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Phoenix Lodge 131 Free and Accepted Masons Who and what are the Masons Click here to find out
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Phoenix Lodge No. 131 was formed by the union of Sweanee No. 131, Nashville No. 142 and Sequoyah No. 156 Sewanee Lodge No. 131 was granted a dispensation. The first mention made of it was in the proceedings of the Grand Lodge on October 4, 1847, when it appears among the lodge under dispensation, and was represented by Dyer Pearl, J.F. Gibson and M.S. Pilcher, who were probably the Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior Wardens. Nashville Lodge No. 142, U. D. First appears on the proceedings of the Grand Lodge in October 1848, when it was represented by John M. Seabury, who was probably its Worshipful Master, and the indications are that G.P. Smith was Senior Warden and R. Stewart, Junior Warden, as they were the first two representatives named for that lodge the next year. Sequoyah Lodge No. 156, U.D., also appears first in the proceedings at the same session, being represented by T.A. Thomas, S. L. Shaw and George W. Taylor, without doubt the first three officers respectively. The committee on dispensations recommended the granting of charters to these two lodges, which was done. At the October, 1850, annual communication, each of these two lodges reported thirty Master Masons upon its roll, and was represented at that communication and the following year, but neither was represented in 1852, Sewanee not being represented. At the annual communication of the Grand Lodge in 1853, Grand Master A.M. Hughes, in his address, said: " It will be recollected by many members of this Grand Lodge that at the time of its session there existed four Lodges in the city of Nashville. Entertaining with many other Masons that this number was greater then the wants of the city required, and fearing their operation might not conduce to the harmony and efficient action of the Fraternity, I prevailed upon the members of those three Lodges - Sewannee No. 131, Sequoyah No. 156 and Nashville No. 142 - to surrender their charters and take out a dispensation for a new Lodge. Acting upon this suggestion, the three lodges entered into an agreement to this effect, and I granted them a dispensation, authorizing the brethren to open a new Lodge by the name of PHOENIX LODGE No. 131." The committee on Dispensation reported in favor of granting the Lodge a charter which was done, and thus was PHOENIX LODGE No. 131 formed- "A phoenix rising from the ashes of three dead Lodges". Phoenix Lodge No. 131, held its first meeting on December 27, 1851, under dispensation from the Grand Master. A charter was ordered and issued on October 6, 1852. The officers named in the charter are: T.B. Hamlin, W.M. D.D. Dickey, S.W. Williamson H. Horn, J.W. Under this charter Phoenix Lodge has continued to work, with harmony and prosperity, until the present time. In the spring of 1862, the lodge room in the temple occupied by the several Masonic bodies of the city, was taken possession of for a hospital, and the meetings of the Lodge prevented, so that there was no election of officers from December 1861, to December 1863. During this period the Lodge met as often as practicable and, with this exception, the regularity of its meetings has never been disturbed In 1960 property was acquired at 3410 Hillsboro Road for a new Lodge building. The first stated meeting was held on July 17,1961 on August 7, 1984 the property at 3410 Hillsboro Road was sold to Belle Meade Builders, Inc. The last meeting of the Lodge at this location was called meeting to confer an Entered Apprentice degree on August 20, 1984. On September 1, 1984, the Lodge started meeting in the hall of Cumberland Lodge No. 8 On April 30, 1986, the Lodge purchased a one half interest in the properties and improvements of Cumberland Lodge No. 8, located at 4607 Sloan Road.
List of Worshipful Masters of the Lodge
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