1850 Monroe Corporation

    Few Masons have ever heard of the Monroe Corporation.  No. 1, Royal Arch Masons of the City of Detroit and yet this Corporation occupied one of the most important pages of the history of Masonry in Detroit.  It is important for a multitude of reasons, the chief of which are that it erected the first Masonic Temple in Detroit, for thirty years provided at a minimum of cost a home for Detroit Masonry and served as the annual place of meeting for Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter for more than a score of years, or until it became too small.

    That there was an urgent need for the erection of a Hall which could be used exclusively for Masonic purposes is evident from remarks made by Leander Farnsworth, shoe merchant of the period, who was made a Mason in Detroit Lodge No. 2 in 1843.  Brother Farnsworth states, "The Lodge room was located in the old Newberry Building on Jefferson Avenue.... It was a big bare place of which the chief ornament was a great iron stove weighing, perhaps 1,500 pounds."  The building had been the scene of a fire and while the first floor had apparently been reconditioned, the room in which the Masons met had received little attention and thus it was that the bodies were desperately anxious to find newer and better quarters.

    Enactment making possible the incorporation of Monroe Chapter was consummated March 28, 1850 and was filed with Wayne County Clerk, March 14, 1851.  The new Corporation then on May 1, 1851 entered into an agreement with Joseph Campau, a devout Roman Catholic of French descent, who, at the turn of the century had a series of misunderstandings with Fr. Gabriel Richard and had in consequence left the church and become a member of Zion Lodge No. 1, to lease for thirty years a certain parcel of land on the north side of Jefferson Avenue between Griswold and Shelby Streets.

    The terms of the lease called for the erection in one year of a four story brick building to cost not less than $3,500 and to cover the whole of the Jefferson front and back some eighty feet at lease, with a good stone wall foundation at least sixteen inches thick.  The four stories had to average at least ten feet each and the cellar wall to be at least seven feet, six inches in height.

    In July 1851, the Corporation next submitted a proposal to build a Masonic Hall for all of the Masonic bodies then meeting in Detroit.  The bodies of that period besides Monroe Chapter No. 1, consisted of Zion Lodge No. 1, Detroit Lodge No. 2, Monroe Council No. 1 and Detroit Encampment No. 1.

    A newspaper item appearing in the Detroit Free Press for August 19, 1851 states that the Masonic Hall, about to be erected on Jefferson between Griswold and Shelby Streets, will form one of a series of buildings which will make the entire block the finest in the city. On October 7, 1851 the Free Press next states, "The new Masonic Hall on Jefferson Avenue is faced with cream colored brick from Milwaukee, Wisconsin."  The Scribe of the Chapter, William Barclay, was the signer and architect of the new building and the Free Press announced on January 4, 1853 that "It was on this day that they presented him (Barclay) with a watch.)

    Annual rents were assessed against each Masonic body each February during the annual meeting of the Corporation.  In the case of Zion and Detroit Lodges and Monroe Chapter, the amount assessed remained stationary at $150 each.  In the case of Detroit Encampment which had in the meantime been redesignated Detroit Commandery, the annual assessment varied from $40 to $75 and in the case of Monroe Council the yearly amounts assessed varied from $25 to $40.

    During the thirty year period other Masonic organizations became occupants of the building.  These included Charity Lodge No. 94 which was chartered January 16, 1857 and was revoked January 11, 1871. This Lodge during its occupancy paid annually anywhere from nothing to $150.  Other occupants were Ashlar Lodge No. 91, Kilwinning Lodge No. 297, Peninsular Chapter No. 16, Detroit's Scottish Rite Bodies and the St. Andrew's Society.

    During the last year of the lease a motion was made to sell the fixtures and furniture belonging to the Corporation and the proceeds used towards paying for the furnishing of the new Hall.  At the quarterly meeting held August 16, 1883, nearly two years after the termination of the lease and the reversal of the property to the Campau heirs the Fiscal Agent announced that after all Corporation indebtedness had been paid there was still $658.11 in the treasury.

Taken from the Sesquicentennial of the Grand Lodge, celebrating the Bicentennial in 1976

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