Stated Meetings are on the third Monday of each month At 7:30 PM

Bellevue Masonic Lodge
Formed in 1855

P. L. Lake, Worshipful Master 1855

Bellevue Lodge #51 AF & AM was founded in 1855. The first and founding members of the Lodge were P.L. Lake, a physician, D.F. Spurr, a stone mason from Virginia, G.L. Lewis, a carpenter from New Hampshire, J.B. Booth, a lawyer from New York, and P.H. Smith, a farmer who had come from Ohio.  P.L. Lake was appointed Worshipful Master; D.F. Spurr, Senior Warden; G.L. Lewis, Junior Warden; J.B. Booth, Secretary, and P.H. Smith Treasurer.
                                                           
          The organizational meeting was held on the third floor of the Jackson County Courthouse, which is now the Bellevue Elementary School. Subsequent meetings were held there until later that year when the Lodge rented a room on the upper floor of the building which now houses the Keil Bait Shop.

          Two years later in 1857, the Lodge rented the third floor of what used to be the Seward Bank Building, and which now houses the Bellevue Boat Store, at 134 South Riverview.

          In 1884, the Confidence Lodge #337 of La Motte, sought and received authorization from the Grand Lodge of Iowa to consolidate with the Bellevue Lodge. Three members from La Motte used to come to Bellevue on the Narrow Gauge to attend the Lodge meetings, after which they would walk back to La Motte.

          In 1888, the Lodge secured space in the Nieman building (113 South Riverview) until recently occupied by the Natural Gas co. The Women’s Relief Corps also used the hall for a meeting place with a fee of .75 cents for each meeting and with a stipulation tha they were to clean the hall and keep it clean and tidy.

          In 1914, the Lodge purchased from Joe Till, a building at 205 North Water St., (now Riverview) for $2300. During the period that the Lodge used the building they added a new front and installed a new kitchen.

          This building was razed on March 27, 1972 and construction of a new home for the Lodge was begun. The Cornerstone was laid on Sept. 8, 1972, at which time the building was also dedicated. Woodrow W. Norris, Worthy Grand Master from Iowa City, was in charge of the ceremony assisted by Dr. M. Moulton, who had been Past Master of the Lodge.

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