VIDEO: Langley Freemasons celebrate 100th anniversary

During its 100 years, Langley City’s Masonic Lodge has grown from 24 members to more than 400.

On Saturday, April 22, on the eve of a planned celebration to mark the anniversary, lodge historian Herb Willberg and other members of the executive posed for a photo in front of the hall at 20701 Fraser Hwy., that has been the Freemasons home for more than 90 years.

On Sunday, May 7, the lodge will celebrate its 100th anniversary with an open house for the public at the Fraser Highway location, from 1 to 4 p.m.

“Eureka Masonic Lodge was founded in 1922 by 24 Masons who lived in [what was then known as] the Langley Prairie area, and decided to form a lodge,” Willberg explained. “It took them until 1923 to actually obtain a charter.”

Their first hall was located about a block away, in an existing building, but the rapidly-growing lodge quickly needed more room.

“It actually went up to 80 members in about a two-year period,” Willberg summarized.

“They had to build a bigger hall. So in 1927, they built this large hall here.”

For a long time, the hall, on property owned by the Freemasons, was the centre of the Langley City community.

“It was the only, basically, community hall that could be rented out,” Willberg observed.

“There’s so many people in Langley that were married in this hall. We had constituency offices in the hall. We’re a big part of Langley history.”

Freemasonry, said to be the oldest fraternity in the free world, dates back several centuries to the days when “operative masons” were a group of highly skilled men who built the ancient cathedrals, abbeys, and castles.

Today, Freemasons are men over the age of 21, who possess a skill or trade that they can offer to their local community.

Prospective Freemasons must convince members that they are of “good repute,” believe in a “higher power,” and are prepared to be “charitable within your community,” the website, langleylodge.ca, explains.

Trevor Broad, the currently elected Worshipful Master, or president, of Eureka Lodge, said “Freemasonry is about becoming a better man.”

“It’s self-improvement, through and through, and I’ve been able to do that through the camaraderie with the brethren at the lodge,” Broad remarked.

“I enjoy that every time I come to lodge, we are doing things in lodge that were being done hundreds of years ago by other Masons.”

While there are no female Freemasons, the affiliate Order of The Eastern Star, described as a “concordant body” with the Masons, is open to men and women, and also meets at the Fraser Highway hall.

As the Langley City lodge turns 100, there are plans to replace the hall with an all-new building on the same location, part of an agreement with Quarry Rock Developments, a Lower Mainland developer that will construct a housing project where the old hall is and build a new Freemasons hall on the same site, closer to Fraser Highway.

When the old hall comes down, likely near the end of the year, the masons will relocate to a temporary home a few blocks away at the entrance to the one-way while construction is under way, then move back into the new building that will resemble the old in its exterior appearance.

READ ALSO: Higher property assessment could mean closure of Langley City Masonic hall, director warns

W.H. “Skip” Stuart, president of the lodge temple society that operates the hall, said after years of struggling to pay ever-higher municipal taxes, the deal will help ensure the hall continues to operate.

 ”It’s been quite an issue,” Stuart told the Langley Advance Times, with the non-profit facing a tax bill of more than $40,000 in its most recent assessment.

“[The agreement with the developer] gives the Eureka Temple Society, which is the management of the building, financial relief from the ongoing, exorbitant taxes.”

Stuart described the deal as a successful conclusion of their search to “find a way out of the dilemma.”

READ ALSO: Arson attacks on Masonic halls leads Langley City hall to relocate historic items