{"id":23126,"date":"2019-03-01T16:29:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T21:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23126"},"modified":"2019-03-01T16:29:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T21:29:47","slug":"time-travellers-diary-hidden-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/time-travellers-diary-hidden-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"TIME TRAVELLER’S DIARY: Hidden in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Johnston
\nAurora Museum & Archives<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year is 1860 and a meeting is taking place above Lundy\u2019s Wagon Shop on Yonge Street. A group of men have gathered for the first official meeting of Aurora\u2019s Freemasons, known as the Rising Sun Lodge. The first Master of the Lodge was Robert Lyon and he would guide the group during their formative years. Members of the Rising Sun Lodge continued to meet above Lundy\u2019s Wagon Shop until 1865 at which point a large section of Yonge Street, including Lundy\u2019s Wagon Shop, was destroyed by fire. At the time, the fire was reported as being \u201cmore destructive than any that ever preceded it\u201d (Newmarket Era April 14, 1865).
\nDestructive indeed.
\nAlong with the buildings, the fire destroyed all of the Lodge\u2019s early records and regalia, except for the Warrant of Constitution \u2013 the flames spared it.
\nWith their meeting place in ruins, Aurora\u2019s Freemasons relocated to a room above the Fitzgerald Stove Factory on Wellington Street East. Soon after they acquired the northern half of this same lot and constructed Aurora\u2019s first purpose built Masonic Hall. This would serve has their home for twenty years until a unique opportunity arose…
\nIn 1885, the three branches of Methodism united as one congregation at the corner of Yonge and Tyler Streets. This meant that the buildings of the New Connexion Methodist Church, located at 16 Mosley Street, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 57 Mosley Street, were vacant. The Masons purchased the later and the old Masonic Hall on Wellington Street was moved to Trinity Anglican Church where it was used as a Parish Hall. The Rising Sun Lodge continues to call the gothic revival building on the corner of Mosley and Wells Streets home.
\nInside the building, large frames display modest portraits of every Master of the Rising Sun Lodge since 1860. When looking at portraits many of these men are recognizable as prominent figures in the Town\u2019s history, including: Aurora Banner editor Charles Lundy, principals J.G McDonald and J.H. Knowles, medical doctors Dr. Strange and Dr. Hillary, police chief W. J. Langman, and several Mayors and Councilors.
\nThe meeting room features exquisite murals that were painted by Barbara Stevenson and J.T. Dowling in the early 1900s. The windows, now filled in with cement, have various tools affixed to them. The current Lodge historian, Ted McClenny, explains these as symbolic tools that members use to moralize on. The floor of the meeting room, referred as the Masonic pavement, espouses meaning through the contrasting colours that symbolize the uncertainty of life.
\nCurrently, the Rising Sun Lodge provides accommodation for three other Lodges: the Mimosa, Delta and Robertson.
\nTo learn more about Freemasonry, and see some artifacts from the local lodge, please visit the travelling exhibition, Freemasony: A History Hidden in Plain Sight, on view at Hillary House until April 26, 2019. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Johnston Aurora Museum & Archives The year is 1860 and a meeting is taking place above Lundy\u2019s Wagon Shop on Yonge Street. A group of men have gathered for the first official meeting of Aurora\u2019s Freemasons, known as the Rising Sun Lodge. The first Master of the Lodge was Robert Lyon and he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-610","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-26 22:33:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}