By: Brother Bill Breed

Over the Christmas holiday, Coastal Lodge #57 was the scene of much activity by the Brothers under the direction of our newly installed WM Ken Bickford.  As is common with many lodges, Coastal was cluttered with the accumulation of artifacts of days gone by and a general house cleaning was long overdue. Also adding to the need for a facelift was the fact that there was a desire on the part of the Temple Corporation to bring the furniture in storage back into use.

This furniture is massive in stature and has a fabled past.  According to lodge lore the furniture was brought to the former Charity and Relief Lodge in Mystic as the result of being impounded during the Civil War.  A Mystic sea captain, aware of Lodge needs rescued the furniture from storage in NY City and brought it to Mystic.  It was used in the Mystic Lodge until the consolidation occurred which created Coastal #57.  At that time it was put into storage again until the storage charges became burdensome.  Steps are now being taken to bring the furniture out of storage and lessening the overhead expense.

Upon reviewing the site of the Oriental Chair in the East, it became readily apparent that the furniture would not fit on the stage due to lack of sufficient overhead clearance. Brother Campbell Field suggested the possibility of lowering the stage. Using a photograph provided by WB Mossberg to scale the height requirements of the Oriental Chair, WM. assisted by SW Eric Donch, devised a plan to increase the overhead. A team of Brothers over the period of a week or so sorted through the Lodge artifacts and filled a dumpster with items that had seen the end of their useful days long ago.  Items were set aside for coordinate bodies to assess and dispose of as required.

But the major effort was revamping the East to accommodate the Oriental Chair and the rest of the suite.  The stage was lowered about two feet and the rear wall insulated and wall-boarded up.  A coat of paint and photos of Past Masters of the consolidated lodges were added.  Drapes that once hung at the side of the stage were relocated to form a wall on either side to hide the storage areas.  These areas were also insulated, wall-boarded and painted and are ready to accept items for storage and ready access.

A slight handicap to the effort was added in that a team lead by Carl Mossberg, aided by Glenn Studwell, were replacing the furnace used to provide heat to the Lodge.  As a consequence, the joint sealer which normally dries ready to paint in 45 minutes took almost two days before it could be worked further and painted.  But, at the end of the week the furnace was operational and frigid hands were thawed and the work completed. 

In addition to WM Bickford and SW Donch, Brothers assisting in this effort included Ed Childs, Joe Degnan, C.A. Duke, Campbell Field, Roger Read, Leon Lussier, Wally De Souza, Joel Fuller, Carl Mitchell, Carl Mossberg, Bill Breed, Phil Rathbun, Scott Taylor, Vern Bailey, Glen Studwell and certain other friends of the Lodge.

The new stage at Coastal Lodge #57. The new furniture will be added at a later date as some of the items need to be assembled.