It didn’t take long for other members of the lodge to recognize the significant legacy these items represented. Following Forsyth’s discovery, the lodge leapt into action. Using funds from a generous bequest by Peter Holloway, the lodge’s late tiler, along with additional support from Past Master John Stohr, the lodge converted a recently vacated caretaker’s room into a climate-controlled, cedarlined archives room.
Only six months passed between Forsyth’s discovery of the lodge’s treasures to the opening of the archives. But it wasn’t enough to just rehouse the historical information and objects. Next was the long task of cataloging it. “This is probably not a project that I’ll see the end of,” Forsyth says. “Future historians in the lodge will have to continue our work.”

Tigran Agadzhanyan, raised last year, is one such historian. He represents a new generation of lodge members, and his experience illustrates the subtle, but profound ways the new emphasis on history has altered the lodge.
“When I first saw the lodge room during my initiation, I was amazed,” recalls Agadzhanyan. “Light shone through two large stained glass windows that flanked the master in the east, and framed prints of esoteric paraphernalia hung on the walls.” These lovely windows are remnants of older lodge buildings, and the artwork was discovered within the lodge’s archives. “I can’t begin to tell you how important displaying this history has been to my Masonic experience,” he says.
For Agadzhanyan, the lodge’s Masonic objects convey meaning and make the fraternity’s intangible past come alive. “It isn’t the material items themselves,” he says, “but the meaning behind them.” Take, for instance, one of the many aprons the brethren discovered. “This isn’t just an apron,” he says. “It is an apron issued to a brother a hundred years ago; an apron he wore to meetings, installations, events, and funerals. It was probably cherished for decades, as long as the Mason lived, and then it was lost. But we’ve found it once more.”
For brothers like Agadzhanyan, Forsyth, and Past Master Tim World, the current building manager, there lies a personal story within each minute book and framed photograph. Each object offers a profound connection to their Masonic past, as well as the lodge’s connection to the community and the wider world. It makes one wonder what other stories, from other lodges in California and beyond, may await discovery.
PHOTO CREDIT: Paolo Vescia