Warfield Masonic Lodge, Clarksville, Montgomery County

Warfield Masonic Lodge, Clarksville (image by author)

In 1899, the Warfield Masonic Lodge purchased property at the corner of Ninth and Main Streets in Clarksville, Tennessee. They built themselves a lodge which suffered major damage in a 1911 fire.  After remodeling and repairing the building, the Masons moved back in, continuing to meet through the present.

The Warfield Lodge was organized in the 1890s; all the early records and archives of the group was lost in the 1911 fire.  The group is affiliated with the Prince Hall Masons, an African American masonic group dating to the late eighteenth century.  The first Prince Hall Masonic lodges in Tennessee were established in the 1870s.

Cornerstone of Warfield Lodge (image by author)

In 1907, the Nashville Globe wrote about the Emancipation Celebration planned by the Warfield Lodge. The paper reported

                          The 8th of August opened up in this beautiful section of Tennessee with the 

                          members of the Warfield Lodge Masonic rites, expecting the biggest and 

                          liveliest crowd known in the history of the Emancipation celebration.  Up 

                          until 2 o'clock the day was an ideal one, but it seems that the promoters failed 

                          to tip the weather man and consequently that august and mighty one gave 

                          Paducah, Ky., the sunshine and Clarksville one of the wettest days in the history

                          of the celebration.  With little or no shelter at the park, most of the celebrators 

                          were drenched to the skin, and dresses and hats of brilliant colors lost all their luster.  

                          The officers of the Masonic fraternity of this place have had the rainy heart ever 

                          since. ("Clarksville Notes," Nashville Globe, August 16, 1907).

I visited the Warfield Lodge in February 2013.  The building is brick and in moderate to good condition. It is a three story brick building with a flat roof (condition unknown).  A metal shed roof porch with a concrete floor and metal poles is located at the front elevation.  The side elevation (facing Ninth Street) has the cornerstone and lodge sign.

Image by author

Clipping about the Warfield Lodge from the Nashville Globe, August 16, 1907