History of Orient Lodge No. 62
from 50th Anniversary of Dedication of the Orient Lodge Masonic Temple
Friday, October 5, 1962

On September 21, 1892 Worshipful Brother William J. Riley advocated the project of building a Masonic Temple.

On February 1, 1899 Worshipful Brother E. W. Pratt then a member of the General Assembly was authorized to secure the incorporation of a Masonic Hall Association.

On February 7, 1906 a building committee was appointed to study ways, means and plans looking to the erection of a Lodge Home.

On June 20, 1906 a Building Fund was established and solicitation of funds began, as a result of which more than $6000.00 was raised. St. John’s Lodge No. 4 of Hartford showed its fraternal regard by a gift of $25.00 to our building fund. In the endeavor to swell the fund, Orient Lodge held a Masonic concert & ball at Comstock Hall on November 18, 1910. It was largely attended and netted $300.00 for the fund.

On February 15, 1911, the East Hartford Masonic Hall Association was formed and it thereafter assumed the duties of the former building committee.

On March 1, 1911, the Lodge authorized the purchase of the present site, then known as the “Raymond Property” and on April 8, 1911, plans were approved for the adaptation of the building then standing on the site for the use of the Lodge at a substantial cost.

The active interest of the brethren had been aroused to highest pitch. The Temple building project had gone beyond the stage of “castles in the air”, the Craft saw the Temple of their dreams visibly fashioned into form, and all felt the urge to give or do something; and so it came about that on the 27th of April and the Ist of May 1912, a “grading bee” was called for, and the able bodied Craft were invited to the Temple-site with their shovels and teams. A host of willing workers responded with such good effect that our grounds were fashioned into their present attractive form in record time.

Orient Temple is the result of many years of hopeful dreaming on the part of our optimistic brethren and the practical leadership of our master spirits working in harmony for the consummation of the plan. Its Architect was Mr. Lester H. King; its builder, Brother Carl F. Dean; and the contract was entered into between them and our Masonic Hall Association, and was so far completed that on September 4, 1912, the new Temple was formerly turned over to the Lodge by the Association. A committee having been appointed on the dedication of the Temple, on October 5, 1912 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the dedication ceremonies were conducted in behalf of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut by Grand Master Justin Holden, Deputy Grand Master Asa P. Fitch and Grand Chaplain Frederick W. Coleman, followed by a reception to the general public in the evening, with orchestra music and refreshments.

Upon the cessation of the trouble on the Mexican border, Orient Lodge offered its hall for the use in a public reception to soldiers returning from Nogales, Arizona.
During the year of 1915 our High School Building having burned to the ground the use of Orient Temple was given gratis to the Town School committee for school purposes. On May 21, 1922 Odd Fellows Hall was burned and the Odd Fellows and Rebeccas were invited to use the Temple until their building was rebuilt. In December 1941, when the U. S. Army moved Anti-Aircraft Units into this area part of our Temple was turned over to the Army to be used as temporary quarters for some of the personnel.

On April 19, 1944, a letter was received from The Groton Savings Bank stating that the mortgage had been paid in full. This mortgage was taken during the period of bank failures in 1933 when the funds of the Lodge were frozen by the closing of the local bank. At the Annual Roll Call Banquet held on November 3, 1944 the mortgage was burned.

Time runs, today as of old, with deliberation; but, with the wizard aid of science developed in myriad forms, and the confusing illusions of modern life, we are moving at a pace so fast as to out, strip time and space. We lose sight of many of the simpler and purer phases of human work and destiny that truly enriched the characters of our elder brethren. Our situation seems almost in reverse of theirs; for their work was heavy, but their burden light; while our work is light, but our burden is very heavy; for we bear the burden of greater opportunity to display Masonic principles among great and oft’ fretful throngs, who are prone to lay the blame for hard conditions on anybody but themselves. It is our burden to show the World that by our good works it may know us and believe in the redeeming principles we profess and try to practice.