The Grand Freemasons Lodge

The Grand Freemasons Lodge, originally uploaded by pictureinfocus.

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The Grand Freemasons Lodge
Barbados Masonic Lodge
Spry Street, St. Michael
Barbados
Series: From Laundry Road to Sunday school
(08-11-2005)

In 1740 Freemasonry was introduced to Barbados by Alexander Irvine. This is the Freemason Masonic Lodge located in Spry Street, a small street that runs into St Michael’s Row on end and Roebuck Street on the other.

The Mason lodge was initially Harrison Free School which was establish and built by Thomas Harrison, a wealthy merchant, in 1733. The school was allegedly opened in 1745 for the poor and destitute boys from the Bridgetown area. In 1780 a huge hurricane leveled a large amount of Bridgetown including the school. The property was repaired at a huge sum but consequently fell into poor condition and was sold to the Masonic Lodge in 1871. The school reopened in 1789 on Crumpton Street, but was then a high class grammar school for the rich elite boys of the gentlemen class.

From 1871 this wonderful building was the home of several District Lodges in Barbados and remained so until sometime in 2005 when the building was sold to the Central Bank which towers above it in Cathedral Square. A grand facility for the Mason Lodge was built at Salters, St. George in 2006. The old emasculate Masonic building on spry street is now in the hands of the National Trust.

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