Is this the end for a century-old masonic lodge?

One of Abbotsford’s oldest buildings could be headed for demolition.

One hundred eleven years ago, dozens of freemasons donned suits and masonry regalia, including skirt-like aprons, and gathered in a vacant lot in the centre of town. They had assembled to witness the laying of a cornerstone for the Masons’ new lodge (and to pose for the photo commemorating the event).

Over the next couple years, the Abbottsford Lodge (it was spelled incorrectly when formed*), would welcome doctors, engineers, farmers, electricians, railroad workers, labourers and others. The lodge was their home, the site of funerals, weddings, celebrations, and dances. And though freemasonry declined in popularity through the latter half of the 20th century, the building remains standing today.

But maybe not for long.

The Mason’s lodge

In recent years, Gladys Avenue has been known as the centre of Abbotsford’s housing crisis, with homeless camps regularly built along the north end of the road.

But the stretch is also a key link between the city’s Sumas Way commercial area, the downtown core and Highway 11 to Mission. And for more than a century, parts of it have been at the centre of a growing, ever-evolving community.

The Abbottsford Mason’s lodge was built in 1912 on a lot at the corner of Gladys Avenue and Pine Street. The town was growing quickly and service and social clubs like the masons were sprouting up and expanding alongside their community. And freemasons were among the largest groups of their day.

In just 1911 and 1912 new lodges sprouted up or were given permission to proceed in New Westminster, Port Alberni, Revelstoke, Victoria, Nakusp, Prince Rupert and Vancouver. British Columbia had just shy of 400,000 people, but 5,776 masons, with their number growing rapidly. The following year, more than 1,000 members would be added to the membership rolls.

In Abbotsford, the masons secured a 30-by-120-foot lot where they built a structure to cover exactly half that area. But for an unknown reason, instead of building a 30-by-60-foot structure, they built one 29.5 feet wide and 60.5 feet long. Later masons could not figure out exactly what was going through the early builders’ minds, according to a history written years later by Con Neudorf for the lodge’s website. (The history is no longer online, but The Reach Gallery Museum has a copy that it shared with The Current; Neudorf died in 2018 at the age of 88.)

To pay off the mortgage for the building, the masons formed the Abbottsford Temple Co., which issued 200 shares for $50 each. Later, the $10,000 worth of shares were divided up into 1,000, to allow members to buy cheaper, smaller chunks of the building.

The mortgage was paid off in 1945, and in 1951, the building was rotated 90 degrees to its present location. It continued to grow and evolve over the years, gaining a new heating system, stairway, and 240-square-foot addition in the 80s.

But the lodge may now be in its final stage of life.

An application has been submitted to the city to rezone its property to a commercial designation. In its application, the proponent, True North Projects, wrote that they hope “to be able to demolish their existing building and build a new one with the potential of additional commercial and residential units.”

The project must be vetted by city staff and refined, and council will get the final say.

Little information is available on True North Projects. The Current sought more details from the Masons, but did not receive a reply.

Apartments may replace prison HQ parking lot

The mason-property project is one of three applications to redevelop properties along Gladys Avenue; together, they demonstrate how the area just east of the city’s historic downtown could change in the years to come.

The largest of the proposals concerns a large commercial property that is currently the headquarters of BC’s federal prison bureaucracy. The building, at 33991, is home to the offices of Correctional Services Canada’s Pacific Region administrators.

That building is only a decade old and unlikely to come down anytime soon. Instead, developers will be eyeing its massive 2.4-acre parking lot, which is one of the largest pieces of flat, buildable land in the surrounding area.

The owners have applied to subdivide the property to allow for the construction of a five-storey apartment building with 115 units and commercial space on the first floor.

The project is an example of how landowners and developers are increasingly looking to turn mildly profitable empty land and parking lots into more lucrative housing (or, in the case of non-profits, affordable housing).

Developer pitches car share

Midway between the mason’s lodge and the Correctional Services Canada parking lot, another potential project speaks to another trend—and challenge.

The owners of 2640 Gladys Ave.—at the road’s prominent intersection with George Ferguson Way—recently received approval to build a four-storey 18-unit apartment building. The ground floor would include commercial spaces.

The site has been eyed for development several times before. Abbotsford council previously approved a similar building, but the property owners then later sold the site. Such deals—wherein a developer will purchase a lot, navigate the process to get city approval to build on the property, and then sell the rezoned site, often at a higher price—are fairly common. In late January, council approved the issuance of the development permit needed to proceed with the project.

The plan has one very unique feature: the developer of the homes is promising to buy the people who buy units a car they would be able to share.

The developer says they will provide about $25,000 to go towards buying a commonly owned vehicle that would be managed by the new strata. The idea is one way the developer hopes to address the project’s scarcity of parking. It also reflects the lack of car sharing services that non-car-owning residents might otherwise be able to use, staff wrote in their report.

The developer has also pledged to buy 13 “off-site parking stalls.” That money—$3,000 per spot—goes to the city, which operates a parking lot across from the proposed apartment building.

*We originally got this small detail wrong. The name of the mason’s lodge in Abbotsford had an extra T not because of that was once how the town’s name was spelled. Pioneer John Maclure’s notebooks show the town’s name was always spelled with a single T, local historian Kris Foulds said. But in the early day, the town’s name was sometimes mispelled because it was named after Henry Abbott—and his name did have a second T. (Abbott was the general superintendent of CP Rail’s Pacific division and a family friend of Maclure. We would regret the error, except then we wouldn’t have learned more about how the town got its name.