A Virginia Masonic lodge, and its place in early American civic life

Richmond Lodge No. 10 is a lodge of Freemasons in Virginia’s capital, and its history reaches back to the Revolutionary era; the book’s own heading gives its span as 1780 to 1909. The initials after its name stand for Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Among the names connected with the lodge is John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.

The Reverend David Barclay Kirby Walthall, who appears on the title page as Rev. David K. Walthall, Ph.D., tells the lodge’s story alongside the growth of Freemasonry in Virginia and the public buildings of Richmond. Photographs of the lodge’s halls and other sites in the city show what those places looked like in his day, so the book is a piece of Richmond’s local history as well as a society’s record of itself.

This is the original 1909 printing by Ware & Duke, not one of the expanded versions of the mid-twentieth century that carry the history on to 1950. It is in dark green cloth with a gilt Masonic emblem on the front, which is heavily stained, as if by water; the edges are rubbed, the spine ends frayed and the corners bumped. The plates seen are present, though they have not all been checked.