RIAtlantic31
Contents
ATLANTIC LODGE #31
Location: X
Chartered By: X
Dispensation Date: date
Charter Date: date
Current Status: status
PAST MASTERS
NOTES
Meeting date: Saturday on or before the full moon
REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS
ANNIVERSARIES
VISITS BY GRAND MASTER
BY-LAW CHANGES
HISTORY
The members of the Masonic Fraternity residing on Block Island were moved during the year 1875 to apply to the Grand Master of Masons in Rhode Island for a Dispensation empowering them to form and open a Masonic Lodge on said island. This petition was favorably received by Grand Master M. W. Bro. Nicholas Van Slyck, and Atlantic Lodge was duly constituted on Wednesday, August 9, 1876.
During the early years of its history, Atlantic Lodge met in apartments that were used by Neptune Lodge, I. O. O. F., but as there came an increase in numbers and resources, the feeling grew strong to obtain a Masonic home for the use of the Lodge. The enterprise of securing such a home was pushed vigorously forward. The corner-stone of the building erected for Masonic uses was laid and this hall dedicated on August 26, 1890.
Atlantic Lodge has had during its life a fair degree of prosperity. It has been obliged, however, to do its work under some limitations. It is a well-known fact that isolated communities, even of considerable size, invariably acquire some peculiarities of manners and speech that serve to distinguish them from larger bodies of people living under conditions that admit of frequent intercourse. The majority of the members of Atlantic Lodge probably have not been inside a Lodge room other than their own, half a dozen times since they were admitted to the Fraternity. Visitors come but infrequently to the Masonic Lodge on Block Island; hence, there is but little opportunity to make comparisons in the work or to improve in Masonic knowledge.
Not withstanding its various limitations and peculiar needs, Atlantic Lodge has maintained a steady and prosperous course. It has expressed a good quality of Freemasonry and afforded ministry of fellowship and benevolence to the brethren associated together under its auspices.
