Type Masonic Lodge | Website www.solomonslodge.com | |
Motto Oldest Continuously Operating English Constituted Lodge of Freemasons in the Western Hemisphere Formation February 21, 1734 (1734-02-21) Affiliations Grand Lodge of Georgia, F.& A.M. | ||
Solomon's Lodge, located in Savannah, Georgia, is a Masonic Lodge was founded in 1734 by James Oglethorpe and James Lacey and claims to be the oldest continuing operating lodge in America, It is the mother lodge of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, and between 1734 and 1785 was the only lodge in Georgia. It wasn't called Solomon's Lodge until 1776, previously being known as "The Lodge at Savannah." It occupies the Old Savannah Cotton Exchange. The first person to be initiated into the lodge was the settler and plantation founder Noble Jones.
Many influential local politicians were members of Solomon's Lodge, including Joseph Habersham (US postmaster general), George Handley (Governor or Georgia) and Henry Osborne (judge and delegate to the Continental Congress).
It has often been confused with Solomon's Lodge in Charleston, South Carolina, also a founding lodge for that state that was founded in the same year.