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The art glass station lights (found
on this page)were designed by Milton B. Roller, P.M., for the first temple and are the property of the lodge. It
is interesting that three of these lights were inspired by local scenes which Milt observed daily in his commute to San Francisco
via the Southern Pacific Railroad. After the 1971 fire, Brother Milton fabricated a new station light for the East from a
photograph that was furnished by Past Master John Neff of Mountain View Lodge No. 194. The other station lights survived the
fire and were restored to good condition by Brother Leslie Heald and his wife, Willa.
As early as 1897, the Stanford Faculty Masonic Club took
steps to form a lodge in the vicinity of the campus, but no one among the group was qualified to fill the Master's chair.
It was not until 1900, when Josiah W. Roller and his family moved to Palo Alto, that this difficulty was overcome.
Brother Roller was a Past Master of Occidental Lodge
No. 22 in San Francisco. Thus, thirteen brethren met on January 17, 1901, at 8 o'clock, in the Stanford Building, second floor
(corner of Emerson and University Avenue), to form a Masonic Lodge. During this preliminary meeting, the name Palo Alto Lodge
was suggested by Brother Byxbee and adopted by the gathering.
[To the West, this Station light shows the setting sun behind the old Southern
Pacific Railroad bridge and the famous tree for which Palo Alto was named. Although the
west, as one of the four cardinal points, holds an honorable position as the station of the Senior Warden, and of the pillar
of Strength that supports the Lodge, yet, being the place of the sun’s setting and opposed to the east, the recognized
place of light, it, in Masonic symbolism, represents the place of darkness and ignorance. ]
The first meeting under dispensation was held at the Mayfield I.O.O.F.
Hall (at the southwest corner of California and Ash Streets) January 10, 1902. The meeting was held in Mayfield rather than
Palo Alto because Masonic Law requires that those seeking the formation of a new lodge must secure the consent of the nearest
lodge of Masons. In accordance with this rule, the charter group had made application to San Mateo Lodge No. 168 at Redwood
City for their consent to a new lodge in Palo Alto. But this request was refused by San Mateo Lodge at their meeting in Redwood
City on September 21, 1901.
At this critical point in the history of Palo Alto Lodge, one of the charter members
had a brainstorm. He realized that Mayfield was nearer to Mountain View than it was to Redwood City and that Mayfield had
no lodge. The charter members thereupon enlisted the services of the county surveyor to testify to the distances in question,
and then transferred their application to Mountain View Lodge No. 194, requesting the consent of the members to the formation
of a new Masonic lodge at Mayfield to be named Palo Alto Lodge and was accepted on December 23, 1901. On March 29, a committee of seven was appointed to devise and suggest ways and means to
secure property and erect a Masonic Temple. At this same meeting, the lodge passed a resolution to request permission to move
to Palo Alto. On August 14, 1902, the members of the lodge met at Nortree Hall on University at the end of Florence St., to
incorporate a Masonic Temple Association. The purpose of the association was to erect a building to cost $20,000 or more.
The board considered and agreed upon the selection of a building site at the northwest corner of University Avenue and Florence
Street. The lot, with a frontage of 100 feet on University Avenue and 150 feet on Florence Street, was one of the most desirable
locations in the town. (The first Masonic Temple on University Avenue in Palo Alto. The Cornerstone was laid on October
7, 1909. The temple was dedicated on March 19, 1910).
Two hundred brethren gathered in the lodge room
on January 10, 1922, for the observance of the twentieth anniversary of the Palo Alto Lodge. The history recorded the growth
of the lodge from its original thirteen members to a strong and prosperous association of 335 men. So popular was the lodge
at this time that, during Brother Amidon's term, degrees were conferred on forty-seven new members. On many occasions, the
officers had to meet twice a week in order to keep abreast of the work.
On Tuesday, December 22, 1925, with 250 brethren in attendance,
Brother Willard T. Tyler became Master of the lodge for the year. 1926, Preceding this installation, a bountiful turkey supper
was enjoyed in the banquet room of the temple. On February 23, Worshipful Albert Eugene Boynton, Grand Master of California,
officially visited the lodge and witnessed the ceremony in which the Stanford Masonic Club Degree Team conferred a third degree
of Masonry upon Kenneth R. McDougall. On April 16, a new auditorium, which had been built as an annex to the temple, was formally
opened and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies by all the Masonic bodies. (The auditorim is the second floor dining room
of the center.) Four months later in this eventful year, on the evening of September 2, fire of undermined origin destroyed
a large part of the interior of the temple, the fire was extinguished only after the firemen of Palo Alto and Stanford had
battled for two hours, but by that time, the flames had destroyed a large part of the interior walls and much of the costly
furniture and unique decorations of the lodge. The stained glass skylight was wrecked both by the fire and by the firemen
seeking to reach the blaze, and the ground-floor stores (the Young Drug Company and the Earle and Company grocery store) were
almost entirely ruined by the water used to fight the fire. It was reported Epsom salts sent gallons of foam billowing up
through the floor. The task of repairing the damage and restoring the temple to its former splendid state required over two
months' time and the sum of $17,588.
The Depression had hit hard in the Bay Area, and the lodge officers had to create numerous inducements
to get the members of the lodge out to meetings during these economically troubled years. During Paul Merner’s term
as Master in 1931, almost every meeting of the lodge ended with an informative lecture given by some distinguished person
in a special field of endeavor. These talks were scheduled after stated meetings as well and degree nights.
In 1934, when Robert L. Cody rose to Master of the Lodge, hard times had become more pressing, and
the Delinquent Dues Committee was burdened with more work than ever before. Many shares of the Temple Association stock were
being offered for sale to the lodge as dues payment. The problem of the many brethren who were unable to pay their dues did
not dishearten the lodge. Instead, they devised special programs, such as “Swedish Night” and “Family Night,”
which were designed to get the members and their friends out for an inexpensive evening of pleasure and brotherhood.
In 1936, on November 24th, the brethren celebrated a very joyous occasion. A special meeting,
with over 350 members and friends in attendance, was called by the Masonic Temple Association to observe the burning of the
mortgage on the Palo Alto Masonic Temple. Presiding at the happy ceremony were the member of the board of directors of the
association: Milton B. Roller, P, M., President, L. Harold Anderson, P. M., Vice-President; A. N. Umphreys, P. M., Secretary;
Wm. C. Werry, P. M., Treasurer; and Walter Rogers, Attorney.
Menlo Park had come to the Palo Alto Lodge and was using the Brown Room for their meetings. In 1950 Los Altos petitioned
for a lodge of their own and on July 26, 1955 the Josiah W. Roller Masonic Club was established; in November the lodge received
formal notification that the club intended to form a new lodge in Palo Alto. At that time, Palo Alto Lodge membership was
at a high of 760 members. At the 1956 stated meeting, the lodge presented a gift of officers’ aprons and jewels to the
new Josiah W. Roller Lodge, which was instituted on May 11th. In the Spring of 1957, the “Olsen-Werry Quartette”
ship over the door of the Preparation Room was moved to new permanent position over the fireplace in the lounge. The reason
for this shift was a Grand Lodge edict in October 1956, banning certain items of paraphernalia from the degree work at Palo
Alto Lodge. The items eliminated were the “Olsen-Werry Quartette” ship, all the first, second and third degree
charts, the first degree carpet, the trestle board, and the rough and perfect ashler. In 1965, the Grand Lodge granted Palo
Alto Lodge permission to return “The ship” to the lodge room. However, it could not be located in its former place
above the door of the preparation room.
[Found in the East this art glass station was the only station destroyed in the fire
of 1971. This light represents the rising sun over the fountain and oak trees which stood in the center of
University Avenue Circle at the turn of the century. (The site is now the intersection of University and Alma, where the railroad
underpass begins) The East being the place where the Master sits, is considered the
most honorable part of the Lodge, and is distinguished from the rest of the room by a dais, or raised platform, which is occupied
only by those who have passed the Chair.]
Kenneth Dole Corley, was the last Master to be installed in the old Temple; for on Friday,
January 29, 1971, at 5:11 pm., a policeman reported that the Temple was ablaze. It was a stubborn three-alarm fire that burned
seven hours and completely destroyed the building. Firemen from Stanford University, Mountain View, and Los Altos helped in
the fight. During the mopping up operations that night, the ceremonial lodge Bible, dating back to 1902, was found miraculously
unscathed by the fire.
As early as March, the office and lodge paraphernalia were being
replaced with insurance funds, and there were meetings to discuss the construction of a new temple. Many brethren were also
contributing money for a building fund and gifts to replace items lost in the fire. By August, Milt Roller had redesigned
and built a new station light for the East.
During the years of 1956 through 1985 another lodge was formed in Palo Alto, the Josiah W. Roller
Lodge No. 761, F. & A. M. In 1956 the Palo Alto Lodge No. 346 had some 760 members and was too large to offer members
who wanted to become line officers an opportunity to participate in the Ritual Work. A new lodge started by seasoned Freemasons
had a good opportunity to be very successful. This lodge reached 200 members quite early in its life, it could hardly get
new members, so it could not expand. Adding such things as officers unable to keep their commitment, the growth of the lodge
and the fire in 1971, this new lodge could not go on and in 1985 Josiah W. Roller Lodge no. 761 approached Palo Alto Lodge
No. 346 to see about a merger, which resulted in another new lodge named Palo Alto-Roller Lodge No. 346, F. & A. M.
Taken from the book: 100 year history of (1902-2002) Masonic Lodges of Palo Alto
[Located in the North this art glass station usually dark, comes to life]This station
light in the North, Milt’s only departure from the local scene, is a haunting view of an Egyptian landscape at night.
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