Shasta County Points of Interest
)
)
19 September 2006
(Click Photos to Zoom)
Highway 299
Shasta State Historic Park
A plaque on the facade of the masonic Lodge reads (quoted here with its Germanic capitalization and whimsical punctuation intact):
Western Star
Lodge No. 2
The oldest Masonic Lodge in the State of California. Chartered by the most worshipful Grand lodge of Missouri on the 10th of May 1848.
This building was dedicated on Saint John's day, the 27th of December, 1854 and has been in continuous use by the lodge ever since.
After the "Great Fire of June 14th 1853 when most of the City of Shasta was Destroyed, the lodge lost all of it's [sic] possessions, save it's [sic] Missouri charter, and continued to meet in the upper floor of Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff's home which stood on a hill, west of Town from 1851 to 1967 when it was lost to Fire. On the 4th of December, 1854, the lodge trustees purchased the upper floor of this building, the street level being the Norton & Tucker general merchandise, In 1857 the lodge acquired ownership of the entire building.
The Western Star Masonic Hall Association Inc, owns & maintains this property and also a cemetery founded 1864, The Shasta Masonic Cemetery, located at 11471 Mule Town Road, Southwest of Town.
Occupied 1854
Some Masonic Halls in California
Alameda, Benicia, Berkeley, Camptonville, Colfax, Columbia, Daly City, Downieville, Ferndale, Fort Bragg, Grass Valley, Greenville, Hornitos, Jamestown, Knights Ferry, Mendocino, Milton, Murphys, Nevada City, North Bloomfield, Orland, Sacramanto, Sacramanto (Eastern Star Hall), Saint Helena, San Francisco (1849), San Francisco (1911), Shasta State Historic Park, Sonoma, Suison City, Susanville, Tehama, Vallejo, Westwood, Wheatland, Willows, Woodbridge
Other Masonic Halls in The American West
Ashland, Oregon; Austin, Nevada; Genoa, Nevada; Gardnerville, Nevada