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Noted as the first African American Masonic Lodge in the state of North Carolina, King Solomon Lodge #1 was founded in New Bern by freed people of the region on September 27, 1865, with the help of Master Mason Paul Drayton of New York.

In March 1862, U.S. Army forces liberated the city from Confederate troops, planting the seeds of Reconstruction in their wake. Whereas the African American population had once been bound by the dehumanizing chains of slavery, the population then was strengthened and united by their newfound freedom. 

By establishing and sustaining churches, businesses, and community centers, the Black community cultivated agency, solidarity, and a sense of belonging. The Masonic Lodge, for example, provided a sense of belonging and higher purpose for African American men across the southern states while also serving as a layer of protection through strength in numbers.

Among the first leaders of King Solomon Lodge was abolitionist and African Methodist Episcopal minister James Walker Hood, who had served as a chaplain for U.S. Army troops and the freed people of New Bern beginning in early 1864. In addition to his role as leader of the Lodge, Hood acted as an agent for the Freedmen’s Bureau and principal delegate for the state’s first Freedmen’s Convention in the autumn of 1865.  

The current building housing King Solomon Lodge #1 was constructed in 1870 and relocated to its present site in the 1920s. It has served as a Masonic Lodge continuously since its inception. The Lodge is a thriving fraternal community with its roots in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. Its membership, as well as North Carolina’s Masonic movement at large, are all part of the legacy left behind by those who planted their roots here in 1865.