Lodge History

Joseph Warren was a famous doctor during the Revolutionary War. A member of St. Andrew's Lodge, Brother Warren participated in the Purchase of the Green Dragon Inn in Boston, changing its name to Freemason's Hall. Here in 1769 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was founded with Warren as Grand Master. As the Revolution developed, Brother Warren in 1774 became a member of the public safety committee and, later, president of Massachusetts Provisional Congress. As such, he dispatched Bro. Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride, and he immediately approved the fortification of Bunker's Hill. Though a Massachusetts Major General, Brother Warren waived army rank, fought beside other volunteers and as Redcoats swarmed over the hilltop, received a bullet in his forehead and several bayonet wounds in his body. His tragic death made him the first army physician slain, the first major general to be killed in action, the first Grand Master of a Masonic jurisdiction to die in the cause of the American struggle for Freedom