Masonic Orders
Masonic meeting sites
In 1735, Charleston’s first Masonic lodge was established as Solomon’s Lodge No. 1. Initially members met at Shepheard’s Tavern or “Mr. Charles Shepheard’s in Broad Street,” one of a number of privately-owned taverns or meeting halls used by fraternal and business groups during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (In 1773, the Maine Lodge became the first lodge in Charleston to own its meeting place when it bought a building in today’s Lodge Alley.)
Isaac DaCosta (1721–1783) joined Solomon’s Lodge in 1753, becoming its treasurer in 1759. He was a founder of the Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection, organized at Shepheard’s Tavern in 1783, but died before this constituent branch of Morin’s Rite of the Royal Secret became the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in 1801. All regular Scottish Rite organizations today derive their heritage from this body.
Many other Jews in Charleston were active as founders and members of Masonic lodges.
Shepheard’s Tavern
Birthplace of the Mother Supreme Council, corner of Church and Broad streets. Painting by Allyn Cox, 1959. Courtesy of the Scottish Rite Temple, Washington, D.C.