Memories of Life in Downers Grove

Grove Masonic Temple

Chartered on October 14, 1893, the Grove Lodge No. 824 of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois meets at the Grove Masonic Temple at the corner of Curtiss and Washington streets. The lodge motto is to exemplify "a well-grounded hope and a well-spent life" in all daily pursuits.

Freemasonry (or Masonry) is the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world and combines many of the aspects of a charitable institution, a civic club, and a fraternal order.

A history written for the lodge's golden anniversary in 1943 noted that the original lodge in 1893 "represented a cross-section of the small town of scarcely two-thousand population…On the roster were: an editor, a post-master, a doctor, engineers and conductors, farmers, carpenters, grocers, merchants, stock men and clerks, a druggist, a paper-hanger, a publisher, a well digger, a house painter, a station agent, a tin-smith and an accountant. With all their dissimilarity in occupation they found a common ground in their devotion to masonry."

The lodge's charter members included names such as Rapine, Barr, LaSalle, Foster, Mochel, Pancoast, Raby, Carpenter, Pease, Graves, Gourley, Downer, Rogers, Ayer, Brown, Hoffman, Wootton, Wylie, Blanchard, Commons, Smart, Thompson, Beidelman, Jordan, Klein, Heartt, Mather, Rohmer and Godfrey.

The cornerstone of the lodge was donated by Arthur B. Beidelman of Naperville and inscribed by him: "Laid by the Masonic Fraternity, A.L., 5924, A.D. 1924."

Information provided by Ralph E. Gray