The History of Unity Lodge No. 36, Part 4
Walking through the threshold where the outer door used to hang, you next step into the old lodge meeting room. The Masonic lodge is basically an oblong square that is positioned with designated points of direction: East, west, north, and south. Each of these cardinal points, or directions, has a unique purpose which is particular to the understanding of Freemasons.
Standing
at the outer door and looking straight ahead, one can still see the remains of a
raised platform of three steps at the other end of the room. It is here, on the
platform, where the lodge’s main officer, the Worshipful Master, would have sat
and presided over the meeting.
There isn’t much to see in this room now. The plaster on the walls is falling out in patches that look like scabs from old wounds. There is debris and traces of animal habitation strewn across the great expanse of flooring.
Time has not been kind to this old lodge.
Debris and clutter from years of neglect are all that is left of the meeting room.
There
is a sense of total emptiness that now settles over this place like the dust
that covers the floor like a musty old blanket.
Walking carefully over old, creaking boards for fear of crashing through the floor—the only other sounds you hear are your own shallow rhythmic breaths and the occasional passing automobile down on the street below.
Where did they go?
Where are the men that used to line the walls with their high backed chairs listening to the business of their meeting being conducted to the crackling of a warm fire?
Where has their laughter and quiet conversation and fraternal fellowship disappeared to?
The sounds of life have fled from this place. The furniture and the decorations that make a room come alive have all vanished without a trace, leaving only the hurtful coolness of tombs in its wake.
No. Time has not been kind to this old lodge. But time is seldom kind to the living.
And this is what happens to a place when the life goes out of it.