Soon after it had been constituted in 1876, Akaroa’s Masonic Lodge bought land on Rue Jolie on which to build its gathering place. The foundation stone was laid in December and the building completed in time for the Lodge’s first anniversary dinner in April 1877.
After this promising start, the Lodge lapsed in 1878, but was revived in 1881, when it took the appropriate name “Phoenix” (a mythical bird that rose from its own ashes). The small building is given dignity by its Classical detailing – a small pediment on brackets over the central door and a gable end defined as a second, larger pediment.
While many of Akaroa’s historic buildings have changed in use through the years, the Phoenix Lodge has remained the meeting place of the organisation which first built it.
