North Carolina Masonic Lodges

About Freemasonry in North Carolina

A deep look at Masonic history, the oldest lodges, the admission process, and notable Freemasons connected to North Carolina.

History of Freemasonry in North Carolina

Freemasonry in North Carolina goes back further than most people realize. Lodges were operating in the colony before the Revolution, chartered by both the Grand Lodge of England (the so-called Moderns) and later the Antients. The earliest documented North Carolina lodge is St. John's Lodge in Wilmington, which traces its working back to the 1750s and was officially chartered in 1755.

Royal White Hart Lodge in Halifax followed in 1767, and remarkably, both lodges still meet under their original numbers today. Here's the deal: when the colonies broke from England, North Carolina Masons had to figure out what to do about their charters. The answer was a homegrown Grand Lodge. On December 9, 1787, delegates from existing lodges met in Tarboro and formed The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina, with Samuel Johnston, who later became governor and a U.S.

Senator, elected as the first Grand Master. That makes North Carolina's Grand Lodge one of the oldest in the United States, a contemporary of the founding generation itself. Through the 1800s, the Craft spread along with settlement. Lodges popped up in plantation towns, mountain hamlets, and railroad junctions.

The Civil War nearly emptied the rolls as brothers marched off in both armies. Reconstruction was rough, but the fraternity survived. The Oxford Orphan Asylum, founded in 1872 in Oxford, North Carolina, became the Grand Lodge's signature charitable work and is still going as the Masonic Home for Children, one of the longest continuously operating Masonic charities in America. The 20th century saw North Carolina Masonry hit its membership peak in the 1960s with more than 80,000 members, then slowly contract like every other jurisdiction.

Today the Grand Lodge headquarters sits in Raleigh, oversees roughly 360 lodges across the state, and continues its long tradition of community involvement, scholarship funding, and care for the children at the Masonic Home.

Oldest and Most Historic Lodges in North Carolina

North Carolina has one of the most impressive collections of pre-Revolutionary lodges still active anywhere in the country. St. John's Lodge No. 1 in Wilmington tops the list.

Records show Masonic activity in Wilmington as early as 1754, with the lodge formally chartered in 1755 under the Provincial Grand Master of North America. When the Grand Lodge of North Carolina formed in 1787, St. John's was given the No. 1 designation it still holds.

The lodge has met continuously, paused only briefly during the Civil War, and its membership has included colonial governors, Revolutionary War officers, and shipping magnates of the Cape Fear. Royal White Hart Lodge No. 2 in Halifax is right behind it. Chartered in 1767, the lodge takes its name from a tavern that doubled as its first meeting space, which was common in colonial America.

Halifax was a major political center, and the Halifax Resolves of April 1776, the first official call for independence by an entire colony, were drafted in a town where many of the signatories were Royal White Hart members. Phalanx Lodge No. 31 in New Bern, Eagle Lodge No. 19 in Hillsborough, and Unanimity Lodge No.

7 in Edenton round out the colonial-era roster. Each predates 1800. Eagle Lodge in particular has met in the same building, the Masonic Hall and Theater, since 1823, making that hall the oldest Masonic theater in continuous use in North America. Beyond colonial lodges, North Carolina also boasts Mount Hermon Lodge No.

118 in Asheville, Concord Lodge No. 58 in Tarboro (where the Grand Lodge itself was founded), and Hiram Lodge No. 40 in Raleigh, which was Andrew Johnson's mother lodge before he became president.

North Carolina Masonic Lodges by the Numbers

North Carolina is one of the larger Masonic jurisdictions in the United States by raw membership. Recent figures from the Grand Lodge of North Carolina put the active membership at roughly 32,000 to 34,000 master Masons spread across about 360 chartered lodges. That's down from a peak above 80,000 in the mid-1960s, mirroring the national trend, but North Carolina remains comfortably in the top ten Grand Lodges by size. The state averages about 90 to 100 members per lodge, though that varies wildly.

Some metro lodges in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro carry several hundred members, while small-town and rural lodges may have only a few dozen active brothers. The Grand Lodge reports that North Carolina Masons collectively donate well over a million dollars annually to charitable causes, with the bulk going to the Masonic Home for Children at Oxford and WhiteStone, a Masonic and Eastern Star Community for older adults in Greensboro. Annual communications are held each September in Raleigh.

How to Become a Freemason in North Carolina

Joining a North Carolina lodge follows the standard pattern, with a few jurisdiction-specific touches. To petition, a candidate must be a man at least 18 years of age, of good moral character, who professes belief in a Supreme Being, and who lives or works in North Carolina (or has the lodge's permission to petition out of jurisdiction). The first step is to find a lodge and meet some of the members. The state Grand Lodge maintains a public lodge locator, and most lodges are happy to host visitors at their open dinners.

After expressing interest, the candidate fills out a petition signed by two members in good standing, pays the petition fee (typically around 150 to 250 dollars depending on the lodge, which usually includes the first year's dues), and waits while a small investigation committee meets with him at home or in a casual setting. The committee reports back, the lodge votes by secret ballot, and if the ballot is clear the candidate is notified to schedule his first degree. North Carolina works the standard three Blue Lodge degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. The state requires proficiency in the catechism between each degree, which means memorizing a Q and A passage with a coach.

Most candidates finish all three degrees within four to nine months, though there is no rush. After raising, a Master Mason can join Scottish Rite, York Rite, the Shrine, or any of the appendant bodies on his own schedule.

Notable North Carolina Freemasons in History

North Carolina has put its share of brothers into the history books. Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was raised in Greeneville Lodge No. 119 in Tennessee but was a North Carolina native, and is often claimed by the state. James K.

Polk, the 11th President, was born in Mecklenburg County, although his Masonic membership was actually in Tennessee as well, a quirk of the era's mobile population. North Carolina can fully claim Samuel Johnston, the first Grand Master and a Continental Congress delegate, and Richard Caswell, the state's first governor and a Past Grand Master who served twice. William R. Davie, founder of the University of North Carolina and a Revolutionary War general, was a member of Unanimity Lodge No.

7 and later served as Grand Master. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the rolls included Zebulon Vance, the wartime Confederate governor and later U.S. Senator, who was a member of Mount Hermon Lodge in Asheville. Thomas Wolfe, the novelist who wrote Look Homeward, Angel, was raised in Pisgah Forest Lodge in Asheville.

Senator Sam Ervin Jr., who chaired the Watergate committee, was a Mason from Morganton. In sports, NASCAR pioneer Curtis Turner was a North Carolina Mason, as were several early stock car drivers. Astronaut Charles Duke, who walked on the moon during Apollo 16, was raised in a North Carolina lodge before his career took off.

Prince Hall Freemasonry in North Carolina

Prince Hall Freemasonry has a long and proud history in North Carolina. The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of North Carolina was chartered on December 27, 1870 in New Bern, less than a decade after the end of the Civil War. It was one of the earliest Prince Hall Grand Lodges established in the post-war South, and it grew quickly as African American communities organized themselves through churches, schools, and fraternal societies. The Grand Lodge currently has its headquarters in Durham and oversees more than 200 subordinate lodges scattered across the state, making it one of the larger Prince Hall jurisdictions in the country.

Membership today is in the range of 9,000 to 11,000 master Masons. North Carolina was, importantly, one of the first Southern states where the mainstream Grand Lodge formally recognized its Prince Hall counterpart. Mutual recognition between the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of North Carolina was extended in 2008 after years of dialogue, and the two bodies now permit visitation between their lodges. That recognition was a significant moment for American Freemasonry as a whole, since several Southern jurisdictions had resisted the change for decades.

Prince Hall North Carolina is also active in the Eastern Star, Shrine (under the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine), and youth orders, and the Grand Lodge runs scholarship programs and community outreach in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Wilmington.

Frequently Asked Questions about Masonic Lodges in North Carolina

Sources & Further Reading

• https://grandlodge-nc.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Lodge_of_North_Carolina
• https://mhc-oxford.org/
• https://mwphglnc.com/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Lodge_No._1_(Wilmington,_North_Carolina)