Following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, thousands of entrepreneurs, adventurers, and would-be miners flocked to California in search of riches and to start new lives. Travel to the gold fields was treacherous and little in the way of assistance or relief could be found along the way. By the time they made it over the Sierra Nevada and into the mining camp of Placerville, many were destitute, ill, and in dire straits. In response, Freemasons quickly banded together to help arriving brethren and their families.
During the first years of the Gold Rush, no Masonic lodge had been established in Placerville. On June 26, 1852, Grand Master Benjamin Hyman authorized a small group of Masons to organize under the Grand Lodge of California. On May 6, 1853, El Dorado Lodge No. 26 (later renamed Placerville Lodge to avoid confusion with Hiram 25 in the town of El Dorado) was officially chartered with 26 Master Masons on the membership roll. Several of the earliest members of the lodge were also very prominent California residents. Lodge secretary Dr. Isaac Titus, went on to serve as the Grand Master of California Masons in 1873 and Dr. Benjamin Keene who was instrumental in the founding of El Dorado 26, was the first president of the California Medical Association in 1856.
Although membership ebbed and flowed with the boom and bust cycle of mining, the lodge thrived and began fund raising for a new home to replace the smaller buildings used during the Gold Rush years. On August 24, 1893 the cornerstone for the new lodge building was laid on the north side of Main Street in Placerville. By the 1970s, the Main Street building no longer met the lodge’s needs and on December 1, 1981, ground was broken for the new Placerville Masonic Center, located on Cold Springs Road. In 2010 the Center was dedicated to the memory of Robert O. West, Past Master of Placerville 26 and Past Grand Master of California and Hawaii.
In the years to follow, the membership of Placerville 26 made the decision to return the historic building on Main Street. On January 9th, 2025 the membership of the lodge held the first meeting at the new/old lodge building. With a redesigned footprint, Placerville Lodge transformed into a smaller and more quaint setting than in the years past. With blessings upon the lodge, the membership continues to thrive in Placerville!