The Odd Fellows & Rebekahs Home
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The Odd Fellows & Rebekahs Home
1020 N. Fifteenth Street
Cañon City, Colorado
Among the first records of the Order in America is that of five Brothers of the English Order who met in New York City in 1806 and formed Shakespeare Lodge No. 1. The founders were three boat builders, a comedian, and a vocalist - a group befitting the name "Odd Fellows," indeed. The lodge was self-instituted, a common practice in those times. Their first candidate was a retired actor who was the keeper of the tavern where they met. Accounts state that lodge meetings were accompanied by merry making and mirth and that the wares of the tavern were freely indulged in. This lodge was dissolved in 1813 due to poor attendance brought on by controversy over the War of 1812.
Another lodge of which little is known existed briefly in New York in 1816. In 1818, Shakespeare Lodge in New York was re-instituted in the Red Cow tavern, operated by a former member who had in his keeping the books and papers of the former lodge. They claimed to have received a charter from the Manchester Unity which gave them authority over all other Odd Fellows Lodges in the United States, but this authority was not accepted by other lodges. Several more lodges were founded in the New York City area and one in Philadelphia, due to the efforts of the Brothers of Shakespeare Lodge.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows as we know it today began in Baltimore, Maryland, where five members of the Order from England founded Washington Lodge No. 1 on April 26, 1819, by self-institution. One of these Brothers was Thomas Wildey, the first Noble Grand and the man revered as the founder of Odd Fellowship in North America. A charter was received from Duke of York Lodge in Preston, England, in 1820, a year and a half after its self-institution.
A second lodge was formed in Baltimore in 1819, but these two lodges and those in New York were unaware of each others' existence for some time, communications being slow in those days, and there being no reason such information would travel from one city to another except by pure chance.
In 1821, the "Grand Lodge of Maryland and of the United States of America, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows," was founded. Brother Wildey also served as the first Grand Master/Grand Sire of the first Grand Lodge, for a period of 12 years. Several more lodges were established, and in 1824, the "Grand Lodge of the United States" now termed "The Sovereign Grand Lodge," was separated from the Grand Lodge of Maryland. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows in North America (United States and Canada) became independent from the Order in England in 1834.
At first glance, the majestic Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Home appears as though it could have been constructed as part of a grand southern estate. Built in 1914, the town's business leaders actually approached the IOOF&R and lobbied to have the home built in Cañon City, as they correctly perceived the financial benefits of such an organization and building in the community. Similar to the Union Printers Home in Colorado Springs, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Home was built during the time when members were taken care of by their own if they became ill, poor or were suddenly orphaned children of IOOF&R members. In time, admission to the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Home included non-members.
The stately building cost approximately $50,000 when it was completed. Unlike any other building in town, it's 13,470 square feet housed dormitories for the 154 children raised within it's walls during the years of it operating as an orphanage. With it's 128 windows, 115 doors, library, dining rooms, playroom, sunrooms and kitchen, it could be a maze to navigate for new residents, several of whom still live in the surrounding community. But with the slow arrival of adoption and foster care laws in Colorado, the home began to accept fewer and fewer children, until there were none.
Today, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Home serves the elderly and it continues to be one of Cañon City's treasured buildings with a long proven - and yes, odd - history of doing good by helping others.
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