John Snow and the Masonic Lodge

Images: (1 & 2) Snow Monument, (3) Snow House; (4) Masonic Lodge on High Street; (5) John Snow

Most of Worthington’s Scioto Company were Masons, and the organization was a very important aspect of life in early Worthington. John Snow was a silversmith and merchant from Providence, Rhode Island, whom James Kilbourn persuaded to come west to Worthington. His house, the Snow House, is best known as the building with the crooked doorway and windows on West New England Avenue. Because John Snow was an early master of New England Lodge #4 many Masonic meetings and rite ceremonies were held in his home prior to the lodge being constructed in 1820. The corner stone of the Masonic Lodge building features a copper plate engraved with John Snow’s name, and the words: “Masonry, Virtue, and Universal Benevolence.” The Masonic Temple was the oldest in continuous use west of the Allegheny Mountains until it moved out of Worthington in 2013, leaving behind only the New England Lodge #4. John Snow died prior to the availability of Walnut Grove Cemetery so he was moved here also.

Continue along Maple from Stop 9 to Stop 10 a very short distance along the same side of the street.