Franklin Lodge #5 - Port Gamble, WA

Built in 1870, the Franklin Freemason Lodge #5, located in Kitsap County is the oldest Masonic building in the state of Washington.

1858 was the year of inception for Franklin Lodge No 5.  Eight Masons met to constitute a Masonic Lodge in Port Gamble, (then called Teekalet, a native word meaning "Brightness of the noon day sun").

Founders Henry K. White, Cyrus Walker, Oliver Hall, and John Webster, each being Masons from various states, who were employees at the Puget Mill Company along with seafaring men J.P. Wilbur, Richard Carlton, A.W. Gove and John Y. Wynn, together drafted the petition required for a lodge to be sanctioned.  

The original building was destroyed by a fire around 1867. For the next three years, the lodge was given special dispensation to hold meetings in a community hall.  Franklin Lodge has been in existence for 163 years, and the building you see today is where Freemasons have met for 151 of those years—and still going strong!