Alabama Lodge No. 3 at Perdue Hill celebrates historic 200th anniversary

Van Tidwell, left, presents Eric Cox with special certificate.

Scores of Freemasons from across Alabama, public officials and other visitors assembled at the historic Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill on Saturday to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the establishment of Alabama Lodge No. 3.

Saturday’s event began at 10 a.m. and kicked off the Alabama Grand Lodge’s statewide bicentennial celebration of Freemasonry in Alabama.

About six months older than even the state of Alabama, Alabama Lodge No. 3 traces its roots to June 25, 1819 when it received its original charter from the Grand Lodge of South Carolina as Alabama Lodge No. 51. Alabama was officially admitted to the Union on Dec. 14, 1819, and on Dec. 11, 1820 the Alabama General Assembly passed legislation allowing the lodge to raise funds to build and furnish a Masonic Hall building at Claiborne, which was then the county seat of Monroe County.

On June 11, 1821, delegates from eight lodges in Alabama, including the lodge at Claiborne, organized the Grand Lodge of Alabama, and at that time, Alabama Lodge No. 51 received a charter under the Alabama Grand Lodge and became Alabama Lodge No. 3, a designation that it still carries today. For various reasons, including unhealthy conditions at Claiborne and the move of the county seat to Monroeville, the Masonic Hall was dismantled in 1884 and moved to its present location at Perdue Hill, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and Monroe County Road 1.

In 1917, Alabama Lodge No. 3 moved to Monroeville and merged with Monroeville Lodge No. 153, retaining the name and number of the mother lodge, and Alabama Lodge No. 3 continued to meet for the better part of the next century in Monroeville. In early 2018, as Alabama Lodge No. 3 approached the 200^th anniversary of its original charter, the Perdue Hill-Claiborne Foundation gave Alabama Lodge No. 3 permission to again begin using the Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill for its regular meetings, and the Alabama Grand Lodge approved the move from Monroeville back to Perdue Hill on April 2, 2018.

During Saturday’s celebration, Van Tidwell of Haleyville, Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Alabama Grand Lodge, presented Eric Cox of Excel, Worshipful Master of Alabama Lodge No. 3, with a special certificate that read as follows: Know ye, that by the high powers vested in us, for the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of Alabama Lodge No. 2, Free & Accepted Masons, having completed 200 years of service on June 15, 2019, we do publish and award this certificate as a token of merit and appreciation in recognition and commemoration of 200 years of service to the Craft. In witness whereof, we have set our hands and caused the seal of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Alabama to be affixed this 4^th day of May 2019. – (Signed) Van Tidwell, Grand Master; Teddy Grogan Jr., Grand Secretary.

Tidwell also presented the lodge with a commemorative Grand Master’s knife, and first-time visitors to the lodge were presented with a commemorative bicentennial coin featuring an image of the Perdue Hill Masonic Hall. The event also included a short presentation on the lodge’s history by Wayne Sirmon, a history professor at the University of Mobile. Sirmon also serves as chairman of the Alabama Grand Lodge’s bicentennial committee.

As part of Saturday’s celebration, the lodge also conducted the first Master Mason Degree in the Perdue Hill Masonic Hall in over a century. According to Cecil Chandler, Alabama Lodge No. 3’s Secretary, the last known Master Mason degree held in the building was conducted in October 1884. The candidate for Saturday’s historic degree was Matthew Neil Henderson of Frisco City, and the degree was witnessed by nearly 100 Masons, including his father, Neil Henderson, Past Master of Elba Lodge No. 170.

Masons participating in that degree included Tidwell, Senior Grand Warden Tommy Morrow of Elba, Junior Grand Warden Billy Jackson of Leroy, Wayne Sirmon of Mobile, Grand Treasurer and Past Grand Master Ron Andress of Tuscaloosa, Grand Chaplain Travis Allred of Arley, Senior Grand Deacon David Hightower of Detroit, Junior Grand Deacon Craig Skinner of Danville, Senior Grand Steward Tracy Rye of Haleyville, Past Grand Master Larry Stinson of Greenville, Garry Wates, Grand Historian Michael Brewer of Athens, Deputy Grand Tiler Stanley Champion of Russellville, Grand Marshal David Whitaker of New Hope, Deputy Grand Master Mike Taylor of Remlap, John Key, Bruce Garrison, Allen Brackin, Nick Milner, Tommy Danner, Glenn Thomas, Paul Adams, Ed Kelley, Wayne A. Roberts Sr., Eddie Tarkany, Chris Thomas, Ken Carpenter and Zach Holmes.

Public officials on hand for Saturday’s event included Monroe County Sheriff Tom Boatwright, Monroe County Probate Judge Sonya Greene Stinson, Monroe County Circuit Clerk Wes Hines and Assistant District Attorney Todd Watson. Cox issued a special thanks to Lodge Secretary Cecil Chandler and other lodge members who had a big hand in making Saturday’s event a well-attended success.