On the agenda: Dalton council expected to take up Masonic lodge demolition
Published 8:30 am Saturday, July 19, 2025
- The building that once housed Dalton’s Masonic Lodge 238 is in a serious state of disrepair and could be demolished. (File)
The Dalton City Council will likely take up a demolition agreement and easement for Masonic Lodge 238 when it meets Monday at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
The meeting will be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
The agenda for Monday’s meeting had not been finalized at press time. But City Administrator Andrew Parker said the item is on the tentative list of measures the council will take up.
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The building, at the corner of Hamilton and Emery streets, has not been occupied in more than 25 years. It was condemned by the city as a safety hazard in 2023. Lodge members, who now meet in the Mack Gaston Community Center, asked for time to try to raise funds to restore the building.
In February 2025, the lodge, which owns the building, sent a letter to the city asking it to demolish the building and turn the site into a monument to the lodge and to the city’s Black community.
At 600 S. Hamilton St., the lodge was once a vital part of Dalton’s Black business district. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The two-story building is across the road from the Emery Street Center, an African American heritage and multicultural center. The Emery Street Center was formerly the Emery Street School, which served Black students in Dalton from 1937-68 before Dalton public schools were integrated in 1968.
