The beginnings of Lodge No. 2 are practically inseparable from the origins of Pennsylvania Freemasonry as it is today.  Pennsylvania Lodge No. 4, the first iteration of our lodge, was established on June 24, 1757 under the authority of William Allen, Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania.  Approximately twenty brethren, identified as “seafaring men, artisans, and tradesmen,” met at Jeremiah Smith’s Public House on Walnut Street. However, as this new lodge began its work, it quickly became apparent that Lodge No. 4 was not following the “Modern” Masonic ritual under the rules of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the Grand Lodge of England.  Instead, the lodge was working in the “Ancient” form, a new branch of Freemasonry that sought to return to the Craft’s traditional landmarks and customs.  Long dissatisfied with the inconsistent, disorganized, and somewhat elitist state of Modern Freemasonry, the Ancients had established their own Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1751.  The two rival Grand Lodges created a schism in the English-speaking Craft.

The Pennsylvania Provincial Grand Lodge, working under the Moderns, got wind of Lodge No. 4’s loyalty to the Ancients.  At a meeting of Lodge No. 4 in September 1757, several visitors from another Modern lodge “all behaved as spies from an enemy’s camp,” and a week later the Provincial Grand Lodge formally accused Lodge No. 4 of being Ancients.  In December of that year, a meeting of Lodge No. 4 was visited by three brethren from an Ancient lodge in England, which inspired the lodge to petition the Ancient Grand Lodge of England for the proper Masonic authority to constitute a new “Ancient” lodge – the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.  In a meeting of Lodge No. 4 in January 1758, a petition to the Ancient Grand Lodge of England requesting a warrant was read and approved.  On June 7, 1758, the Ancient Grand Lodge of England issued a warrant establishing Ancient Lodge No. 69 of England and No. 1 of Pennsylvania.  Lodge No. 4 ceased to exist, and became “Lodge No. 1 of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania.”  To this day, Lodge No. 2 celebrates this warrant as our lodge’s formal constitution at our June anniversary meetings.

But not long after Lodge No. 1 was established, it quickly became apparent that a single lodge would not be able to fully promote Ancient Freemasonry in Pennsylvania.  A formal request to the Ancient Grand Lodge of England for a warrant establishing an Ancient Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was submitted by Lodge No. 1 in February 1760.  Anticipating that the prayer of their petition would be granted, Lodge No. 1 renamed itself “Lodge No. 2” by the end of that year, surrendering “Lodge No. 1” to the forthcoming Provincial Grand Lodge – we have worked under the designation of “Lodge No. 2” ever since.  Brother William Ball was provisionally elected as Provincial Grand Master but not installed, as that position was not yet warranted by the Grand Lodge in England.

While waiting for the Ancient Grand Lodge to act, Lodge No. 2 continued to grow and created its own system to manage its expanding membership. In April 1760, Lodge No. 2 harmoniously split into two “sections” meeting on different evenings – the first section met the second Tuesday of each month, while the second section met the fourth Tuesday.  The second section was led by a “Deputy Master” appointed by the Worshipful Master, and each section had its own set of officers except for a shared treasurer.  This “two lodges under one lodge” system remained in effect for over three years.

On July 15, 1761, the Ancient Grand Lodge of England issued a Provincial Grand Warrant for the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, establishing it as Lodge No. 89 in England and No. 1 in Pennsylvania.  However, this warrant never made it to America – this was during the French and Indian War, and the ship carrying the warrant was captured by the French!  A second copy of the grand warrant was also lost in transit, meaning that Lodge No. 2 was unaware that a Provincial Grand Lodge had actually been established for over two years.

In December 1763, Lodge No. 2 received a letter from the Ancient Grand Lodge addressed to William Ball as the “Grand Master of Philadelphia,” requesting the names of the Grand Officers of Pennsylvania.  Even though the warrant had never arrived, the brethren finally knew that their request for a Provincial Grand Lodge had been approved!  Bro. Ball was promptly installed as the first Ancient Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania, and his first official act was to warrant the second “section” of Lodge No. 2 as Lodge No. 3.  The grand warrant itself finally arrived in Philadelphia over a year later, in early 1765.

For the first several years of its existence, the Ancient Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania was virtually synonymous with Lodge No. 2.  All of the Provincial Grand Officers came from Lodge No. 2 until 1772, and changing a single meeting from Lodge No. 2 to the Grand Lodge was as routine as changing between degrees is for us today.  The two institutions were so intertwined that sometimes the secretary couldn’t keep track of which lodge was open – a note from August 1768 indicates that the minutes of a Grand Lodge meeting were accidentally recorded as the minutes of Lodge No. 2!

When the American Revolution began, Lodge No. 2 wholeheartedly supported the struggle for American independence in accordance with the Masonic virtues of brotherhood and equality.  Fifty-four members of Lodge No. 2 became officers in the Continental Army – sixteen colonels, ten majors, and twenty-eight captains.  As a result, the lodge was specifically targeted by the British Army during the occupation of Philadelphia, when British soldiers broke into the lodge hall at Second and Chestnut Streets and stole Lodge No. 2’s jewels and materials.  Thankfully, those jewels subsequently came into the possession of the other Ancient lodges in Philadelphia, which continued to work during the occupation due to their Loyalist sympathies.  In a strange twist of fate, those lodges pledged to temporarily hold the jewels, and subsequently returned them when Lodge No. 2 reopened after the British abandoned Philadelphia in 1778 – one of numerous examples of Freemasons assisting their brethren on the opposite side of a conflict.

By the end of the war, the Modern branch of Freemasonry was extinct in Pennsylvania, leaving only the Ancient lodges that originated with Lodge No. 2.  For that reason, Pennsylvania Freemasonry today is unique in that its rituals closely follow the “Ancient” form, distinguishing us from virtually every other Masonic jurisdiction in not only the United States but the world.  The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania declared itself independent of the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1786, and the warrant of constitution under which Lodge No. 2 works to this day was issued by that independent Grand Lodge in 1789.  For over two centuries, Lodge No. 2 has been exemplifying Masonic virtues in Philadelphia.  We are proud of our past, and like all Freemasons, we are always working towards a better future – not only for Freemasonry in general and our lodge in particular, but for our community and our world.

For over two centuries, Lodge No. 2 has been exemplifying Masonic virtues here in Philadelphia.  We are proud of our history–come help us write the next chapter…

Timeline of Lodge No. 2’s History