About the Lodge

Freemasonry is the world’s oldest and largest fraternity, a society of men bound together by a shared belief in a Supreme Being and a common desire to improve themselves and the world around them. It is not a religion, nor a substitute for one; it asks only that a man profess faith in Deity and conduct himself with honor toward God, his neighbor, and himself.

Using the working tools of the operative stonemasons of old, such as the square, the compasses, the level, and the plumb, as symbols of moral instruction, Freemasonry teaches a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. A man advances through three degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason.

Above all, Masonry is a fraternity of friendship. Its purpose, often stated, is to take good men and make them better: better husbands and fathers, better citizens, and better neighbors.

The town of Brighton was platted in 1881 by Daniel Franklin Carmichael along the railroad on the banks of the South Platte, and named for Brighton Beach, New York. The community was barely nine years old when its Masons gathered to form a Lodge of their own. Brighton Lodge No. 78 received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Colorado on September 16, 1890, twelve years before Adams County itself was created in 1902 and Brighton was named its county seat.

The Lodge took its place in a Craft that had come to Colorado with the pioneers. The Grand Lodge of Colorado was formed in 1861, fifteen years before statehood, by brethren whose belief in the tenets of the Fraternity led them to take a prominent part in building the new communities of the territory. Brighton Lodge No. 78 carried that same spirit into the farms and railroad town of the South Platte valley, and it has labored without interruption in District 20 ever since.

For well over a century the Lodge has met in Brighton, serving generation after generation of Adams County Masons and their families. Today the brethren continue that work from the lodge hall at 30 S. 7th Avenue, gathering in Stated Communication on the second and fourth Thursday of each month as Masons in this place have done since 1890.