Lauren Ricks
The Athens Review
ATHENS — Athens Masonic Lodge No. 165 recovered tokens from its past — both large and small — from a building it had once called its own.
Lodge Secretary Randy Daniel, who is Athens’ mayor, said members retrieved two time capsules last Saturday with the permission of the Ginger Murchison Foundation, the current owner of the building.
The lodge, he said, met on that corner, the southwest corner of the Henderson County Courthouse square, for about 75 years.
Among the items pulled from the capsules were a 1894 half dollar, 1841, 1865 and 1892 dimes wrapped in a letter from Henderson County Judge W.R. Dickerson and community leader Tine Stirman, a Bible, 1892 and 1922 Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Texas, 1892 Transactions for Royal Arch Masons, and an envelope postmarked from Goshen — a settlement founded near Eustace before the town relocated in 1898 to its present location.
Daniel said the capsules were placed inside two cornerstones of the old Masonic Lodge building in 1923.
“When they moved into the lodge building on the corner, they placed a new cornerstone in March of 1923,” he said. “At the same time they moved the old cornerstone to the new building.”
The old Masonic Lodge and two adjoining buildings in the central business district will be demolished to make room for the new Prosperity Bank building.
Daniel said the Athens Lodge met on that side of town for more than 120 years.
Lodge Senior Deacon Rob Risko said when the organization moved to its new building on U.S. Highway 175 in 1998, the old Masonic Lodge was sold to the Ginger Murchison Foundation.
“The Murchisons have a long tradition with our lodge,” he said.
Daniel said members have discussed retrieving the cornerstone since the move.
“In the last year-and-a-half, we had discussions about moving the cornerstones out to the new lodge,” Daniel said.
He said members will also recover a pressed tin roof with Masonic symbols from the old lodge.
