“Masonry had not been in such hands, nor conducted in such a manner as to offer any inducement to respectable men to associate with some of those whom they might be liable to meet in the Lodges.”

This personal solicitation resulted in the organization of St. Andrew’s Lodge, all of whose members, with the exception of a lawyer and a merchant, were either members of the Government of Upper Canada, or Civil Servants of the higher grades. Its first master was Sir William Campbell, afterwards Chief Justice of Upper Canada.

Although there was much dissatisfaction with the Provincial Grand Lodge system, controlled by the Grand Lodge in distant England, St. Andrew’s remained loyal to the Second Provincial Grand Lodge, until, despairing of the lack of improvement, along with most of the other lodges of Upper Canada, it went over to the Independent Grand Lodge of Upper Canada. It was not long before this new Grand Lodge was recognized by the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland and Ireland.

St. Andrew’s did not have a regular meeting place until March, 1824, when it occupied the old Masonic Hall, built in 1819 on Market Lane (Colborne Street). It met here until 1843 when the lodge moved to Turton’s Building on King Street. In 1848 rooms were rented in Beard’s Hotel, at Church and Colborne Streets. After ten years St. Andrew’s moved to a newly dedicated Masonic Hall on Toronto Street, where the lodge continued to meet until January, 1898, when it occupied the Foresters Temple at Bay and Richmond Streets. Twenty-one years later, St. Andrew’s moved to the Masonic Temple at Davenport Road and Yonge Street. The last meeting of the lodge there occurred in June of 1994 when it moved to the York Temple at Millwood and Overlea.

Our lodge has always practised that virtue which is characteristic of a Mason’s Heart; that is, charity. During the Crimean War, for example, the lodge contributed fifty pounds sterling to the Patriotic Fund. In 1900 $100 was donated to the National Patriotic Fund for families of soldiers serving in the Boer War. During World War One, a donation of $500 went to the Belgian Relief Fund, $500 for Y.M.C.A. work among soldiers and $1,200 to the Sick Children’s Hospital in memory of the four St. Andrew’s brethren who died in that war: Captain Reginald Davis, Captain Gordon Forsyth, Private Richard Hallas and Private Alfred Nugent. In 1922 the Centennial Benevolent Fund was instituted, with more than $10,000 subscribed, with the interest to be expended annually.

Good fellowship and hospitality have always characterized St. Andrew’s Lodge. In the early days, St. John the Baptist’s Day, being the day that the first Grand Lodge of England was constituted in 1717, and St. John the Evangelist’s Day were celebrated with church services, public processions and banquets. Fraternal visits were exchanged over the years with American lodges, particularly Ancient Landmarks Lodge in Buffalo and Seneca Lodge in Rochester, New York, of which the latter continues today. There were also Old Members’ Nights, Side Benchers’ Nights (Today called Members’ Night.), Educational Nights, Past Masters’ Night, Military Nights and Empire Nights. Ladies’ Nights have taken place since the early 1900’s and continue to the present. St. Andrew’s Night, or Robbie Burns Night, has been celebrated for the last number of years in January.

This grand old lodge has celebrated many anniversaries. The “Jubilee Commemoration”, December 27, 1872, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the lodge’s institution. It was celebrated by a “sumptuous repast” at the Queen’s Hotel, enjoyed by three hundred brethren and visitors. The seventy-fifth and the ninetieth were also celebrated in a similar fashion, with fraternal greetings from such notable persons as the Duke of Connaught, Grand Master of Freemasonry in England, President Taft and Sir Robert Borden. The Centennial Anniversary of St. Andrew’s in 1922 included a day-long ceremony in the lodge room and a banquet with over five hundred guests. In 1947, the lodge celebrated its 125th anniversary with a special banquet, memorial service and the publication of a pamphlet which contains masters’ yearly summaries from 1923 to 1947. The year 1997 marked the 175th anniversary with special activities that included a dinner at Campbell House, now located at Queen and University, a special lodge meeting, memorial service and banquet.

As we advance into the new millennium, St. Andrew’s Lodge continues to practise its time-honoured traditions of fellowship, charity, excellent degree work, Masonic education and fraternal visits. The lodge continues to prosper in an age where Masonry has to compete with the busy lifestyle of today’s world. Our membership today represents a wide-range of fine men with a variety of backgrounds and occupations who have a common goal: brotherly love, relief and truth.

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by: Terry Sleightholm (Lodge Historian)
May, 2005