RIIonic28
Contents
IONIC LODGE #28
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
Ionic Lodge is located in the village of Greene in the western part of the town of Coventry. Until the year 1870 there was no Masonic Lodge in Kent County west of Anthony, where Manchester Lodge No. 12 is situated fourteen miles from the western boundary of Rhode Island. In the year 1869, Bro. Whipple D. Phillips and fifteen other brethren, nearly all members of Manchester Lodge, united in asking for a Dispensation authorizing the establishment of a new Lodge, to be called “Ionic Lodge.” The petition was presented to M. W. Bro. Thomas A. Doyle, then Grand Master, who approved the same and issued a Dispensation under the date of January 15, 1870, authorizing and empowering the petitioners to form and open a new Lodge in the village of Greene, town of Coventry. It was to be designated Ionic Lodge No. 28.
The ceremonies of constituting the new Lodge were preformed in the Baptist Church at Rice City, which is some three miles from the depot and from the hall where the Lodge held its meetings. Grand Master Thomas A. Doyle conducted the services of constituting the new Lodge and installing its officers.
Many changes, however, occurred during this period: several old members went away, a few were dropped from the rolls, and quite a number of new members came into the Lodge. Early in the year 1886, with a membership more than twice as large as at its establishment, the Lodge found it self crowded for room and so was forced to seek better apartments. After considerable search, the brethren were successful in securing a lease on the property know as “Phillips Hall,” originally built and owned by Whipple D. Phillips, the first Master of the Lodge. This building conveniently divided into a suite of rooms, was taken by the Lodge on a long lease and on terms considered very favorable.
Ionic Lodge, by reason of its situation and the limitations to which it is subject, will probably never be numerically prosperous. There are no large towns or villages in the jurisdiction, and the sparseness of population in the surrounding country forbids any very large additions to its membership. It has, however, good financial resources and with the occasional addition of worthy members, seems to be exercising a ministry of considerable usefulness. Its record during all the years since it was constituted is on the whole, bright and creditable and it outlook for the future is not without encouragement. It may hope to have a permanent existence and to be standing at the second Centennial of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island as firmly as does the column from which it takes its name.
