Masons' Hall rises in front of you in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom neighborhood. Built between 1785 and 1787 by Richmond Lodge No. 13 (renumbered Richmond Lodge No. 10 in 1786), this is a place that the men of the lodge finished in 1787 and have used ever since. The building remains the active home of and is owned by Richmond Randolph Lodge No. 19, who have met in their third-floor lodge room continuously since Masons’ Hall was completed in 1787.
You can picture the long effort that put this building here: the original plan to raise money was a lottery authorized by an act of the Legislature on December 27, 1785, permitting up to £1,500. That lottery, managed by a committee of John Marshall, Gabriel Galt, Foster Webb Jr., David Lambert, and John Beckley, proved unsuccessful, selling only a few tickets after a year. By April 13, 1787, the Common Hall resolved that the “Society of Free Masons” would give security in the amount of £5,000 and a lodge committee would move forward.
The hall’s national recognition came later, when it was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The third-floor windows and the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood spread out before you.