Dallas Lodge No. 231

Dallas Lodge No. 231, of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, was formed on December 7, 2005, through the merger of Dallas Lodge No. 508 and Solomon Lodge No. 231. Since then, the lodge has welcomed further mergers, most recently Milnor Lodge No. 287 on December 27, 2014, and William D. McIlroy Lodge No. 269 on July 1, 2015. Today, Dallas Lodge counts living Past Masters from ten lodge mergers in its history.

Dallas Lodge No. 508

On Friday, July 5, 1872, Dallas Lodge No. 508 F.&A.M. held its first stated meeting. It began with 13 members and a treasury of $400, most of which was borrowed. The leader of this small group was Charles C. Baer, who became the first Worshipful Master. As there were no Past Masters among the founders, Past Master Thomas F. Smith of Franklin Lodge No. 221 was authorized by the District Deputy Grand Master to instruct the new lodge.

The founders named the lodge for Vice President George M. Dallas, a man who remained loyal to the Fraternity during the Anti-Masonic period, when many lodges melted away under persecution and ridicule.

Born July 10, 1792, Dallas graduated from Princeton in 1810 and was elected Mayor of Philadelphia in 1829. He served as a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1833 to 1835 and was elected Grand Master of Freemasons in Pennsylvania in 1835. He went on to serve as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, U.S. Minister to Russia (1837–1839), the 11th Vice President of the United States under James K. Polk (1845–1849), and Minister to Great Britain (1856–1861). George Dallas died on December 31, 1864, and is interred in St. Peter’s Churchyard in Philadelphia.

Dallas Lodge No. 508 helped form Loyalty Lodge No. 696, Duquesne Lodge No. 546, John Marshall Lodge No. 734, Trinity Lodge No. 736, William B. Tipton Lodge No. 760 and other Pennsylvania lodges.

Solomon Lodge No. 231

Solomon Lodge No. 231 was the second-oldest German lodge in Pennsylvania and the fifth-oldest lodge in Allegheny County. In 1848, Pittsburgh had nearly 8,000 German-born residents, and German-speaking members of the existing English lodges set out to form a lodge that would work in the German language.

On February 23, 1848, eight members of Lodge No. 45, the oldest Masonic lodge west of the Alleghenies, petitioned for a charter. The Grand Lodge issued a warrant on March 5, 1848, and the lodge was constituted on April 7, 1848, at the Masonic Hall at Third Avenue and Wood Street by District Deputy Grand Master Samuel McKinley. Brother Victor Scriba, a printer and book merchant, was installed as the first Master and served until 1851. The lodge was originally constituted as King Solomon’s Lodge; the name was later shortened to Solomon Lodge No. 231.

The first officers also included Bro. David Strassburger, a dry goods merchant, as Senior Warden; Bro. Nathan Gallinger, also a dry goods merchant, as Junior Warden; August Faller as Treasurer; and William Buhl as Secretary. The other charter members were Bros. John Roemel, Rudolph Hunzeker and A. Wormser.

All work in Solomon Lodge was conducted in German. Moving to English was first discussed in 1855, and English came into use in April 1915, when Past Master Hermann F. Ruoff conferred the first degree in English on Bro. L.A. Rosenberg.

In 1868, several members, including founding Past Master Victor Scriba, resigned to form Jefferson Lodge No. 288 on Pittsburgh’s North Side, the second German lodge in the district. Jefferson and Solomon Lodges often held events together. In February 1872, ten members of Solomon Lodge resigned to form Germania Lodge on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

In 1918, on the lodge’s 70th anniversary, Concordia Lodge No. 345 of Cleveland presented Solomon Lodge with a Holy Bible. It was used in the lodge for nearly 50 years before being restored in 1998 by Mrs. Ida Stein, wife of Brother James Stein, together with the “Book Binders Committee” of Rodef Shalom Temple in Shadyside.

Oakland Lodge No. 535

Members of Lodge No. 45 petitioned the Grand Lodge on February 24, 1873, to form a new lodge, and Oakland Lodge No. 535 was chartered on December 2, 1874, with twenty-one charter members meeting at the Masonic Hall at Fifth Avenue and Atwood Street. It was constituted on April 10, 1875, and held its first stated meeting on May 17, 1875.

On the evening of August 12, 1887, the Masonic Temple on Fifth Avenue was destroyed by fire, along with the lodge’s warrant and paraphernalia. Milnor Lodge No. 287 and Hailman Lodge No. 321 lent their paraphernalia, and Oakland Lodge met next at the Masonic Hall in the Renshaw Building at Ninth Street and Liberty Avenue. The Right Worshipful Grand Master issued a new charter on December 7, 1887.

On March 1, 1915, Oakland Lodge No. 535 became the first lodge to hold its stated meeting in the new Masonic Temple in Oakland, one of twenty-three lodges meeting there at the time.

Fraternity Lodge No. 705

On May 2, 1920, eighteen members of Oakland Lodge No. 535 resigned to petition for a new lodge, and Fraternity Lodge No. 705 was constituted on June 23, 1920. Among its notable members was the late Bob Prince, longtime broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Oakland-Fraternity Lodge No. 535

Fraternity Lodge No. 705 and Oakland Lodge No. 535 merged on September 2, 1980, to form Oakland-Fraternity Lodge No. 535, which in turn merged with Solomon Lodge No. 231 on December 15, 1984.

Brotherhood Lodge No. 762

Brotherhood Lodge No. 762 was warranted and constituted on October 8, 1949, and merged with Solomon Lodge No. 231 on March 1, 1989.