Youngstown Masonic Temple succumbs to dwindling membership

YOUNGSTOWN

After 106 years of serving the local freemasonry groups, the Masonic Temple in Youngstown will close.

The closure isn’t sudden news for the freemasonry groups that meet there.

“Like all of the service clubs and fraternal organizations, we are suffering from declining members,” said Tim Johnson, secretary of the board of directors for the temple and manager of the building at 223 Wick Ave.

The temple, which opened in 1910, will close on June 30.

“It was still in very heavy use until the late 1980s and early 1990s,” Johnson said of the temple.

The temple is under the umbrella of the Grand Lodge of Ohio for free and accepted masons.

Founded in England in 1717, freemasonry is the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world, according to the Grand Lodge of Ohio.

Freemasonry “unites men of good character who, though of different religious, ethnic, or social backgrounds, share a belief in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind,” according to the Grand Lodge of Ohio’s website.

Read more about the group and the building in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.