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ritual component is theatrical and requires seating, OK. Freemasonry works best when our lodges are
sets, players, and participants. smaller and our brethren know each other intimately.
Second, given we over-engineered our lodges a half
As our numbers swelled throughout the 1950s, so century ago, how do we keep our brethren from feeling
did the space required to hold our meetings and degree lost in a cavernous lodge room?
work. Lodges that once comfortably held 20 or 25 men
were crowded with 50, 75 and even 100 members. A Yet, just a year or so ago a lodge called up and
few of our lodges reached 800 members by the 1960s wanted to expand or build a bigger building. The
— and by the standards of that day were much too brother complained that so many men were meeting in
large. By the 1960s lodge buildings and lodge rooms their lodge that they had to bring out extra chairs and
across the North Carolina doubled, tripled, and even were cramped. I told him that was the perfect problem
quadrupled in size. to have.

What we failed to understand as a fraternity at that After some discussion, his lodge’s woes were not
time was that this membership infl ation was a trend, dire, they were simply being what Masons should be
and all trends come to an end. Logically, within a — fraternal! Do you ever notice the best restaurants
generation, by the 1980s, the need for these gigantic are the crowded ones? Or, the ones with the longest
buildings and large rooms waned. Lodges shrank back lines?
down to more manageable sizes. In fact, our population
at the end of 2019 is about 10 percent greater than our Restaurants that expand seldom do well to handle
total population in 1919, and is probably about on par more customers. Larger spaces look empty. The
with what we think it should be. atmosphere of close quarters dissipates, the uniqueness
of the locale becomes sterile, and customers fall away.
But the psychological impact of “bigger is better” The psychology of space is paramount to our ability to
continues to menace our interpretation of success and relate to those around us.
sustainability. The feeling of loneliness, insecurity,
and failure is palpable when you sit with say 10 or 15 The lodge, which is two stories, houses a lodge room,
brethren in a room designed to sit 100 or more. offi ces, a kitchen, and a huge dining hall centered
around a brick fi replace. Matt quickly pointed out the
Over the last year I have fi elded more and more best room in the building was the dining hall. It was
questions about re-adapting lodge space to meet the warm and inviting and accessible and conducive to
modern, smaller needs of our membership. Time and meetings.
again, lodges perceive they are failing because 10 or
15 men show up and the room looks empty. With Matt’s help, we suggested the lodge’s members
develop a plan to partition off the dining room around
This is a psych-out, pure and simple. Don’t let it get the fi replace. The goal was to make a new lodge room
to you! The remedy is not to grow our numbers but within a room. The work does not require permits or
recapture the intimacy of smaller lodge rooms. It’s heavy construction, just some partitions, preferably
time to cut those rooms in half, literally. temporary, but something that can accommodate the
brethren. These partitions could be canvas accordion
Recently I traveled with Brother Matt Robbins, who doors, plywood barriers, or screens. As long as the
holds a master’s degree in architecture from NC State space can be tyled, the lodge can meet.
University. He’s also past master of State College
Lodge and remarkably well-versed in the psychology Some lodges can aff ord to be cut in half and extra
of built environments, public areas and ritual spaces rooms created. Perhaps your lodge can create a big
— including our Masonic edifi ces and lodge rooms. room and a small room and use either depending on
Together, we visited several lodges to help advise and the nature of the meeting you hold. Be creative and
encourage them to downsize — not to sell — but how scale down!
to renovate the space they have. The best building you
have is the one you own. Reducing our footprint within a building can also
help us realize some additional income. In earlier years,
One lodge building we visited was a massive lodges were rarely meant to be standalone buildings
structure built in the 1950s and meant to hold 150 men. —they were community buildings and multi-purpose.
The lodge now hosts only about 20 brothers regularly. If your lodge is composed of 25 or 50 or 75 members,
First, we need to understand that smaller lodges are do you need a 10,000-square-foot building? Probably

Montana Freemason Page 8 April/May 2020 Volume 96 No. 3