(former building) Franklin Lodge No. 562 - Franklin, NY
Posted by: 
ripraff
N 42° 20.333 W 075° 10.040
18T E 486215 N 4687416
Built in 1855, originally called Chapel Hall, it was part of the Delaware Literary Institute. It belonged to the Masons from 1909 to 1997. It is part of the Franklin Historic District.
Waymark Code: WMR1R2
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 04/29/2016
Views: 1
History of Franklin
(
visit link)
Franklin Stage - Chapel Hall
(
visit link)
"In 1996, Franklin Lodge #562, Free and Accepted Masons, who had owned the building since 1909 when DLI merged with the public school system, were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the building. Their membership was aging and dwindling and Chapel Hall had been deteriorating for a number of years. The Masons believed the building should remain in the public sphere and hesitated to sell it to the only interested party, a commercial developer who wanted to convert Chapel Hall into an apartment house. Among Franklin residents there was great concern that the building might be irrevocably changed. Hearing of this difficulty and, seeing a possibility for a long cherished goal, Franklin residents Eugene Marner, Carole Lucia Satrina and then-Mayor Thomas W. Butts approached the Lodge to lease the building as a theatre. The Masons offered instead to give them the building. In this way the Lodge could be assured that Chapel Hall would continue to be a public space, available to community and cultural groups for social events and public performances. A not-for-profit corporation, Franklin Stock Company at Chapel Hall, Inc. was formed in October 1996 to which, in July, 1997, the Lodge transferred the title of the building."