HISTORY OF LODGE BREADALBANE No 657

The Lodge Meeting Places.

Between the foundation of Lodge Breadalbane No. 657 in 1881 and the year 1899 the meetings of the Lodge were held in several different places in Aberfeldy.
           

Firstly they met in the Breadalbane Arms Hotel, Aberfeldy, and then in Reid’s Temperance Hotel. A house in Bank Street was the next venue for the meetings, though it was not recorded which particular house this was.
           

The Lodge then moved to a flat above the Town Hall. This accommodation eventually proved to be unsuitable for Masonic purposes and the Lodge then obtained the lease of the ground floor house in Breadalbane Terrace next to the Palace Hotel from the Hotel owner Charles S.Bain. The lease was for five years and Bro’ John Scott P.M. of Eastertyre and later of Lawers View Aberfeldy, and who was Master of the Lodge from 1897 to 1899, generously agreed to pay the rent of £13 per annum for the five years.
           

The Brethren fitted out this house as a Masonic Temple and spent upwards of £40. on furnature, floor coverings painting and decorating, gas fittings and also regalia boxes etc. The five year lease expired at Whitsunday 1904 and the Lodge decided to keep on the lease of the Lodge Room in the meantime and apparently managed to negotiate a reduction in the rent to £8:10/- per annum.
           

There seems to have been a strong feeling among the Brethren at this time that the temporary nature of their accommodation for the Lodge was most unsatisfactory and that the only solution to the difficulty was to acquire or build a hall of their own. The minute of a meeting in March 1904 seems to reflect this attitude where it is stated  that the Lodge committee were instructed to consider ways and means of raising money to add to their present Building Fund.
           

The idea of a Masonic Temple of their own gathered momentum during 1904 with the satisfactory result that in the following year on 4th May 1905 the Foundation Stone of the new Masonic Temple was laid on a site in what is now known as Moness Terrace, and such was the speed of the erection of the new building that the Brethren were able to hold their First Regular Meeting in the new Freemasons Hall on 4th October 1905.
           

In 1956 an extension was added to the Lodge building and the Lodge met on St.Andrews Night 30th November 1956 for the Installation of Office Bearers and the Dedication and declaring open of the new Lodge extension to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Lodge. This was done by a Deputation from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Perthshire West headed by the Provincial Grand Master of Perthshire West Bro’ Alex Thomson.
           

The Brethren of Lodge Breadalbane continue to meet in the Original Lodge today with meetings taking place on the 3rd Wednesday each month from October – March.