Haines City Lodge No. 219 was chartered January 22, 1913 to meet at Haines City in Polk County, FL.
The three Line Officers at chartering were:
Abbott B. Cheney - W∴M∴
Thomas W. Stone - S∴W∴
James T. Miller - J∴W∴
The chartering Grand Lodge Officers were:
Albert Waller Gilchrist - Grand Master
George B. Glover - Deputy Grand Master
C.L. Wilson - Senior Grand Warden
J.E. Crane - Junior Grand Warden
W.P. Webster - Grand Secretary
This lodge was set to work September 13, 1912, as Composite Lodge, U.D. The name was changed to Haines City Lodge at the time it was chartered.
The lodge had twenty-three charter members. Eleven received their degrees in Composite Lodge U.D. and six others were from other Florida Lodges; Tuscan No. 6, Orange Blossom No. 80, Orient No. 70, Auburndale No. 135 and South Apopka No. 165. There were also six brothers from six Lodges representing five other Grand Jurisdictions. They were: Belleview No. 129, Kansas; Reed No. 16, and Warsaw No. 73, Indiana; Glenburn No. 79, North Dakota; Hastings No. 50, Nebraska and Attapulgus No. 225 in Georgia.
The Worshipful Master was from No. 129, the Senior Warden from No. 316 and the Junior Warden from No. 80.
The other twenty were:
Judson Jacobs (135)
David C. Gaffney (135)
William Harden (70)
John W. Sample (6)
Joseph R. Sample (50)
Thomas J. Rabon (225)
John A. Brockington (165)
Joseph L. Thralls (73)
W.W. Shepard (79)
Carl C. Young (U.D.)
Wesley Schultz (U.D.)
Donald B. Ohlinger (U.D.)
James C. Rabon (U.D.)
David A. Foose (U.D.)
Oscar J. Cook (U.D.)
Ray L. Arnold (U.D.)
Ebey D. Tyson (U.D.)
Lisle W. Smith (U.D.)
Oren H. Ohlinger, F.C. (U.D.)
Hugh F. Bryant, E.A. (U.D.)
The above was excerpted from:
"The Grand Lodge of Florida Free and Accepted Masons History, 1830-1988, Volume One - The Lodges"
by:
J. Roy Crowther,
PGM
Grand Historian
Copyright © 1988
The original F&AM Lodge was located at 19 North 6th Street. The historic F&AM Lodge 219 was completed in 1925 at a cost of $30,000. This was originally a two-story building with the Lodge maintaining a hall on the second floor and Frank Bryson's Real Estate Office on the first floor. During the 1930's the Works Progress Administration (WPA) established a sewing room and mission on the first floor. Later, sometime after 1940, the second floor was lost to a fire. You can still find the Masonic symbol in the tile floor between the doorways and the corner stone.
Our current location at 47 North 6th Street was originally the Gateway City Club Building. This lovely red brick building was originally built in 1923. The residents of Haines City rented this building to house their social club. The club contained a billiards room, library, ballroom, and a bowling alley in the basement. After the collapse of the Florida land boom, the club disbanded and the building sat vacant until Dr. H.H. Murphy converted it into a naturopathic hospital, with a maternity ward, X-ray laboratory and swedish massage parlor. It remained a hospital into the 1940s. The Masonic Lodge now calls this Colonial Revival building home, note the second story French door with a balconet and a sunburst transon.
The above history of our building was taken from a brochure entitled: "Touring the City of Haines City Florida, Walking Guide to Historic Downtown" A publication financed in part with historic preservation grant assistance provided by the Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, assisted by the Historic Preservation Advisory Council.