Suffolk Lodge No. 60 has the unique privilege of being present and initiating many noble events for over 200 years. This brief history is presented to share the Masonic attitudes, visions, courage, and ideas so finely tuned by our past brethren and proudly passed onto to the members of today and tomorrow.Suffolk Lodge No. 60 has the unique privilege of being present and initiating many noble events for over 200 years. This brief history is presented to share the Masonic attitudes, visions, courage, and ideas so finely tuned by our past brethren and proudly passed onto to the members of today and tomorrow.

 

The first meeting of Suffolk Lodge was held in the Blydenburgh house at Smithtown, NY in 1797 where they met for 5 years. A plaque on the ground of the Smithtown Public Library marks the site. From 1801 to 1826 lodge meetings were held at different members’ homes located in Stony Brook, Coram, Setauket, Huntington, and Smithtown. It is noteworthy that one of the By-laws fined members for not vacating the premises within a reasonable period of time after the conclusion of the meeting.  In the minutes of Sept. 8, 1819, it appears the first time that the Lodge number had been changed from No. 60 to No. 57. The Lodge has in its possession a Tyler’s jewel which was obtained after the change and on which is engraved the No. 57-1 the other officers’ jewels were obtained earlier in the century and they are engraved “Suffolk Lodge No. 60, 1797.”

 

In the minutes of Sept. 8, 1819, it appears the first time that the Lodge number had been changed from No. 60 to No. 57. The Lodge has in its possession a Tyler’s jewel which was obtained after the change and on which is engraved the No. 57-1 the other officers’ jewels were obtained earlier in the century and they are engraved “Suffolk Lodge No. 60, 1797.”

 

The Morgan Episode of 1826 caused the Lodge to suspend operation until 1856 when the lodge resumed activities in Port Jefferson with the number 401. The meetings were held in the rooms of Suwassett Lodge No. 422 Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  Members of Lodge 401 made many appeals to Grand Lodge to restore the original number 60 and their request was granted in 1876. The first meeting of Suffolk Lodge No. 60 since 1826, fifty years before, was held July 25, 1876.

 

The cane settees, still in use today, where purchased in 1862 by the Lodge from the Odd Fellows for the sum of $80.00 The jewels worn by the officers today were once worn by the officers in the early 1800’s. Suffolk 60 also proudly possesses a Masonic printing plate etched by George Washington’s Button Maker.

 

On January 30, 1910, the Lodge purchased the Presbyterian Church (built in 1854) for a huge sum of $3,500.00. April 4, 1912 marks another moment to remember-, this is the date of the first communication held in the remodeled Presbyterian Church. the lodges new and present home.