What likely was Superior's oldest electric sign was taken down in March as members of the community's Masonic Bodies were preparing to sell their quarters and move to a smaller location.

However, questions surround the sign and the history of the organization. When it comes to the history of the organization founded 140 years ago in 1884, current members are personally acquainted with only recent history.

From the files of The Superior Express we learned the Masons installed "the first electric sign" to designate their meeting place in November of 1929. Do you suppose the sign recently removed had been in use since 1929?

The lodge was chartered June 24, 1884. For many years lodge met above what is now the main building for Walt's Furniture.

September 9, 1954, The

Express published an architect's drawing of a proposed Masonic lodge building to be built where the Superior Public Library is now located. It was to be a two-story building, 50 x 102 feet. There would be a banquet room on the first floor with the lodge rooms on second floor. Estimated construction cost would be $50,000. But another opportunity was to surface before construction began.

In 1959, Hanford Hodges sold the building at 156 East Third Street to the Masons. It was extensively remodelled and the main entrance moved to 311 Commercial Avenue. In addition to the interior work, many windows on the first and second floors were filled with bricks.

The lodge moved into the new quarters in January of 1962. The facility was dedicated on April 30, 1962,

The East Third Street location has an interesting history,

In early 1883, only five years after Superior was established, William and Nancy Gilmore purchased 156 East Third and built a wooden store building. To the north in 1894, the Bossemeyer family built Superior's first elevator.

In early 1884, Ernest Bossemeyer located his East Side Grocery in the Gilmore building.

In 1901, William Long and John Mullet removed the Gilmore building. In 1903, they built the present two-story brick building with full basement. The building dimensions were 35 x 75 feet. It had window wells to allow light into the basement, and exterior basement entrance on the east side and the basement extended under the sidewalk on the east.

The first floor was used for retail space with a large meeting room or hall on the second floor. When the Republican Valley irrigation project was being developed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation used the hall as an office, and much of the project design work was completed in that office.

As late as 1908, the Edison Theater was showing movies in the hall. Adult admission was 10 cents. In 1944 and 1945 the hall housed a youth center.

In 1909, Long sold his interest in the building to Clyde H. Hodges who located his grocery and general merchandise store in the building. In 1916 Mullet sells his interest to Hodges. Many young Superior men were to work for Hodges including two were to later operate their own grocery stores, R. J. Stephenson and Lester Roder. Stephenson's first grocery store was located in the Hodges Building. Later it was located in the Fourth Street building now occupied by Peak Dental. The Roder store was located below the Masonic meeting rooms on Central Avenue.

In 1925, Hodges became postmaster. The post office was located in the western half of the building until the present federal building opened in 1936. When the post office moved out, a hoe repair shop moved in. The shop proprietor maintained living quarters in the back of his shop.

The Armour Company operated a poultry processing plant and creamery east of the present VFW Club on East First Street. The company's cream station was located in the east half of the Hodges building.

In November of 1955, the Armour company and Beatrice Foods swapped some territory and the Armour company closed its Superior creamery. According to a newspaper story published Nov. 3, 1955, the Armour company would modernized and enlarge its Superior poultry operation that was then employing 75 to 85 people, mostly women.

Lloyd Elliott was manager of the cream station and five country cream collection routes were operated out of Superior, The cream collected on those routes was brought to the cream station for shipment onto a processing plant.

After meeting in a downtown Superior building for 62 years, members of the Superior Masonic Lodge have worked for several weeks sorting, cleaning and moving from the building they have called their "temple." The building recently sold and the transfer of ownership is reported in this weekʼs issue of The Superior Express. The lodge has secured a temporary meeting place in Superior and a storage space in Nelson for lodge materials while continuing the search for a more permanent home. The electric sign recently removed from their Third and Commercial location is thought to be the first electric sign installed in downtown Superior.

While the lodge has moved out of the building, the lodge is not closing, only moving to quarters more suitable for the current lodge activities. The building at Third and Commercial has been sold. At a later date The Express anticipates printing a story about the building's new chapter.