Masonic lodge was the oldest public building in Evergreen in 1959

From the June 18, 1959 edition of The Evergreen Courant:

Old landmark to fall; Masons to build: The oldest public building in Evergreen is coming down. Robert Glass, W.M. of Greening Lodge, No. 53, A.F.&A.M., said today that the old Baptist Church-Masonic Lodge building will be razed as soon as a new lodge can be built.

The Greening Lodge has purchased a lot from Mrs. W.D. Lewis on which the new building will be erected. The 75x175-foot lot is located on Edwina Avenue, beyond Dr. W.B. Turk’s Clinic. Glass said construction of the building would begin at an early date.

Plans call for a concrete block building and the second floor will be completed for immediate use with the bottom floor being added later. Estimated cost of the new structure is $10,000.

The old frame building on Park Street was built in 1882 with the Baptist Church building the lower floor and entering into an agreement with the Knights of Pythias and the Masons who built the second floor and shared expenses on the roof.

At that time the church entered into an agreement with the Knights and the Lodge on a 99-year lease to the second floor of the building. At the expiration of the lease full property rights were to revert to the church.

At present, the lodge is trying to make the best deal possible on the old building. It will be sold to the highest bidder to dismantle or if it seems more feasible, the Lodge will raze it and salvage the materials.

The Lodge and the church have made an agreement on the building with the Lodge to retain what it can realize from it. The property on which it is located, of course, will be available for use of the church once the building is down. The church has not used the lower part of the building in a number of years.