While the Masons get all the press, they were hardly the only fraternal organization that flourished during the 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the others – and one of the largest – was named the International Order of Odd Fellows. Like the Masons, they were early residents of Washington D.C. in general, and the Navy Yard neighborhood in particular.
While they had been founded in England in the 18th Century, the Odd Fellows did not make it across the Atlantic until 1819, when a lodge was formed in Baltimore by a London blacksmith by the name of Thomas Wildey (pic). From there, they grew rapidly and – unsurprisingly – to Washington. In 1827, several worthies of this city met at the Milburn’s Tavern to found the Central Lodge.
The organization grew rapidly, and a number of sub-lodges were formed, particularly in Georgetown as well as near the Navy Yard. The Navy Yard lodges were called Eastern, Harmony, and Union. While the lodges in the center of the city used a couple of rooms in city hall, the Navy Yard lodges eventually built their own place, at the corner of 7th and G Streets SE. (Later records state that this building actually dates to 1840. Either that date is wrong, or they replaced one building with another at that time)
It was from here that a grand celebration was started on October 8, 1839, to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the founding of the D.C. Odd Fellows. That they would not actually pass that milestone for another month and a half does not seem to have bothered anyone.
From there, the march went to the “Theatre” – presumably the Washington Theater at the corner of 11th and C NW, which was the only theater in the city at the time. Poetry and speeches that were given there were received with “enthusiastic applause.”
Milburn’s Tavern. Sadly no pictures appear to exist of the first two Odd Fellows’s Halls on Capitol HIll (Google Books)
By 1852, however, the Odd Fellows sold their building to the city, for use as a school. They would thereafter meet in rooms rented for the occasion, including at the local Masonic hall, until they could build a new building on 8th Street SE. This building was the site of many events in those years, particularly when local Militias wanted to get together. It functioned essentially as the local theater for the Navy Yard neighborhood, with various performances —usually on the level of minstrelsy— being put on there.
During the Civil War, the building was one of the many used as a hospital. From July 1862 until March 1863, it was used for this purpose. Thereafter, the wounded and sick were moved into structures that had been specifically built to be hospitals, making it less necessary for other, sub-optimal, buildings to serve.
Neither of the original Odd Fellows Halls still stands. The first one was torn down in the early 20th Century, and replaced with the building that now houses the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. The 8th Street building was replaced by a grander structure in 1878. It is today the home of the Shakespeare Theater Company
More on this at a later time.