About Pueblo Lodge No. 17
A Lodge of Freemasons, properly constituted, is a place of work — quiet, deliberate, life-long work upon the rough material of the man who walks through its door.
Pueblo Lodge No. 17 is one of the oldest continuously operating Masonic lodges in the State of Colorado. We were chartered on October 7, 1868, by what was then the very young Grand Lodge of Colorado A.F. & A.M. — itself only seven years old at the time of our constituting. We have met faithfully in Pueblo ever since.
Today we operate as a Stated Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Colorado, holding our Stated Communications on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7:30 PM. We go dark in July and August, in keeping with old Craft tradition, and resume our labors in September.
What is Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is the oldest and largest fraternity in the world. It traces its philosophical lineage to the operative stonemasons who built the great cathedrals of Europe, and its modern speculative form to the early 1700s in England. Today it counts roughly six million members worldwide, with about five thousand here in the State of Colorado.
We are often described as "a society with secrets" — not a "secret society." Our existence is public, our buildings are well-marked, our members generally well-known in their communities. What we hold privately are our modes of recognition and a few ceremonial details, the same way a college fraternity guards its handshake or a family guards its grandmother's recipe.
What Freemasonry Is Not
Masonry is not a religion, though we require every petitioner to profess a belief in a Supreme Being. We do not prescribe what religion a man must hold; we only ask that he hold one. Around our altar Brethren of every faith have knelt together for three centuries.
Masonry is not a charity, though our charitable work — funding scholarships, supporting widows and orphans of Brothers, providing emergency assistance in our community — is significant.
Masonry is not a political organization. Discussions of partisan politics are forbidden inside the Lodge room.
Our Place in Pueblo's Story
When our charter was issued, Pueblo, Kansas Territory was already a memory and "Pueblo, Colorado Territory" was a hardscrabble settlement of perhaps a few hundred souls along the Arkansas. The Goodnight–Loving Trail had passed through the year before. The transcontinental railroad was still a year from completion. The town we now know as Pueblo was, in 1868, four separate towns — Pueblo, South Pueblo, Central Pueblo, and Bessemer — that would not be consolidated until 1886.
By the time the Colorado Fuel & Iron Works rose to dominate the city, Pueblo Lodge No. 17 was already a generation old. By the time the great Flood of 1921 destroyed a third of the downtown, the Brethren of No. 17 had been laboring in the Craft here for over fifty years. Through the steel boom, the steel collapse, and the city's slow, hard-won renaissance — we have remained.
What We Do
Inside the Lodge room, we confer the three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. We open and close in form, hear the minutes of the previous communication, transact lodge business, and — when there is a candidate — perform the ritual work that has been entrusted to us.
Outside the Lodge room, we are bankers and bricklayers, teachers and tradesmen, doctors and dispatchers. We share meals before our meetings. We visit our sick and bury our dead. We sponsor scholarships for graduating high-school seniors. We participate in the Grand Lodge of Colorado's youth programs — DeMolay, Job's Daughters, and Rainbow for Girls. We contribute to the Colorado Masonic Benevolent Fund and the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
And, very simply, we try — humbly, imperfectly — to be better men than we were yesterday.
"The internal, and not the external, qualifications of a man are what Masonry regards."
— Charge to the Entered Apprentice
Visiting Brethren
Brethren of regularly constituted, recognized lodges are most welcome at our altar. Please bring a current dues card, and contact the Secretary in advance so that we can arrange a proper vouching procedure.