1

As of 2006:

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

During restoration in 2009:

(Photo by Virginia Lawrence-Hope)

“Old” Odd Fellows Hall / Masonic Hall (44 South Third St. (at Ferry Street),[1] recently Lipkins Furniture)

This stands on the western portion of Original Town Lot No.102 as surveyed by William Parsons when Easton was established in 1752.[2] Henry Bush (Busch)built a house and lived here from 1757 until 1790. He was listed in tax records as a laborer (in 1772) and as a butcher (in 1774 and 1776); he obtained a liquor license in 1777.[3] In 1789, he formally purchased this Lotfrom the Penn Family[4]and sold it in the following year to shoemaker Jacob Sigman.[5] This house was removed in 1847, and replaced by the current building.[6] Its architectural style was “Renaissance Revival”[7] -- despite the modern white-and-brown-concrete façade in which it was encased until recently, and which is now (in 2011) is largely removed. The cornerstone for this building was laid on 13 June 1847, after a procession of various Odd Fellows lodges including Easton’s Peace and Prosperity, No. 69.[8] The building was dedicated the following year, on 18 May 1848, with another Odd Fellows’s procession around downtown Easton, starting at “Drinkhouse’s corner” (now 1 Centre Square – the “Jakie” Mayer Building[9]) and ending here, at the new hall.[10] The Odd Fellows’ procession was “accompanied by the Easton and Bethlehem brass bands, and martial music”, followed by a lengthy oration on the “cardinal features of Odd Fellowship”.[11]

Among other things, the Odd Fellows raised money by leasing commercial space in their building to a grocery store and a clothing (dry goods) store, both increasingly focused on advertising their cheap prices.[12] It also licensed space to traveling theater troupes for performances,[13] apparently in at least occasional competition with the Military Hall (armory) space on Northampton Street.[14] However, as a result of “troubles which followed the erection of [the building,],”[15] Easton’s Odd Fellows Hall was sold at a Sheriff’s sale. The newspaper notice of the sale gave an extensive description of the building, as follows:

“A LARGE FOUR STORY Stone and Brick Building, with basement, known as the ‘Odd Fellows Hall.’ – The lower story red Free stone and the three upper stories of Brick, rough cast.

“The BASEMENT is composed of one large SALOON and Kitchen, and three apartments, used as cellars.

“THE FIRST STORY contains two large STORE rooms the one fronting on Pomfret street, the other on Pomfret and Ferry streets – also two large Store Rooms fronting on Ferry street, all having passages leading into the back yard, in which is a large two-story brick building.

“The main entrance to the Building, is by a 10 foot wide Hall, from Ferry street.

“THE SECOND STORY contains ONE LARGE ROOM, measuring thirty three feet by seventy, intended for public Exhibitions and Assemblies, Balls, &c. A fine music gallery extends over the whole width of the room. There is also a refreshment or store room.

“THE THIRD STORY contains one large Room measuring thirty three feet by sixty, in which different kinds of societies hold their meetings, and two smaller dressing rooms. Also a small room suitable for any kind of an OFFICE.

“THE FOURTH STORY is occupied by the order of Odd Fellows and contains one large ROOM, measuring thirty three feet by fifty five, together with three antechambers, each measuring about 12 feet by 16.

“The building throughout is well finished, substantially erected, and is covered with an excellent tin roof. . . .

“The basement room is used as a Restaurant or Eating saloon, and has a large vault attached.”[16]

The buyers – three prominent Easton citizens including Theodore R. Sitgreaves (see below) – expressed their intention to return the hall as soon as the Odd Fellows could “make arrangements to redeem it.”[17] It was not to be. The Odd Fellows “Peace and Prosperity” Lodge was dissolved in 1849 or 1850, and not reinstated until some twenty years later, in 1869.[18] The Lodge had a checkered history throughout the remainder of the century, although other Lodges did succeed in the Easton area.[19]

Fortunately, the Odd Fellows had shared certain financial arrangements with Easton’s Masonic Lodge since their earlier days sharing space on the second floor of the old Courthouse in Centre Square.[20] After the Odd Fellows chapter was forced to vacate its new building, the Masons moved into it in 1850, and it became known as “Masonic Hall”.[21] It does appear, however, that T.R. Sitgreaves continued to have a substantial (perhaps sole) ownership position in the building.[22] The Masons continued to rent commercial space in the building to cover their financial interest, and continued its venue as a theater, making it the “show place of Easton before the Abel Opera House was built”[23] in 1872-73.[24] In 1855, “Palmer’s Athenaeum” (managed by D.S. Palmer) presented performances with an admission price of 25 cents (50 cents for reserved seats) that had “the theatre nightly crowded”[25] – so much so that the newspaper complained of the large audience for the popular play “Still Water Runs Deep” made the show “uncomfortably full on Monday night”, and called for a larger hall to be built.[26] In 1858, the director of a travelling company performing at “The Hall” abused his actors so loudly during a performance that he had to be “hustled from behind the curtain and without any ceremony hurried into the street”.[27] In the same year, the dramatic readings of William H. Davis at “the Masonic Hall” were so highly praised that he agreed to a return performance, despite poor attendance at the first session.[28] In February of 1861, “General” Tom Thumb was booked at Masonic Hall for three nights, to provide “Songs, Dances, Imitations, Statues, &c.” assisted by a baritone, a tenor, and a pianist. He advertised that he would ride to the theater each day “in his Miniature Carriage drawn by Lilliputian Ponies and attended by Elfin Footmen and Coachmen”.[29]

The building was also the venue for social events. For example, the Daily Easton Express for 2 January 1865 reported that “The Ball of the Phoenix Hose company comes off at Masonic Hall tonight.”[30] This is the volunteer fire company that had its fire house at what is now 219 Ferry Street.[31]

A principal operation in the building at this time was Theodore Sitgreaves’s popular liquor store. After participating in purchasing the building from the Sheriff in 1849 (as described above), it apparently became clear to Sitgreaves that any hope that the Odd Fellows would redeem the property, would not be realized. By April of 1850 (shortly before the Masons took over the building), space in “the large corner room” on the ground floor was made available for a wine and liquor store “to fill all orders”, operated by Theodore R. Sitgreaves,[32] the son of Samuel Sitgreaves[33](Easton’s leading citizen in the early 19th Century[34]). Sitgreaves had been in the liquor business for some time, beginning at least as early as 1843, from an address on Northampton Street.[35] Sitgreaves no doubt capitalized on his family contacts with Easton’s elite. An 1862 photograph of the building shows the legend “WINES & LIQUORS” repeated over the first floor exterior on both the Third and Ferry Street sides.[36] Masonic officers were given the duty of ensuring that Masons did not drink to excess during meeting recesses.[37] Easton notary William Welch[38] became the senior partner in the liquor business in the early 1860s, as the firm became known as “Welch & Co”,[39] although Sitgreaves continued as an owner until he retired in the late 1870s.[40] Abraham Bercaw also joined the liquor firm in 1861,[41] and apparently by the late 1870s became the sole named owner of the business.[42] His son, Charles Bercaw, became a clerk in his father’s business.[43]

  • The liquor store was listed as 26 South Third Street prior to Easton’s street renumbering in 1874,[44] although it was also referred to simply as being on the corner of Third and Ferry Streets.[45]
  • When the renumbering scheme was adopted in 1874, the Welch & Co. liquor store was assigned No.46 South Third Street.[46]

In 1884, the Masons moved down the street to their present “Masonic Temple” location at 22 South Third St. (in the building where Sherwood’s Furniture store is also located).[47] The building at the corner nevertheless continued to be called “Masonic Hall” after the Masons left.[48] The liquor store continued operations at the corner; after Abraham Bercaw died on 10 October 1885, his son Charles Bercaw took over the business.[49] By the 1890s the theatre business lost to the Abel Opera House was replaced by boxing matches. Masonic Hall was “the place Jack Dillon, a wiry box fighter used to meet and defeat all comers”.[50] The gallery where the audience apparently stood to view the boxing matches below is still visible on the second floor.[51] On the first floor, Bercaw’s Liquor Store was “filled with barrels, kegs, demijohns, bottles, flasks and good fellowship,” under the direction of Charlie Bercaw, “a joke-loving fellow”. Bercaw’s store (and the street corner where it was located) became the hangout for “sports, dog lovers and fishermen . . . . Many shooting matches were re-shot and trout re-landed in Bercaws!”[52]

It appears that Col. T.R. Sitgreaves left his ownership interest in the Masonic Hall property to Trinity Episcopal Church. When it was received in 1893, the Church vestry decided to take out a $4,500 mortgage on the property. The following year (1894), the vestry agreed to sell the building to H.A. Sage for 25,000. An entry after the note of that vestry decision called it “the greatest error of commission the governing body of this parish has ever committed”, but did not elaborate on the reasons for the criticism.[53]

Henry A. Sage is better known for operating a wholesale liquor store that rented space in Centre Square, in the Jones Building, beginning by 1863.[54] Henry A. Sage was a grandson of Adam Lehn,[55] who had owned the land surrounding Lehn’s Court.[56] After attending the Vanderveer Academy and public schools in Easton, he taught school for a time. He then learned the printing trade by working on The Jerseyman in Morristown, NJ, later returning to Easton to work on the Sentinel. In 1858, he opened his own liquor business – “Sage’s family liquor store” – located in the Masonic Hall building now numbered 44 South 3rd Street, at the NE corner with Ferry Street.[57] Although Henry Sage’s liquor career was interrupted by a brief service in the Union Army during the Civil War,[58] by 1863 Sage’s liquor store had moved to the Jones Building in Centre Square.[59] As the liquor business prospered, Sage entered other ventures as well. In 1871, he established a horse car trolley line from Centre Square to shops on the South Side of the Lehigh; the Easton Transit Company later took over that line. In 1878 he entered a “harness manufacturing business”[60] – apparently succeeding as the owner of Henry Bender’s leather and harness business in Military Hall (now 353-55 Northampton Street).[61] The liquor business also moved to 348 Northampton Street at about this time.[62] Henry A. Sage was an Easton schools director for 13 years, and at the time of his death at age 80 in 1913 was the oldest living Mason in Easton.[63]

By the early 20th Century, Charlie Bercaw appears to have moved his liquor store out of the Masonic Hall, and followed the Masons to their newer “Knecht Building”, taking the address 24 South Third Street.[64] He also ventured into politics, becoming a Northampton County Commissioner twice (in 1909-11 and again in 1912-14). He discontinued the business in January of 1920[65] – presumably because of the institution of national alcohol Prohibition at that time.

In 1935, the Masonic Hall building became the home of Lipkins Furniture[66]– a family business which had begun at another location in 1898.[67] The Lipkins Family applied the modern façade to the building in about 1980.[68] In 2007, the Lipkins family closed up their furniture store operation in the building.[69] The building is now (2010) being renovated into a restaurant at ground level, with apartments above. The concrete 1960s façade, and the outside of the building is being restored to more of its historical appearance.[70]

Photo c. 1862, from Ronald W. Wynkoop, Sr., It Seems Like Yesterday 234 (self-published 1989).

[1]Listed in tax records as two properties, No.42 and No.56 South Third Street.

[2]Compare A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937) with Northampton County Tax Records map,

[3]A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35, 157 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.47).

[4]Deed, John Penn the Younger and John Penn the Elder to Henry Bush, G1 232 (12 Nov. 1789); see William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984)(purchased in “about 1785”).

[5]William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984); see Deed, Henry (Eve) Bush to Jacob Sickman, G1 233 (15 Apr. 1790)(£180 for a Frame Tenement and Lot No.102 measuring 50’ X 240’); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35, 257 (Vol. III of the Publications of The Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.47; Bush referred to there as a yeoman).

[6]William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984). See also City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982)(built 1847).

[7]City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone I (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982).

[8]Article, “Odd Fellows Procession”, Democrat and Argus (weekly), Thursday, 10 June 1847, p.3; Article, “The Corner Stone to the new Odd Fellow’s Hall”, Democrat and Argus (weekly), Thursday, 17 June 1847, p.3; Ethan Allen Weaver, Local Historical and Biographical Notes 195 (Germantown Penna 1906)(in personal library of Ron Wynkoop, Phillipsburg NJ); see William J. Heller, Historic Easton From the Window of a Trolley-Car 68 (1911, reprinted 1984 by Genealogical Researchers).

The Hall replaced a house built by Henry Bush in 1785, which a year later was sold to Jacob Sigman, a shoemaker. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 68.

[9]Samuel Drinkhouse, the owner of the hat store at this location, was Easton’s oldest citizen at age 99 when he died in 1904. See Article, “A Long Life’s Peaceful End, Samuel Drinkhouse Had Nearly Reached the Century Mark”, Easton Daily Argus, Monday, 25 Jan. 1904, p.1. See also Madeleine B. Mathias, “Square Is Challenge to Drivers, Planners”, The Express, Saturday, 28 Feb. 1970, p.28 (picture caption identifies “Drinkhouse Building” at the corner); Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1964-65 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(alphabetical listing for Drinkhouse & Youndt, hats, caps & furs, 76 Centre Sq.).

[10]Article, “Dedication of the Odd Fellows’ Hall”, Easton Democrat Argus (weekly), Thursday, 11 May 1848, p.2; see Announcement, “Dedication of the Odd Fellows’ Hall Thursday, May 18, 1848”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 11 May 1848, p.2, col.2; see also Ethan Allen Weaver, Local Historical and Biographical Notes 201-02 (Germantown Penna 1906)(in personal library of Ron Wynkoop, Phillipsburg NJ).

[11]Article, “Dedication of the Odd Fellow’s Hall”, Democrat and Argus (weekly), Thursday, 25 May 1848, p.2.

[12]See Advertisement, “Haul Out the Big Gun and Proclaim the Great Sale of Dry Goods at the odd Fellows’ Hall”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 11 May 1848, p.3, col.2 (J.A. Mandeville & Co.); Advertisement, “New Store and New Goods J.A. Mandeville”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 23 Mar. 1848, p.1, cols.1-2 (“opened the large and commodious Store under the New Odd Fellows’ Hall” with an entire new stock of goods that saved 15% on costs); Advertisement, “New Grocery Store”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 17 May 1849, p.3, col.3 (“just opened under the Odd Fellows Hall” advertising cheap prices); Advertisement, “The Gold is Coming in and the Groceries Going off Rapidly AT THE Cheap New York Grocery Store, Odd Fellows’ Hall”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 22 Nov. 1849, p.3, col.5; Advertisement, “Clothing Cheaper Than Ever! AT THE Odd Fellows Hall”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 22 Nov. 1849, p.3, col.4 (ad placed 8 November 1849).

Both of these latter advertisements appears in the same newspaper edition that carried notice of the Sheriff’s sale (see below).

[13]See Article, “The Bakers Have Come”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 17 May 1849, p.3, col.1 and Advertisement, id., p.2, col.5 (“vocalists”, ad picture showing 2 women and 4 men in group); Article, “Theatre”, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 30 Mar. 1848, p.3, col.1 (rented the “large room” with “the intention of remaining . . . for some time, if they receive the proper encouragement”). Historian Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr. indicates that the latter troupe did in fact remain in Odd Fellows Hall from 30 March until 20 April 1848. Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., The Easton PA Trivia Book 295 (Pinter’s Printers, Inc. 1985).

Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., Easton Centennial Calendar entry for 30 March 1987 (Pinters’ Printers Inc. 1986) asserts that the first professional theatrical performance in Easton took place on 30 March 1848.

[14]See Article, “Theater at the Armory Hall”, Easton Whig & Journal, Wed., 27 June 1849, p.3, col.4 (hall “fitted up” for a week of “Dramatic Entertainments”); see also separate entry for Military Hall at 353 Northampton Street.

[15]Article, “Re-Instatement of an Odd Fellows Lodge”, Easton Sentinel, Thursday, 24 June 1869, p.2, col. 6.

A meeting had been called on Friday, 22 December 1848, “to devise ways and means to liquidate the claims against the Association”. Article, “Odd Fellows Attend”, Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 21 Dec. 1848, p.3, col.2.

[16]Sheriff’s Sale Notice, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 15 Nov. 1849, p.4, col.6.

[17]Article, “Sheriff’s Sales”, Democrat and Argus (weekly), Thursday, 22 Nov. 1849, p.3., col.1.