RIMtVernon4
Contents
LODGE
Location: X
Chartered By: X
Dispensation Date: date
Charter Date: date
Current Status: status
NOTES
Meeting date: First Thursday
PAST MASTERS
REFERENCES IN GRAND LODGE PROCEEDINGS
ANNIVERSARIES
VISITS BY GRAND MASTER
BY-LAW CHANGES
HISTORY
Mount Vernon Lodge No. 4 was founded in 1799 by ten brothers of St. John's Lodge No. 1, Providence. The first meeting was held on January 21st in the Council Room of the Old State House on Benefit Street, Providence. Each Charter member loaned five dollars with which to buy necessary jewels. The first Master was Amos Maine Atwell. He served for 10 years.
The Lodge has changed location six times and now meets in the former Washington Lodge No. 5 Temple in North Kingstown. Occupancy of the first Freemason’s Hall on Dorrance Street was temporarily terminated on March 19, 1896, when a fire totally destroyed the entire building and its contents.
Seventeen Mount Vernon brothers served in World War I and thirty-four in World War II. All were awarded life memberships.
Largest memberships were during the 1920’s. At one time in that period it was over 1200. A Charity Fund, started in 1920, reached $25,000, of which only the interest was used.
The hurricane of 1938 flooded downtown safe deposit boxes, and all papers of Mount Vernon Lodge and other local Masonic bodies therein had to be dried out by hand.
In 1902 bronze medals were awarded for twenty-five-year memberships, and in 1909 Silver Medals were awarded for fifty-year memberships. Mount Vernon has been honored by having 10 Grand Masters.
Mount Vernon ritual work has received praise even beyond the borders of our state, and its charity work has made many lives easier during emergencies.
