by Christopher Hodapp
Historic Hiram Lodge No. 7 in Franklin, Tennessee is undergoing a multi-million dollar restoration campaign to preserve the oldest continuously operating Masonic hall in the state. WKRN-TV in Nashville aired a short report yesterday about the lodge, featuring several shots inside of the main lodge room and the York Rite meeting room upstairs.
Aside from being the first three-story building constructed in Tennessee, the temple is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is where President Andrew Jackson met with Chickasaw leaders in 1830 and the Native Americans signed a treaty giving up their lands. It was the beginning of the Indian Removal Act which led to the infamous Trail of Tears forced migration of the "Five Civilized Nations" of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes to Oklahoma between 1830-50.
Hiram Lodge was originally chartered as a North Carolina lodge in 1808, before Tennessee's grand lodge had been established. It was one of the original eight founding lodges when the Grand Lodge of Tennessee was formed in 1813. When their Franklin lodge hall was completed in 1823, it was the tallest building west of the Allegheny Mountains. Hiram member Andrew Jackson became the fifth Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee (1822-23), and the seventh President of the United States between 1829-37.
Country music signer-songwriter Brad Paisley has been a member here for many years.
The lapse of time and the devastations of war have pockmarked the structure over the last two centuries. A cannonball struck the building during the Civil War, and the top floor was condemned by inspectors a decade ago because of its unsound condition.
To donate to the lodge's preservation fund, CLICK HERE.
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