Three streams,
one craft.
A history shaped by consolidation, continuity, and the patient work of the Craft in northern New Jersey.
The lodge that meets today as Alpine Tilden Tenakill № 77 is the gathering of five older lodges into one continuous craft. Five warrants, five histories, five names. Across one hundred and forty years, two streams of consolidation and merger flowed together. The diagram below traces that descent. Tap or hover any stone for the warrant details.
What is Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is one of the world's oldest fraternal organizations — a society of men who have come together to improve themselves and serve their communities. Its lessons are taught through ritual, allegory, and symbol drawn from the tools and practices of the medieval stonemasons who built the great cathedrals of Europe.
A Mason's work is internal. The square, the compasses, the plumb, and the level are not implements of construction but of conscience — instruments by which a man measures his own thoughts and actions.
Three Tenets
Freemasons are guided by three foundational tenets:
Brotherly Love
Regard for every member of the human family as a brother — the cultivation of friendship, tolerance, and mutual respect across differences of background, faith, and station.
Relief
The active practice of charity. To soothe the unhappy, to sympathize with their misfortunes, to compassionate their miseries, and to restore peace to their troubled minds.
Truth
To be good men and true is the first lesson taught in Masonry. Sincerity and plain dealing distinguish the Mason in all his actions.
Freemasonry has never solicited members. A man must come of his own free will, after due reflection, and ask to be admitted. It is sometimes said: To be one, ask one.
Qualifications
- A man of at least eighteen years of age
- Of good moral character and sound reputation
- A belief in a Supreme Being
- The recommendation of two Master Masons of the lodge to which application is made
If you are considering Masonry, we invite you to write the Secretary. The lodge welcomes thoughtful inquiry, and the conversation costs nothing.