masons: the lodges as institutions

St. Joseph Lodge No. 45, chartered May 24, 1842 — the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 427 North Main Street

The division, stated: This section carries the Masonic bodies as institutions — their charters, temples, and present state. The rite, the symbolism, and the secrecy tradition belong to the Secret Societies leg of this history and are not duplicated here; what follows is the lodge as a South Bend organization, on the same terms as every other body in this section.

The charters: St. Joseph Lodge No. 45, F. & A. M., is the city's oldest club charter of any kind. The Grand Lodge of Indiana's own lodge record dates its founding to May 24, 1842; Chapman, writing in 1880, adds that the lodge was instituted by charter in 1842 after working two years under dispensation. A second city lodge, South Bend Lodge No. 294, was instituted in 1863 on Chapman's account, and a third, Portage Lodge No. 675, stands in the city's Masonic roster by 1928. The Grand Lodge's listing carries St. Joseph Lodge No. 45 at 427 North Main Street today.

The temples: The 1921 city directory places the city's lodges at the Masonic Temple at the northwest corner of Michigan and LaSalle. In 1924 the Scottish Rite's Valley of South Bend built its cathedral at 427 North Main Street, which stands active; the former Masonic temple beside it is now the home of the South Bend Civic Theatre, as the Library of Congress's caption on the building's photograph records. The Prince Hall side of the city's Masonry stands in the record at survey size: the Indiana Historical Society's landmarks survey names St. Peter's Lodge in South Bend among Indiana's Prince Hall lodges.

Sources:

1. Grand Lodge of Indiana, F. & A. M., lodge record for St. Joseph Lodge No. 45 — founded May 24, 1842; the lodge at 427 N. Main St.
2. Charles C. Chapman & Co., History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1880) — St. Joseph Lodge instituted by charter in 1842 after two years under dispensation; South Bend Lodge No. 294 instituted 1863.
3. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend city directory, 1921 — the lodges at the Masonic Temple, northwest corner of Michigan and LaSalle.
4. Library of Congress, Carol M. Highsmith Archive, caption record — the Scottish Rite Cathedral (1924), 427 N. Main St., and the former Masonic temple as the South Bend Civic Theatre's home.
5. Black History News & Notes, Indiana Historical Society (May 1994) — St. Peter's Lodge, South Bend, in the Prince Hall survey.