On this day, a small group gathered here and tried to tell its story, walking through its rooms and the place that once hosted Vaudeville acts. Anderson County Museum Curator Alison Hinman and two Masons — Charles “Spoon” Huggins and Jake O. Phillips — pulled out more details, expanding on the short tale contained on that metal plaque. “What you are standing in is a barn,” Phillips said. “It is made of solid wood. We have beams that are cut from a single tree.” Once inside, I know why someone else requested that I write about this place. Blue, like the moon, covers parts of the ceiling. Some places are yellow. Columns surround the walls, and royal blue-cushioned wooden chairs sit in rows along the rim the room itself. It’s a room of reverence, a place mixed with royalty and religion. It is modeled after King Solomon’s Temple. And its blue overtones are for another reason. “Masons used to meet out in the open under the full moon,” Huggins said. “So now, Masonic lodges are called Blue Lodges. This whole room is full of symbolism.”Names pop out even to the transplanted Andersonian. James Orr. G.F. Tolly. J.L. Tribble.
For years — well since 1889 — the city fathers met here. This was this building’s first purpose. It was one of two Masonic lodges in Anderson. In another room, there are rows of photos. Most are black-and-white framed portraits of those men long gone.This city’s street names are under these photos. The men who made this town are here. G.F. Tolly was mayor for at least seven terms in Anderson. One of his descendants, Hinman said, is Fred Tolly, who served on Anderson County Council for a number of years. Then another photo shows James L. Orr, the leader or past master of this lodge. He was also the governor of South Carolina. His funeral — the largest in Anderson — was attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people in this building, Hinman said.
