SPRINGVALE, Maine — Worshipful Master Norman Skillings said he feels good about the new site where he and his fellow Masons of Springvale Lodge 190 will start gathering for their monthly meetings and other occasions.

“The Lodge is still intact,” Skillings said. “The Lodge is the people, not the building.”

On Tuesday, April 12, the Lodge held its final meeting at the home it has had for nearly a century, the top floor of the KeyBank building at the corner of Main and Oak streets in Springvale.

Moving forward, the Masons will hold their monthly meetings at Preble Lodge 143 on Elm Street in Sanford. Due to a variety of factors - a new building owner and accessibility for older members, for example - the time to move out of their top-floor locale seemed right, according to Past Master and current Senior Warden Tim Beals.

“While it was a hard decision, it was the right decision,” Beals said. “Those two flights of stairs are awful tough on our older brethren.”

The Preble Lodge, located behind Goodall Library on Main Street, is a better, more accessible option, Skillings said. The Springvale Masons will meet separately from the Preble ones at their new location, but given the brotherhood of the organization, the two Lodges are sure to cross paths and collaborate often.

On April 12, the Masons’ meeting room was the barest it had been since the men started gathering there in 1923. A few seats remained, and the throne, from which Skillings would preside, was still at the head of the room. However, gone were a lot of the benches and the organ that member Morton Gold had played at meetings for years - earlier in the day, they had been moved to the Preble site.

Worshipful Past Master Gary Nadeau arrived at the Lodge that morning, making him one of the last Masons to see the place as he and fellow members had known it for the longest time. Once the movers arrived, the furniture started disappearing.

“I never thought on my watch I would vacate Springvale,” Nadeau said. “I feel more hurt for the guys that really built this place.”

More: Pilot House owners pitch new restaurant, moving Spirit of Massachusetts ship to land

New home, same mission

While the Springvale Masons may be changing their location, their mission will remain the same.

“Freemasons are the oldest fraternal organization in continual existence in the world,” Beals said. “Their sole purpose is to take good men and make them better by working with them and working with the community.”

The organization focuses on charity, Beals said, assisting with blood drives, helping families in need, especially during the holidays, and pitching in whenever someone needs something repaired at their home.

“If we’re able to help out, we do, whether financially or physically, or both,” Beals said.

The Springvale Lodge has 102 members – a notable number, given the diminished memberships of other service organizations in the area over recent years, but still lower than its peak, according to Beals.

“It’s certainly down from what it used to be,” Beals said. “Freemasonry is actively changing. They’re working on being a more public organization… It used to be a little more insular, but you always had to ask to be a Mason. We try not to recruit.”

The Masons of the Springvale Lodge are residents of Sanford-Springvale and of such surrounding communities as Lebanon, Kennebunk, Alfred, Newfield, and elsewhere.

Harold Smith became a Mason in 1997. He was not able to make many meetings during the years when he was chief of the Acton Fire Department, but he said he was warmly welcomed when he was finally able to resume attendance.

“It’s that brotherhood bond,” Smith said. “That’s the kind of bond we have. I find it very similar to the bond amongst firefighters.”

Glamping getaway: Huttopia campground in southern Maine expands with new cabins, more

Honoring the past and moving forward

The Lodge itself goes back even further than the 99 years members had been meeting at the KeyBank Building. The Lodge will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2025.

According to Lodge Historian Michael Stanley, the Masons in Springvale have Clifford Holdsworth to thank for the home they had for 99 years.

Born in England in 1896, Holdsworth came to the United States and, “through hard work and shrewd business sense,” achieved high status as a banker, according to Stanley. How high? There’s a well-known photograph of President Howard Taft visiting Sanford while he was in office. In the picture, Taft is standing in an open car in downtown Sanford and is swarmed on all sides by hundreds of people. Holdsworth is in the car with him.

For many years, Holdsworth controlled Springvale National Bank at the corner of Main and Oak streets. In 1923, the top floor of the bank was dedicated to the Springvale Masonic Lodge 190. According to Stanley, the site has been known for years as “The Little Lodge on Main Street where men meet on the square.” A large Masonic Slipper, affixed high on the front of the bank, has been a familiar sight to the public for decades.

Given that the Springvale Fire Station is located right around the corner, many of the Lodge’s earliest members were firefighters, according to Stanley.

“There was even a Fireman's Degree team, composed of volunteer firemen, performing their duties for lodges throughout the district in firemen's uniform - just to add a bit of flash,” Stanley said.

'Naked and Afraid' survivor Cheeny Plant: 21 days in South Africa not enough

At one point in the century, Springvale National Bank merged into Key Bank. The bank recently closed its Springvale branch and put the building up for sale, according to Stanley. The building now has a new owner.

“Because of Holdsworth, Springvale Lodge had enjoyed a secure place central in the village for 99 years,” Stanley said. “In that time, the Lodge served as a meeting place for professionals, businessmen, laborers, servicemen – men of all stripes and walks of life.”

In a recent email, Stanley put the Lodge’s relocation into perspective.

“The good work is in the builder, not the building,” he said. “We must always remember that any fraternity, especially a Masonic Lodge, is not made of brick but of brothers.”

Moments before the Masons sat down for dinner at their final meeting in Springvale on April 12, Beals said he was feeling a “little sad,” yes, but also “excited” about the move to Preble Lodge in Sanford.

“It’s an opportunity,” Beals said. “Masonry teaches us to find the positives, look forward, and grow. That’s what we hope to do.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Masons of Springvale Maine Lodge 190 bid farewell to home of 99 years