RITSWebb43
Contents
THOMAS SMITH WEBB LODGE #43
Location: X
Chartered By: X
Dispensation Date: date
Charter Date: date
Current Status: status
NOTES
Meeting date: Fourth Tuesday
PAST MASTERS
REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS
ANNIVERSARIES
VISITS BY GRAND MASTER
BY-LAW CHANGES
HISTORY
In July, 1927, a group of twenty-five Master Masons petitioned the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island for a Dispensation to form a new Lodge in Providence, to be known as Thomas Smith Webb Lodge, in recognition of Thomas Smith Webb’s many and valuable services to Freemasonry in general and to the Fraternity in Rhode Island in particular.
On July 28, 1927, the Grand Master, Most Worshipful Winfield Scott Solomon, sent a letter to the twenty-five petitioners and thereby called a meeting on August 2, 1927, to be held in the Board of Directors' Room in the Chamber of Commerce building, the same building in which Thomas Smith Webb had met with St. John's Lodge and St. John's Commandery. The building was known at that time as the Market House. A reproduction of the façade of this building is embroidered on the Past Master’s Apron of this Lodge and forms a part of the Past Master’s Jewel.
On August 25, 1927, Grand Master Solomon granted a Dispensation for the formation of Thomas Smith Webb Lodge No. 43. This was announced at the second meeting of the petitioners on September 1, 1927. The Charter of the Lodge was granted on May 21, 1928.
The first stated communication of Thomas Smith Webb Lodge, U. D., was held on September 9, 1927 in the Chamber of Commerce building at which time seven petitions received clear ballots. At the second stated communication, held in Adelphoi Hall on October 14th, the Entered Apprentice Degree was conferred on five candidates, and nine new petitions were received. At this communication, the Holy Bible was presented by the Worshipful master, William L. Sweet, and the Flag by Overseas Lodge, the presentation being made by Brother C. Hector Feltham as Senior Warden of that Lodge.
During the fourteen months from the granting of the Dispensation for the formation of the Lodge to the first Annual Communication, twelve regular and seven special communications were held. The Lodge received seventy-three petitions, rejected one, failed to obtain release on three, initiated fifty-one, passed thirty-nine, raised thirty-nine, admitted thirty-seven and gained five by affiliation, and at the end of this period had a total of seventy-two members, including four honorary members.
In 1960, an organization known as the Thomas Smith Webb Traveler’s Club as formed. All members of the Lodge were admitted automatically into this club, the purposes of which are both charitable and social.
The Lodge continued to meet in Adelphoi Hall from November 1928 until June 1949, except for the first three meetings in the Fall of 1945, when it met in the small lodge room in the Masonic Temple on Dorrance Street.
Following the termination of Adelphoi Hall as a Masonic meeting room in the summer of 1949, Thomas Smith Webb Lodge held its meetings for the next two years in the Rising Sun Temple, East Providence.
In September, 1951, the Lodge moved to Doric Temple, Cranston, and has held all subsequent communications in that Temple. (1976)
