COOKE.C91

Louisville -DeMolay Commandery
No. 12, K.T.

150 Years of Service

by Momson L. Cooke, MPS

In the year 1805 a Grand Encampment
was organized at Providence, R.I., for
"the State of Rhode Island and the jur-
isdiction thereunto belonging. " Thomas
S. Webb was the first Grand Master. The
first General Grand Encampment was
formed in New York on June 22, 1816.
(Later on in 1856 after the Constitution
was adopted the title was changed to
" The Grand Encampment of the United
States. ")

An application for a charter was
granted to Webb Commandery at Lex-
ington, KY., obviously named for the
first Grand Master, by Thomas Snow,
Grand Generalissimo of the Grand En-
campment. This was confirmed by the
Grand Encampment in September 1822,
and Daniel E. Cowan was named the
first Eminent Commander. However,
the commandery was short-lived, and
ceased operations entirely from 1828
until March 1841 .

In the meantime, an application was
made to the Grand Encampment in De-
cember 1839 to form a commandery in
Louisville, and dispensation was granted
for this purpose on January 2, 1840, and
a charter was issued by the General
Grand Encampment on September 17,
1841 . Thus began Louisville Com-
mandery, or Louisville Encampment, as
it was called then. Since Webb No. 1 was
defunct at the time, Louisville became
No. 1.

A convention of Knights Templar was
held in Frankfort on October 5, 1847,
and the Grand Commandery of Ken-
tucky was formed. It so happens then
that Louisville-DeMolay Commandery,
Frankfort Commandery, and Webb
Commandery pre-date the Grand Com-
mandery of Kentucky.

A group of Knights of Louisville No. 1
met at a regular Conclave on March 26,
1867, requesting a demit in order to form
a new commandery. On April 13th Sir
Kt. Charles R. Woodruff, R.E. Grand
Commander, meeting in Louisville,
granted Dispensation to set the com-
mandery to work. It was named after our
last Grand Master, Jacques Demolai,
and was to be known as DeMolay Com-
mandery, Richard G. Hawkins was the
first Eminent Commander.

The two Commanderies continued to
grow and distinguish themselves in-
dividually, both winning national drill
competition at the Grand Encampment,
and many local and state-wide drill com-
petitions.

After many years of honorable service,
during which time they functioned sepa-
rately for a period of 66 years, the two
commanderies merged on May 18,
1933. Although Webb Commandery in
Lexington had been re-activated in
1841, Louisville-DeMolay Comman-
dery, the new name agreed upon, could
have continued to be known as Number
1 . But Sir Kt. William Armstrong, a Past
Grand Commander, and staunch mem-
ber of DeMolay Commandery and a
leader in the merger, did not want to give
up the famous " number 12 " so the newly
merged Commandery received the title
it holds today--Louisville-DeMolay No.
12.

While Templary and Masonry every-
where have lost some of their glamour of
the past, Louisville-DeMolay has a long
and honorable history. Many of the great
leaders of our city, of all professions, as
well as Masonic leaders, have been ac-
tive members of the Commandery.
Among them were such outstanding
names as Bishop Thomas U. Dudley,
Rob Morris, H.B. Grant, Isaac T.
Woodson, Willis Stewart, and John R.
Cowles, later to be Grand Commander
of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scot-
tish Rite. He and W.J. Watkins gave us
our cannon, in the front hall, affec-
tionately called the "Orator," in 1894.
Louisville No. 1 and DeMolay No. 12,
collectively, produced 31 Grand Com-
manders and one M.E. Grand Master,
Solomon K. Grant, nephew of President
U.S. Grant, was the first from Louisville
No. 1 and James A. Beattie was the first
from DeMolay. Rodney Williams is our
31 st. William Ryan, for whom Ryan No.
17, Danville, is named, Warren Larue
Thomas, later Grand Master, and Wil-
liam L. Dawson, were knighted in
Louisville before Ryan and Rob Morris
were in existence, later demitting to
those Commanderies. In addition many
Grand Masters of Grand Lodge, Grand
High Priests, and Illustrious Grand
Masters were members of these two
commanderies. Their roster looked like
a Who's Who of Louisville elite.

Louisville Commandery was started in
a building on the south side of Main St.
between 5th and 6th Sts. John R. Hall
was the first Eminent Commander.
Then they moved to 3rd and Jefferson
(probably Green, or Liberty) over the
Post Of fice. In 1842 they were in the Old
Masonic Hall at 5th and Green, where
the Federal Reserve now stands. The
Building was jointly owned by the Ma-
sons and the 1st Baptist Church, later
Walnut St. Baptist. In 1850 they moved
to theJacob Building on the S.E. corner
of 3rd and Market. In 1857 they moved
into the beautiful Masonic Temple on
4th St. between Liberty and Jefferson.
They were forced to leave there because
of a fire, and resided in the Scottish Rite
Temple on 6th and Walnutin 1897. They
were temporarily in the Elks Bldg. on
Walnut between 3rd and 4th Sts. In
1900. In 1904 they occupied the new
Masonic Temple on Chestnut between
3rd and 4th Sts. This was the Shubert
Building which housed the Strand
Theatre below.

In 1933, when Louisville No. 1 and
DeMolay No. 12 merged, they were
meeting in their new building at 212 W.
Broadway, which they had purchased in
1909. They stayed there almost 50 years,
when hard times struck and they had to
sell that wonderful property. They then
moved back to the present Scottish Rite
Temple, later moving to Preston Lodge's
new building on East Broadway. They
stayed there until Preston Lodge sold the
building and they moved to Crescent
Hill Lodge on Frankfort Ave. In 1959
they bought a residential building on
Newburg Road, which proved economi-
cally impractical, and they sold it after
one year and moved back to Crescent
Hill Lodge Hall where they remained
almost 25 years before moving to Park-
land Temple on 2nd and Kentucky.

And now with our dream come true
and celebrating not only 150 years of
continuous operation, but 1 year in our
beautiful new' Asylum, and a Grand
Commander from our midst, we look
forward to the next sesqui-centennial
with great excitement and anticipation.

Please send all editorial for future
issues of The Philalethes to:

Allen E. Roberts, FPS
110 Quince Avenue
Highland Springs, VA  23075
