Stu Shear and Dixon Clement reminisce as they look at some of the artifacts inside the Piqua Warren Lodge #24 of Ohio Free & Accepted Masons recently.
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
PIQUA — “Warren Masonic Lodge #24 has called many places home.”
The sentence opens a biography written about the lodge by Piqua resident, and long-standing Mason, Dixson Clement.
Last month, following a more than 180 year history in Piqua, Warren Lodge #24 of Free and Accepted Masons, held their final meeting and closed the doors for the last time.
Declining membership seems to be the primary culprit in the demise of the lodge. As current members get older, and new members are not plentiful, it became economically not feasible to continue.
What began in 1840 with a meeting in the second floor of Tamplin’s Tavern, located at the southeast corner of Spring and Ash Streets, is now another memory of yesteryear in Piqua.
Lodge #24 members Clement and Stu Shear talked about the impact that their lodge had in the community for many years.
The Warren Lodge was a mainstay in donations to worthy causes around the community. Area non-profits were benefactors of not only members of the Warren Lodge but also from both state and national levels.
Shear said that lodge membership ran at more than 200 members for many years.
Shear and Clement also cited repairs and upkeep to the building, located next door to the Piqua branch of the Miami County YMCA, as reasons for leaving the historic building.
Remaining lodge members will be joining forces with the Sidney Masonic Lodge and continuing the tradition of service to their community.
