Masonic Lodge #479

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Masonic Lodge Number Four Seventy-Nine, right here in Wise County. Now, this building has a story that starts two miles east of where you're standin', out at a place called Old Aurora, back in 1877. That's when they put this structure up, two full floors, solid enough to move mountains.

Or at least solid enough to move itself. But we'll get there. The second floor was always the lodge hall; always, from day one, no negotiation on that point.

The brothers knew what they needed and they claimed it. The lower floor, though, that's where things got interesting. It started its life as a school, rentin' out for two dollars and fifty cents a month.

Two fifty. Then it became a drug store. Then a post office.

That ground floor was workin' harder than a one-armed cowhand at brandin' time. So you've got this building out at Old Aurora: school below, lodge above, years stackin' up like cordwood. Then came 1900, and with it, the kind of news that could hollow out a town; the railroad missed Aurora.

Just... missed it. And when the railroad passes you by in those days, you feel it. Aurora began to decline.

Now here's the part that deserves a slow breath: in 1900, they moved this entire building here. Not piece by piece. Not board by board.

In one piece. The whole thing, picked up and hauled over, two miles, intact. The town may have been fadin', but that lodge hall wasn't going anywhere without a fight.

And here it still stands.

What the marker says

Built 1877 at Old Aurora (2 miles east). Lower floor used first as school with rent $2.50 a month, then as drug store, post office. Second floor always lodge hall. Moved here 1900, in one piece, as Aurora, missed by railroad, began to decline.