Dispensation was granted to form the Lodge on July 31, 1961. There were 460 charter members, and they met at the Del Mar Racetrack until they acquired what was previously the local Grange Hall and is now our current building.
The original initiation was October 11, 1961, and our Charter is dated November 24, 1961. The Lodge had a Christmas Ball that year at the Hotel Del Coronado.
Sid Bohn, P.E.R., one of the original members, said that "pretty much the whole town" of Encinitas joined the Lodge that year. The highest number of members was in the mid to late 70's, when it reached 663.
We had 349 members as of the last count {April 1, 2003}. 8 of the members who were initiated on October 11th of 1961 are still here, and Sid said the other members over 40 years were mostly original members as well who transferred from other Lodges. That would make a total of 21 original members still here.
The Lodge was pretty plain up until a couple of years ago. which is when the wall between the bar and dining room was knocked down. Shortly after that, the front patio was added, then most of the building was given a stucco treatment in the Spanish look that you see now.
The Lodge purchased a lot on El Camino Real when we had a lot more members and were thinking of building a new Lodge. At the last minute, some of the members got cold feet, and it was never built. In 2000 the lot was sold, and the Building Corporation is in charge of the money. T
hanks to Mike Warner, PER and Carl "Sid" Bohn, PER for this info.