Lodge No.4
News & Events
History
Hartford Lodge
The lodge traces its history back to the funeral of Nathaniel Payson, a mason who passed away in 1761 and who was buried in Hartford's Ancient Burial Ground. The funeral was attended by a number of local masons who gave the first known masonic funeral rites in Connecticut. These men decided to petition the Provincial Grand Lodge (now the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) for a charter. They received said charter in 1762 and were known simply as the "Hartford Lodge. This lodge would be attended by Patriots and Loyalists and during the revolution, many members would find fellowship at American Union Lodge during the war.
Saint John's Lodge #4
With the end of the American Revolution, the lodge returned to regular communications. Soon after peace was attained, The Grand Lodge of Connecticut was formed by the lodges in the state. It was at this time that "Hartford Lodge" was named "St. John's" and the prefix of No. 4 was given, it being the 4th oldest lodge in the state at that time. The lodge would flourish for the next 200 years, raising a number of important men of distinction, including Oliver Wolcott Jr., Morgan Bulkely, Gideon Welles and Samuel Colt. The lodge met in a number of locations, including H.H. Richardson's Cheney Building (later known as the Brown Thompson building) before erecting the lodge building on the corner of Ann and Allyn streets, which still stands behind the XL Center.
Wyllys Lodge
#99
A separate town today, West Hartford was a constituent part of Hartford until 1854. Prior to this, the Masons who dwelt in The Western Division of Hartford trekked over an hour (in good weather) to Hartford to take place in the proceedings of the lodge. Following the end of the American Civil War, William Storer led a group of brothers from West Hartford to petition St. John's for a charter and were granted one in 1866. The lodge was named after Samuel Wyllys, The first captain of the Governor’s Foot Guard when it was formed in 1771 and a Major General of the state militia from 1792 to 1796 (in addition to being a distinguished mason and the first Grand Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut). The lodge first met in Goodman's Tavern in modern day Bishops Corner. The lodge would meet in a number of other locations before moving to the lodge building off the town green on South Main Street in 1923.
Wyllys - Saint John's Lodge #4
Saint John's and the other lodges that were meeting at the building on Ann Street (then renamed Ann Uccello) would vacate the building in 1982. The various lodges relocated to other towns in greater Hartford and St. John's moved to Wylly's #99's building. With the lodges now inhabiting the same building, they decided to merge in 1988. Reunited after 122 years, the lodge would remain in the building off of South Main Street until 2015, when it moved to its current location on South Street, near the Hartford and Newington border.
The Lodge Building on Ann (Uccello) Street in Hartford
The Masonic Temple on South Main Street in West Hartford
Goodman Tavern, the original meeting place of Wyllys Lodge No. 99
