The Lean Years Past

No single factor accounts for the apparent decline of fraternal organizations. A few major events appear to coincide with major shifts in membership: The depression, end of World War II, the Great Society/Vietnam era, and two more localized events, the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge (and end of ferry service) and business flight from neighboring San Francisco.

In the early days of Mill Valley, being able to wear a square and compass pin signifying membership in the fraternity was worth the substantial investment in time and money: As Max Weber noted in his research, membership was acquired "through balloting and a determination of moral worth. And hence the badge in the buttonhole meant, ‘I am a gentleman patented after investigation and probation and guaranteed by my membership’." Tangible evidence of this in Mill Valley might be found in the Minutes of March 4, 1918, inter alia, "S.W. Burden made verbal report in the matter of the attack made by unknown parties upon Bro. W.S. Stone, and upon motion duly made, seconded and carried the committee was appointed to take the matter up with the Grand Jury." Comparison of the Lodge membership roster with the voting roll for Mill Valley demonstrates that if Masonic Lodge’s were politically minded (which they are not), at that time they could likely have swung elections. Note too that thirteen of the first eighteen Mayors were Lodge members (the majority Past Masters). Clearly, the Lodge was attracting the best and brightest in Town. Moreover, up to the depression, about 25% of those applying for membership were declined. It was an exclusive organization.

Mill Valley Lodge was a great source of entertainment for members and their families. Some of the first talking movies were shown at the Lodge (Movies were shown courtesy of Leslie Hills (one of the Hills brothers from the Hills Bros. Coffee), Pan-American Airlines, and though no credit is given, possibly George F. Cooke, Master in 1914, who owned and operated the Hub Movie Theatre on Throckmorton.) In the early days of television, the lodge hosted speakers on this novel entertainment. Ironically, movies and television started competing for time with Lodge nights.

The first strictly service club, Mill Valley Rotary Club No. 2370, was founded on April 27, 1926. A key organizer was Mill Valley Mason John Burt. While Rotary does not appear to have had a big impact on the Lodge, it certainly was another diversion for busy men: It is easy to speculate that John Burt might have devoted more time to the Lodge had he not become involved in Rotary, particularly since his brother Samuel M. Burt was already a Past Master of the Lodge. {Similarly, the Mill Valley Lion’s Club, founded in 1951 (closed in 2003), has occupied the time of some prominent citizens who are also Masons, including the owner of Sonapa Farms (member of a Lodge in San Francisco).}

The Great Depression had a leveling effect on the Lodge’s membership. It did not seem to change the rejection rate. However, it is apparent from individual member’s files that men made extraordinary efforts to maintain their membership. They clearly valued Freemasonry. Very few men had to be suspended for non payment of dues during the Depression. Additionally, the three Lodges in Marin County sponsored the Marin Masonic Benefit Association, which paid death benefits to subscribing members: Many of Mill Valley Lodge’s members took advantage of this benefit through the 1960’s when the MMBA was disbanded.

A less obvious effect of the Great Depression was the beginning of the welfare state. By 1964 and LBJ’s "Great Society" government had almost completely occupied the field that had once been the exclusive domain of third sector, mutual benefit organizations.

The opening of the bridges across the bay had an impact on Mill Valley Lodge. The San Francisco Bay ferryboats had played an important part in the history and strength of Mill Valley Lodge No. 356. Masons met daily near the paddle box (where no one could over hear) for coaching in degree work and lectures: The crews, the majority of whom were Brothers, were largely the experts teaching the ritual. Besides that important function, the "paddle wheel lodges" as they were referred to, served a great social function: There is a marked drop off in the quality of information available about individual brothers after the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay Bridges were opened and the ferryboats ceased operation. Ironically, Past Master George Harlan, Sr., played a major role in the progress from boats to bridges, and his son and brother Mason, George Harlan, Jr., documented the lost age of ferry boats in his book, San Francisco Bay Ferry Boats. One of the Lodge’s strongest supporter’s Carl Fennema, was largely lost to the Lodge because of the closure. Carl was the managing agent for the merged Golden Gate – Northwest Pacific Ferry: He was one of the real movers and shakers in the Lodge. When the ferry’s closed, he moved to San Pedro, CA to manage a ferry service there. While he stayed fairly active in the Lodge, traveling up to visit generally once or twice a year and more frequently via correspondence, the Lodge nevertheless lost the benefit of 40-years of his service to and guidance in the Lodge.

The period following World War II marked a profound change in the Bay Area and in the Lodge. While membership boomed in the wake of WWII, there was a marked change in Lodge activities and activism. To an extent, the war weary veterans who were joining in droves were may have been most interested in the social side of Masonry and they were very busy conferring degrees for the steady influx of men joining the fraternity. In fairness, where the Lodge had been a major progressive force in the community, and a place where current events were reported and discussed, it now faced competition: There was the Rotary Club (est. 1926), Sequoia Theatre (est. 1929), Lions Club (est. 1951), and the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce (est. 1953). While none offered the same thing or as much as Freemasonry, each nevertheless siphoned off a few good men.

The expansion of the interstate freeway system and greater availability of reliable automobile transportation throughout the 1950’s brought on another change. People could travel with greater ease than ever before. In the early years of the lodge and surprisingly continuing through the depression, quite a few members took extended vacations of several months (often to Europe) and their return was cause for a special gathering at the Lodge to learn their perspective on world events. Post war everyone was on the move. Witness too an event in the 1960’s where PM George Harlan, Sr. was honored for his work with local government formation: The event was held at Hoberg’s Resort in the Cobb Mountain area of Lake County – Hoberg’s and the other Cobb Mountain Resorts were well past their golden age – within a few years the area was nearly a ghost town, largely having been replaced by the Tahoe basin resorts which seem in turn been replaced by Hawaii as the resort destination of choice, etc. In other words, we can see how Mill Valley began as a resort for San Francisco and as transportation became better the resort destinations have continually moved farther afield. But as it relates to the Lodge it is another instance of people looking for simple entertainment and diversion outside of their immediate community and become further separated from their neighbors as their friends.

Even greater change occurred during the 1960’s. The Vietnam War split the country. Young men seemed to drop out and move away from "traditional" order. Unfortunately, Freemasonry was perceived as part of that order. It was largely forgotten or else seemed irrelevant at the time that Freemasonry deserves a great deal of credit for the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions throughout Europe and the Americas and is highly idealistic: Yet in the 1960's It was viewed as part of the establishment and was shunned by young men who had previously composed the ranks of active membership.

Roughly coinciding or rather following soon after this shift was the tax revolution that led to adoption of the XIIIth amendment to the California Constitution: Local government needed to readjust its tax base and in San Francisco, increased commercial property and business taxes seemed to coincide with an exodus of business from the City. This business flight also impacted on Freemasonry in Mill Valley. Up to this point in time, Masons formed numerous Masonic clubs at their work places: The chief activity of these clubs was working as traveling degree teams, usually offering their services to the Lodge where their co-workers were joining, since the clubs could not confer degrees in their own right. In Mill Valley, visiting "degree teams," often related to particular employers such as Greyhound, Southern Pacific Rail Road, Marinship Shipyard, Delmonte, etc., had conferred degrees up to this point in time. Our records reflect that not only as the number of degrees declined going into the 1960’s and 1970’s, but also that as large employers left San Francisco, co-worker degree teams became a thing of the past. Fewer workplaces and less excitement in the workplace about Freemasonry contributed to the decline already set into motion by Vietnam.

Inflation may be a further contributing factor in discouraging some segments of the community from joining. Freemasonry was traditionally the most expensive organization within a given community. An unintended affect of its expense was to make it more attractive. Your membership in the fraternity indicated that you were in some measure financially successful. Mill Valley Lodge’s members resisted many attempts to reduce the cost of membership. Unfortunately, the Lodge rarely increased its membership fees and annual dues: This had little effect so long as the dollar held relatively constant. But, with double digit inflation this failure led to fees and dues becoming a fraction of what they once had been. Some men may have formed the false perception that there was little value in Masonry because it did not cost much to join and belong to the fraternity in comparison to their post-inflation salaries. Mill Valley Lodge has recently redressed this discrepancy to some extent: Membership remains a bargain when one considers the cost versus the benefits.

However, membership began to increase again in the 1980’s. In part this has been due to a new generation developing an appreciation for Freemasonry as a form of interior work. This increase seemed to foreshadow and run parallel to the current booming interest in Yoga. Like Yoga, practicing the ritual of Freemasonry can be used as a vehicle for personal, interior development: Unlike all other fraternal organizations that have arisen in imitation of Freemasonry, it, and it alone has a ritual based on Western esoteric traditions, especially the Cabala (also transliterated Kabbalah and/or Qabalah). Other men, who came of age during the 1960’s, are returning to Freemasonry: Many have expressed the feeling that they felt the counter culture was exhausted and may have inadvertently contributed to the lack of ethics apparent in government, religion, and business – they were looking for a sense of comradeship, personal loyalty, ethics and other virtuous qualities that they now recognized are manifested in Freemasonry.

Currently, the membership of the Lodge hovers at around 130 members. Although some declines will of necessity occur in the near future (there was a huge peak in new membership in the 1940’s when returning veterans joined in droves – unfortunately, those men are now in the late 70’s and 80’s, therefore, we will see an apparent drop off in membership as they pass away), Mill Valley Lodge No. 356 is experiencing the same resurgence in membership that Freemasonry is experiencing across the State.

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