History with ‘Hud’: Giblem Lodge continues to impact community after more than 150 years
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For the first Thursday of Black History Month, we’re taking a look at one of the most overlooked structures of black history in the area – the Giblem Lodge.
The structure was chartered in 1866, making it the second oldest Black Masonic body in North Carolina, just a year younger than the King Solomon Lodge in New Bern. Giblem Lodge number two traces its ancestry to Prince Hall, an African Methodist Episcopal minister hailed as the “father of Black Masonry”.
Local masons laid the cornerstone of the Wilmington Giblem Lodge on December 29, 1871 at the corner of Eighth Street and Princess Street, with the first meeting of masons taking place less than two years later on November 10, 1873.
But the lodge wasn’t just used by masons over the years. Choir contests, political rallies and other public events were held in Maria Hall on the building’s third floor. By the 1880s, the bottom floor contained a public fish and produce market.
But big changes began to arrive in the final years before the turn of the century.
When the 1898 Wilmington Massacre and coup took place across the city, the Giblem Lodge was thankfully spared from being destroyed, as was the fate for other less fortunate black-owned buildings around town.
While the structure wasn’t destroyed, parts of Giblem Lodge’s leadership and membership were shaken up. The organization was revoked of its tax-exempt, nonprofit status. To earn enough to keep going, the Masons were forced to sell a parcel behind the building.
In the decades to follow, the lodge became one of the first places black men could express their right to vote. It also housed the first African American library in the region in 1926.
But the lodge fell into a state of disrepair by the mid 1900s. Holes began to appear in the walls, with the ceiling and floor beginning to crack. Through it all, masons continued to meet there through the late 1900s.
Several groups began to come together into the 21st century, aiming to return the lodge to its former glory and giving it back better than ever to the people of southeastern North Carolina.
Wilmington’s City Council voted unanimously in March of 2023 to make the lodge a local historical landmark. In August of that year, the outside of the building was restored, fortifying its integrity against the elements and preventing further deterioration.
Plans also call for the lodge to eventually have a museum and library in the space which still houses mason meeting.
Although many people drive past the building everyday, unaware of the history it holds, more and more people are coming to learn about the need to make it as prominent a location as it once was. The lodge may have an interesting past, but it appears to have a very bright future.
Meteorologist Matthew Huddleston (‘Hud’) has always had two major loves – weather and history. While you can watch him talk about weather each morning on WWAY, he looks forward to bringing you a little piece of history each Thursday on WWAY’s website.
To read other History with ‘Hud’ segments, click HERE.
