The History of Winona Lodge No. 18

For more than 170 years, the history of Winona Lodge No. 18 has been closely intertwined with the history of Winona itself.

From meetings in the young city's businesses, to specially built rooms above the Old Post Office Block, to one of Minnesota's most remarkable Masonic temples, and finally to our present home on West Fifth Street, generations of Freemasons have gathered in Winona for fellowship, charity, education, ritual and service to their community.

The Beginning: 1855–1857

The Grand Lodge of Minnesota was established in 1853 by the three Masonic lodges then operating in Stillwater, St. Paul and St. Anthony.

Only two years later, in 1855, a dispensation was granted to establish a Masonic lodge in Winona. At the time, Winona was still a small Mississippi River settlement with a population of approximately 350.

In January 1857, Winona Lodge No. 18 received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. That same year, Winona was incorporated as a city. Masonry and the community would grow together; within only a few years, Winona's population had increased to approximately 3,000.

The Early Years

Winona Lodge did not begin with a grand temple—or even a permanent lodge room.

For its first several years, members met in various buildings around the growing community, frequently in places of business belonging to Lodge members.

By 1862, the Lodge was meeting in the Stevens Building.

Other branches of Freemasonry soon became established in Winona. Royal Arch Masonry and Knights Templar Masonry appeared during the 1860s, beginning what would become a much larger family of Masonic organizations in the community.

The Old Post Office Block

A major step came in 1873, when Winona's Masons moved into specially designed quarters on the third floor of what Lodge history remembers as the Old Post Office Block, associated with the Laird Norton Lumber Company Building.

The third floor had been designed and fitted according to the Masons' specifications. For the first time, Winona's Masonic bodies had substantial quarters created expressly for their use.

For more than three decades, those rooms became the center of Masonic activity in Winona.

Winona Lodge No. 18 met there as the city's other Masonic bodies grew around it. And it was there, near the end of the nineteenth century, that another important chapter of Winona's Masonic history began.

Scottish Rite Comes to Winona

In 1898, a group of Scottish Rite Masons began organizing Scottish Rite bodies in Winona. The Winona Lodge of Perfection was formed that year, and additional bodies soon followed.

On October 20, 1899, the Scottish Rite organization that became known as the Valley of Winona received its charter.

Scottish Rite Masonry drew members to Winona from throughout southern Minnesota. Its elaborate degrees also required considerably more than an ordinary lodge room could provide. Costumes, props, music, theatrical scenery and dramatic presentations all became part of the ritual experience.

The Post Office Block that had served Winona's Masons so well since 1873 was increasingly inadequate for the growing fraternity.

The Masonic Family Grows

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Freemasonry in Winona had become much more than Winona Lodge No. 18.

Blue Lodge Masonry was joined by Royal Arch Masonry, Knights Templar and Scottish Rite, while other organizations broadened participation in the Masonic family.

In 1900, Winona Chapter No. 141, Order of the Eastern Star, was established. Eastern Star provided an opportunity for women as well as Master Masons to participate in a Masonic-affiliated organization. 

Over the decades, Job's Daughters and DeMolay would provide opportunities for younger generations, while the Shrine became another important and enduring part of Winona's Masonic community.

Together, these organizations made Masonry not simply a fraternity but, for many families, a multigenerational part of life in Winona.

Building a Permanent Masonic Home

By 1906, Winona's Masons were ready to create a permanent home equal to the growth of the fraternity.

On April 10, 1906, Winona Lodge No. 18 formed the Winona Masonic Benevolent Association (WMBA) which still exists today. Its mission included promoting charitable, social and cultural activities as well as planning, constructing and maintaining a permanent Masonic Temple.

At the time, Winona Lodge was still meeting on the third floor of the Old Post Office Block.

On May 26, 1906, the WMBA purchased a parcel of land, then occupied by a house and barn, for $9,000.

The Chicago architectural firm Huehl & Schmidt was initially selected to design the new building. After more than a year of collaboration, however, projected construction costs exceeded the available budget.

In August 1908, the project was reassigned to Philadelphia architects Warren Powers Laird and C.F. Osborne. Within approximately two months, a new design had been completed.

Local contractor John Lohse was hired to construct the Temple at a projected cost of $40,050.

On November 21, 1908, a large cornerstone bearing the Square and Compasses was ceremonially laid.

Prominent Winona architect Charles G. Maybury served as Superintendent of Construction, helping oversee creation of the imposing new Beaux-Arts Masonic Temple. The surviving building remains notable for its classical architectural details and its extraordinary auditorium.

A Remarkable Masonic Theatre

The centerpiece of the new Temple was its enormous two-story lodge room and auditorium.

This was far more than an ordinary meeting hall.

The auditorium incorporated a fully equipped theatrical stage with a proscenium arch, fly loft, stage machinery and electrical equipment. The stage was designed particularly for the elaborate degree presentations of the Scottish and York Rites.

The Winona Masonic Benevolent Association commissioned the renowned Sosman & Landis Scene Painting Studios of Chicago to create an extraordinary collection of theatrical scenery.

The original collection consisted of 98 hand-painted scenic drops capable of creating 59 different settings.

Individual pieces could be combined and layered, transforming the stage into forests, rivers, architectural interiors, ancient settings and symbolic landscapes.

The scenery was not simply decoration.

In the Masonic degree work of the period, ritual, scenery, lighting, music, costumes and theatrical presentation worked together to illustrate the moral and philosophical lessons of the degrees.

Music was equally important. Weikhardt organ, purchased in 1910 for approximately $13,000, added another dimension to ceremonies in the new Temple.

The Temple Opens

Construction was completed in December 1909.

On January 7, 1910, the first Scottish Rite meeting was held in the new facility.

The Scottish Rite presence in Winona had grown dramatically. What had begun with approximately 15 members had grown to roughly 400 by the time the new Temple opened.

Among the notable Masons associated with the Winona Scottish Rite during this period was Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.

The magnificent new Temple was alive with Masonic activity.

But it would never be simply a private meeting place for Masons.

A Center of Community Life

The Winona Masonic Temple quickly became an important social and cultural center for the entire city.

Its ballroom could accommodate approximately 600 people, and the building hosted Masonic gatherings, banquets, dances, charitable events, lectures, political speeches, regional conferences and other civic activities.

The Acacia Club held community dances there. Scottish Rite reunions brought Masons and their families to Winona from communities throughout southern Minnesota.

The Temple also opened its doors when the community needed help.

Following the 1922 fire at the State Teachers College, later to become Winona State University, the Temple provided temporary accommodations. It again assisted the community following the 1946 fire that destroyed Winona's YMCA building.

The Temple had become something more than the headquarters of Winona's Masonic organizations.

It had become part of the civic life of Winona.

Generations of the Masonic Family

Throughout the twentieth century, the Temple served a broad Masonic family.

Winona Lodge No. 18 remained at its center, joined at various times by York Rite bodies, the Scottish Rite, Order of the Eastern Star, Shrine and Masonic youth organizations including Job's Daughters and DeMolay.

For generations of Winona families, the Masonic Temple wasn't simply somewhere men went for Lodge meetings.

It was a place where families gathered, young people participated, friendships developed, charitable work was organized, ceremonies were conducted and the larger community was welcomed through its doors.

The Winona Shrine became an important part of that tradition and remains active today.

Changing Times

Beginning in the 1930s, participation in American fraternal organizations began to change.

The Winona Temple weathered those changes better than many because it remained the regional headquarters of the Scottish Rite. During World War II and the decades that followed, the building continued to host Masonic, patriotic, charitable and community activities.

Over succeeding decades, however, membership patterns changed and maintaining such an enormous facility became increasingly challenging.

Then, in 1978, came one of the most consequential changes in the Temple's history.

From the Valley of Winona to the Valley of Rochester

In 1978, the Scottish Rite moved its southern Minnesota headquarters from Winona to Rochester.

The organization originally chartered as the Valley of Winona on October 20, 1899 became the Valley of Rochester in 1978.

Today's Rochester Valley Scottish Rite therefore directly continues the organization that had called Winona home for nearly eight decades.

Costumes and movable ritual equipment went to Rochester.

The great stage, its machinery and Winona's extraordinary collection of Sosman & Landis scenery, however, remained in Winona. The Minnesota Historical Society confirms that the Scottish Rite moved in 1978 and that the valuable scenery remained in the Temple.

The departure of the Scottish Rite fundamentally changed the use and economics of the enormous building.

The City of Winona Takes Ownership

In 1979, one year after the Scottish Rite moved to Rochester, the Winona Masonic Benevolent Association sold the Temple to the City of Winona.

The City remodeled the first floor for use as a senior center, while Winona Lodge No. 18 continued leasing and using the second and third floors.

This arrangement allowed the historic building to continue serving both Masonry and the wider Winona community.

And above the stage, the great collection of Masonic scenery remained.

National Recognition

By the end of the twentieth century, the significance of the Temple, and particularly its extraordinary Masonic theatre, was receiving broader recognition.

The Temple was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its importance to Winona's social history and for the artistic significance of its theatrical scenery.

The National Register nomination described the 98 hand-painted Sosman & Landis drops as the largest of only two surviving collections of their kind in Minnesota and noted the survival of much of the original mechanical and electrical stage equipment.

The nomination was prepared in 1997, and the Winona Masonic Temple was formally added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 1998.

The designation recognized something generations of Winona Masons already understood:

The Temple represented not only Masonic history, but an important part of the artistic, social and civic history of Winona.

Preserving the Historic Scenery

The Sosman & Landis scenery remained in Winona long after the Scottish Rite departed.

By the twenty-first century, however, preserving nearly one hundred enormous pieces of century-old theatrical scenery presented substantial challenges.

The collection was carefully documented, removed from its original positions and stored while decisions were made about the future of the historic theatre and its scenery.

Rather than allowing the entire collection to disappear, the City of Winona and the Winona Fine Arts Commission selected representative pieces to remain in the community.

The City ultimately retained 13 distinct historic pieces representing 10 complete or partial scenes.

Among the material selected for preservation were portions of the elaborate Landscape Scene, the dramatic Hades/Demon Scene, the River Scene, and King Solomon's Apartment.

King Solomon's Apartment has particular significance to the Masonic history of the collection: unlike a generic theatrical landscape, it preserves a direct visual connection with the ritual purposes for which the scenery was originally created.

The retained scenery subsequently underwent restoration, preserving representative pieces of the remarkable collection in the community where they had been used for generations.

The Scenery Finds Another Masonic Home

The remainder of the available scenery was offered for sale in late 2017.

Much of it would ultimately find another Masonic home.

The successful bidder was the Des Moines Scottish Rite Consistory in Iowa.

Des Moines Scottish Rite purchased 73 hand-painted scenic drops and 34 scene pieces, along with associated hardware from the historic Sosman & Landis collection.

The scenery was transported to Des Moines in early 2018.

There is something particularly fitting about that outcome.

Created for Scottish Rite degree work in Winona beginning in 1909, the scenery remained behind when the Valley of Winona moved to Rochester in 1978. Nearly forty years later, much of it once again became the property of a Scottish Rite Valley this time in Des Moines.

Meanwhile, representative examples remained in Winona.

Thus, more than a century after Sosman & Landis created them, portions of Winona's extraordinary Masonic scenery survive both in the community for which they were painted and within the fraternity for which they were originally intended.

A New Home for Winona Lodge No. 18

Meanwhile, Winona Lodge itself was preparing for another major transition.

After generations in the downtown Masonic Temple, Winona Lodge No. 18 moved in 2018 to its present home at 926 West Fifth Street.

The smaller building gave the Lodge a dedicated Masonic home better suited to its contemporary needs and provided meeting space for affiliated Masonic organizations.

Leaving the great Temple represented a profound change.

But Winona Lodge did not leave behind the traditions of fellowship, charity and community service that had developed there.

It simply began another chapter.

The Order of the Eastern Star Today

The Order of the Eastern Star has been part of Winona's Masonic history since 1900.

Historically, Winona Chapter No. 141 was part of the Masonic community associated with Winona and the old Temple.

The Eastern Star chapter meeting at Winona Lodge today, however, has a somewhat different lineage.

Winona Chapter eventually merged with Pickwick Chapter, with the surviving organization retaining the Pickwick identity. Pickwick Chapter now meets at Winona Lodge's West Fifth Street building.

That distinction is important to preserving the history accurately.

Today's Eastern Star presence continues the area's long OES tradition, but it should not simply be described as Winona Chapter No. 141 moving from the old Temple to West Fifth Street.

The Winona Shrine

The Winona Shrine also remains part of Winona's active Masonic family.

Shriners are Master Masons, and Winona's Shrine members have long combined fellowship with charitable and community activities.

Today, the Shrine continues its relationship with Winona Lodge, including the annual 100 Miles of Garage Sales, held in support of the Winona Shrine.

The Shrine therefore provides another living connection between the broader Masonic family that surrounded Winona Lodge during the twentieth century and the Masonic community that remains active in Winona today.

Winona Lodge No. 18 Today

More than 170 years after the first efforts to establish a Masonic lodge in Winona, Winona Lodge No. 18 remains active.

Its surroundings are very different from those known by the Masons who gathered in local businesses during the 1850s.

The Lodge no longer meets above the Old Post Office Block.

The magnificent downtown Temple is no longer owned by the fraternity.

The Scottish Rite Valley that once brought hundreds of Masons to Winona now calls Rochester home.

Some of the Masonic organizations that once filled the Temple's rooms no longer exist locally.

But others remain, and the fundamental purpose of Winona Lodge continues.

Today, the Lodge's home at 926 West Fifth Street provides a place for Freemasonry and affiliated Masonic organizations while continuing a tradition of fellowship, charity and service to the Winona community.

That community involvement includes the Winona Shrine's 100 Miles of Garage Sales and Winona Lodge's annual “It's Not Just Turkey” Community Dinner.

The buildings have changed.

The organizations surrounding the Lodge have changed.

Generations of members have come and gone.

But the thread connecting them remains.

From a frontier community of approximately 350 people in 1855, to meetings above the Old Post Office Block, through the magnificent Masonic Temple of 1909, and finally to our present home on West Fifth Street, Winona Lodge No. 18 has been part of the story of Winona for more than 170 years.