| Brief History of
Woodbridge Lodge No. 583
 On April
24, 1955 after signing up over 160 members, Woodbridge Lodge was given Charter Number 583. After searching the community, we leased a
suit�able location for our lodge. The
location was established in an old wooden building on the Davis Place in Woodbridge, a
stone’s throw from Occoquan School. Many
dollars were spent for material and many hours of free labor were given by the members. With repairs made and the facilities installed, we
were all set to open on August 15, 1955. But,
by an act of God, Hurricane “Connie” came sweeping through on August 11th and
our lodge was destroyed by fire. Our losses
were estimated at $7,000. Unfortunately, we
were not protected by fire insurance.
Our
membership in the lodge dropped considerably and by November of 1955 our six officers were
the only members present at the meetings. In
April 1956 we established another Lodge Home on U.S. Highway #1. Again, we were able to hold our regular meetings
and our membership increased and our Lodge grew by leaps and bounds.
The Lodge
membership decided that they would like to have a Ladies Auxil�iary of the Moose. They applied to Mooseheart and in August of 1956,
Woodbridge Chapter #653, Women of the Moose, was instituted.
After nine
successful months we again had the misfortune of losing our Home by fire in the early
morning of January 25, 1957. The fire
destroyed nearly all of our accumulated possessions.
There was a very clear picture published in the Washington Post and Times
Herald on January 26, 1957.
Brothers
Kamel Mesalam and Calvin Reed purchased the land where our pre�sent fireproof building
stands. After the second fire burned us out
we held our lodge meetings on our newly acquired property in a drafty Shooting-
Match-Shack which was heated by a little Tin-Heater.
Surprisingly enough, attendance was very good. Many loyal members donated material and furnished
free la�bor to build the 20x90 building that was to be our lodge home for the next four
years. The ladies of our chapter donated and
served delicious meals to the volunteer workers on weekends. In September 1957, less than nine months from the
date of the second fire, we moved into our third Lodge Home.
In the
months that followed our membership showed a steady increase to the point where our
building was not adequate; we again started making plans for a larger building. In August 1959 we contacted Houston Associates,
who drew plans for our new Moose Home addition. The
plans were drawn for a masonry building 80 ‘90’ with emphasis on fireproofing. On October 30, 1960 the corner stone was laid for
this addition.
We were
compelled to delay construction due to uncompleted financial ar�rangements until we
received our commitment from the Bank of Occoquan and Piedmont Savings & Loan; upon
endorsement of our loan, we immediately set about construction, with the Woodbridge Lodge
#583 acting as general con�tractor.
In the
months that followed we engaged the various trades for the different phases of
construction. As we approached the completion
of our new addition, we achieved a building with such features as an auditorium measuring
60’x80’, offices, bar, cloakroom, dressing rooms and stage.
Looking
back to April 1955, with strength of only 160 members, we are indeed fortu�nate to have a
building of this size despite the loss of two lodge homes by fire, both of which resulted
in a heavy loss in our membership. Today we
are proud and take pride in boasting our current membership numbers and a Lodge Home with
an area of over 8,000 square feet.
With the
Continued support of our many loyal members we can look forward to many successful years
ahead. |
