‘Moon lodge’s festive board by lantern light’

    

Warren Lodge 32, New York’s last moon lodge, will host its third annual festive board by lantern light next month. Here are the details:

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I enjoyed the first two, but I cannot attend this one. You should go though!

      

‘A rainbow over the moon lodge’

    

Michael LaRocco

Another fine festive board tonight at New York’s last remaining moon lodge.

Warren Lodge 32 did it again: the annual outdoor affair with catered barbecue, the seven toasts, approximately 80 guests, and a rainbow to cap it off. I mean the rainbow isn’t planned.

Rainbows follow rainfalls, and did we get rain! “Extreme Weather” is what my weather app forewarned as I got to within twenty miles of Rhinebeck, and it wasn’t joking. The inundation mostly tapered off by the time I got there, but then the wind picked up. Literally picked up everything on our table—and even one of the tents, which took a flight further than the Wright Brothers’ inaugural foray. It really was a mess: You have your “sword” in one hand, your “cannon” in the other, and somehow you had to hold down your place setting before a gust violently threw it all at the next table over. No injuries reported.

I didn’t shoot a single photo consequently. On the plus side, though, the tempest caused the temperature to drop a good ten or so degrees.

I sat with the contingent from Joseph Warren-Gothic Lodge 934 (the other Warren lodge), and had a good time despite their having consumed all the wine by the time I arrived. Kind brethren at nearby tables made sure we were able to charge our cannons, fortunately.

The lodge’s souvenir poker chip.

Also bumped into W. Bro. Steve, immediate Past Master of White Plains 473. And Deputy Grand Master Steven Rubin, of course.

I’m not usually one who discusses weather, but after the seventh toast (absent brethren) was proposed by W. Mark, Master of Joseph Warren-Gothic—and I mean at the second he stopped speaking—the rainbow appeared.

     

‘Warren Lodge’s festive board in July’

    

Magpie file photo

As promised, Warren Lodge 32 will host its Second Annual Festive Board on the last Saturday of July. This is the one I told you about last summer: an outdoor convivial meal, with all the toasts, and by lantern light too.

The lanterns are a nod to Warren 32 being New York’s last “moon lodge,” meaning the brethren meet monthly on or about the full moon. This time, the full moon—a Sturgeon Moon supermoon, like last time—won’t come until August 1, but Warren Lodge will host this feast on July 29.

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The flier above has all the details, and the flier below gives you the option of purchasing your own lantern to use during the festivities and to take home.

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It’s a great time. Get’s the Magpie Seal of Approval and all that. I plan to be there, but there’s a chance my own lodge might seize that day to host its annual summer cook-out. Although there’s no reason why I couldn’t attend both, I guess.

4Noggins

Warren is a historic lodge with a beautiful ancestral home that is worth visiting in its own right. I’m bringing a pipe or three, with some Harvest Moon mixture (unless someone markets a Sturgeon Moon tobacco in the meantime!).

     

‘Lodge by lantern light’

   

Warren Lodge 32’s Masonic Hall was built in 1865 in the Italianate style.
It was relocated to its present site in 2011.

I’ll conclude September with my scattered recollections of a terrific night seven weeks ago at Warren Lodge 32 way up in Schulztville for the occasion of a most enjoyable festive board by lantern light.

I’ll tell ya: If you ever want to hold a meeting or meal outside at night by lantern light, go for it.

Warren 32 is New York’s last remaining “moon lodge,” meaning a lodge that meets on or about the night of the full moon. This special festive board was hosted on Saturday the thirteenth, which actually was two nights after August’s full moon (a Sturgeon Moon), so the convenience of the guests was accommodated by waiting for the weekend. And we guests turned out in force. I think I counted about sixty seated around the U-shaped “lodge” outdoors under the tent, and the travelers greatly outnumbered our hosts. A caravan of Grand Lodge officers, headed by Grand Master Kessler and Deputy Grand Master Rubin, arrived, obviously having come from a previous event somewhere.

Other brethren visited from around New York, New England, and elsewhere. I was invited to sit between Masons from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. There’s clearly a special energy present when meeting traveling Masons and being able to talk about things in common, however small. I told the brother from New Hampshire that I had been to the Manchester Temple two months prior for Masonic Con, and told the Massachusetts brother about my visits to two lodges on Cape Cod last year. Conversely, I was told about a tour of Masonic Hall in Manhattan.

Portrait of Augustus Schultz hangs in the East.

The Warren Lodge brethren made this a history nerd-friendly event. They had a brother appear in the character of Bro. Augustus Schultz, the benefactor of the lodge who died too young at 26 in the 1860s, and bequeathed to Warren Lodge the funds that enabled it to purchase the land and construct the meeting hall where Warren was at labor until 2011. (Bro. Schultz did likewise for a local church.) That’s Schultz, as in Schultzville, the lodge’s original hometown until the building was picked up and relocated half a mile north to stand next to the Clinton town hall.

You may have guessed the lodge was named for Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren, and an additional attraction of the night was the attendance of a descendant of Warren. I think his name is Keith, but don’t quote me. Grand Master DeWitt Clinton issued its warrant.

A small altar, as was furnished centuries ago.

The U.S. flag featured fifteen stars from 1795 to 1818.

The festive board was great. Unlimited quantities of good food plus red wine for the usual toasts. The vino was Cribari, a label unknown to me. I’ll have to ask Bro. Cupschalk if he knows it, because we were drinking from shot glasses, for the obvious reason, and tasting was not a priority.

The weather was perfect: sunny blue skies during the day; cool and dry after sundown. Great company. A satiating meal amid a mellow ambiance thanks to the scores of small lambent flames in the lanterns. I failed to bring a briar and a sweet Virginia mixture, thinking it would have been forbidden, but evidently I could have joined RW Rubin, who was savoring his vanilla cavendish. I hope Warren does it again next August—and I’m bringing a pipe if they do. Harry says they’re looking at July 29, 2023.

Masonic Hall from the rear at dusk.
The octagonal cupola is a hallmark of Italianate architecture.

     

‘Moonlighting for 215 years’

    

Happy 215th anniversary to Warren Lodge 32!

On this date in 1807, Grand Lodge granted the petition of local Masons to charter the lodge at Pine Plains. Warren not only remains at labor, but it in fact is New York Freemasonry’s last “full moon lodge,” meaning the brethren convene their meetings by the light of the full moon. Give or take.

Warren Lodge 32

I know what you’re thinking: “There’s a lodge that doesn’t talk about the electric bill!” It’s just that instead of meeting on specific weeknights, Warren awaits maximum moonlight. Or thereabouts. It was the necessary custom for safe traveling generations ago for lodges to meet when the moon granted the most light. In modern times, they gather on the Thursday before the full moon.

Things will be a little different in August. That month, the full moon (called the Sturgeon Moon) will arrive on a Thursday night, but the lodge will meet during the weekend, on Saturday the 13th, when the brethren will host an outdoor Festive Board by lantern light. The flier has all the details, but to book your seats, email the Secretary here.

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‘Our last lunar lodge’

     

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

Under the Grand Lodge of New York, there have been several lodges named for Revolutionary martyr Joseph Warren; up the Hudson in Rhinebeck, there is at labor Warren Lodge 32–our last “moon lodge.”

Of course human progress has obviated all need for lodges to await the light of the Full Moon to convene, which makes Warren 32 a portal to our past, replete with lantern lighting for the lodge Opening.

As Rhinebeck is a hundred miles from Masonic Hall, I haven’t visited yet. Still, I bet a moon lodge today is not mere quaintness, nor stubbornness, and certainly not an affectation. I have been reading a lot of New York Masonic history lately, to the exclusion of everything else, and it’s surprising how many appealing traditions have been lost to changing times or changing rules. Meeting on or about the night of the Full Moon is a tradition that defies orderly convenience in favor of a thoughtful nod to the spheres in the heavens. (Does your smartphone’s calendar app report the lunar cycles?) To be accurate, Warren meets on the Thursday preceding the Full Moon.

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

In his very enjoyable newsletter The Craftsman, Grand Treasurer Steven Rubin has been championing Warren Lodge, and he reports today that those of us who do not have the good luck to be at labor there still can support our last moon lodge another way. Warren offers a “Midnight Rider Subscription.” At $32 annually, a Mason receives the lodge newsletter, a handsome certificate, and, of course, a lapel pin that will identify you as a Mason who knows his waxing gibbous from his waning crescent.

Visit Warren’s Faceypage to read more and for contact info.