Ancient Light.
Neighbourhood Roots.
The story of thirteen men who met in the Mission when the city was still young — and never stopped meeting.
Thirteen Men in the Mission
In the autumn of 1863, a city was still being invented. San Francisco's population had exploded with the Gold Rush and was now spreading outward from the downtown waterfront into the surrounding neighbourhoods. The Mission — once the site of the original Spanish settlement and its famous Dolores chapel — was becoming home to working men: carpenters, grocers, policemen, barbers, ship's craftsmen.
Thirteen of these men, already Masons, realised they shared something besides an address. Every lodge in San Francisco met downtown at the Grand Lodge temple on Post and Montgomery. For men who lived and worked in the Mission, the journey was a burden. They wanted something different: a lodge of neighbours, for neighbours.
They gathered in a second-floor parlour at the corner of 16th Street and Valencia — then called Center Street — and petitioned the Grand Lodge of California for a dispensation to form their own lodge.
Charter Granted: October 13th
After thirteen months of meeting under dispensation, the Grand Lodge of California granted the charter on October 13, 1864 — making Mission Lodge No. 169 the official first neighbourhood lodge in the city of San Francisco. Twenty-five men signed the charter.
The lodge number was no accident of bureaucracy. As the 13th lodge chartered in San Francisco, the Grand Lodge assigned them number 169 — which is 13 squared. The thirteen founders left their mark in the mathematics of the lodge name forever.
A Temple of Their Own
By the 1890s the lodge had grown to over 300 members — it would reach 500 at the turn of the century — and the original meeting room was long outgrown. The brothers purchased land and erected a stately new temple at 2668 Mission Street, formally dedicated on April 23, 1897. Its cornerstone was laid with the ancient ceremony: the pouring of corn, wine, and oil.
The building that stands there today still wears the Art Deco façade added in 1939, inspired by the architecture of the Treasure Island World's Fair. Three Masonic medallions mark its face. The square and compasses have looked out over Mission Street for more than 125 years.
Still Meeting. Still the Mission.
Mission Lodge No. 169 has met without interruption since 1863 — through earthquake, fire, depression, and pandemic. The neighbourhood has changed many times over; the lodge has changed with it and remained committed to it.
We are a diverse brotherhood of men who live and work in San Francisco and beyond, joined by the same spirit as those first thirteen: the belief that a man is improved by the company of good men, the practice of ancient ritual, and the service of his community.
Notable Members
The thirteen charter members were a cross-section of working-class Mission life. Below are some of the men who shaped the lodge — and in many cases, the city and state beyond it.
Nathan Weston Spaulding
1829 – 1903
Born in Maine and trained as a carpenter by his father, Spaulding arrived in San Francisco in 1851 and spent his first years as a gold miner near Campo Seco. A restless practical mind led him from the mines to sawmills, which he built throughout the Sierra foothills. In 1865 he co-founded the Pacific Saw Manufacturing Company in San Francisco — and it was his invention of the adjustable saw-tooth that, in his biographers' words, "completely revolutionised the circular saw business."
He served four years on Oakland's City Council and was elected Mayor of Oakland — twice, without opposition. President Garfield appointed him Assistant U.S. Treasurer for San Francisco, where he managed over $320,000,000 without the loss of one cent. Senator Leland Stanford named him trustee of Stanford University.
In Masonry he rose to Grand High Priest of California's Royal Arch Chapter and served as Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of California for ten consecutive years. He was one of the thirteen men who gathered in that second-floor room on Valencia Street in 1863 and signed the petition that would become Mission Lodge No. 169.
Other Charter Members, 1864
Service to the Mission
The first neighbourhood lodge in San Francisco has always understood that its obligations extend beyond the lodge room. Relief — the second great principle of Freemasonry — means showing up for the community that surrounds us.
Supporting Public Schools
We partner with local public schools in the Mission District — providing materials, mentorship, and hands-on support for students and teachers. Education has been a Masonic value since the founding of the craft; we take it seriously in our own backyard.
Neighbourhood Events
From open houses to historic walking tours, we open our doors to neighbours who are curious about the building they pass every day. The Mission Masonic Center belongs to the neighbourhood as much as to us, and we believe in celebrating that.
Volunteering & Relief
Brothers of Mission Lodge volunteer across the neighbourhood — at food banks, neighbourhood clean-ups, and community organisations. When members of our extended family face hardship, the lodge responds. That is what brotherly love and relief mean in practice.
The Sacred Roll
We remember the brothers who have moved to the Celestial Lodge Above. Their names are inscribed in the records of this lodge, and in the memory of those who knew them.
The full Sacred Roll is maintained in the lodge records and read aloud in lodge on the appropriate occasion. To add a name or report a correction, contact the lodge secretary.