Temple Founding a Lodge in Sonoma
Temple Lodge No. 14 began with a dispensation granted in late 1850, authorizing a small group of local Freemasons to organize a lodge in the town of Sonoma. Eight men are remembered as the founding pioneers of Masonry in Sonoma County, and their first meetings — held under the working name Sonoma Lodge — began that spring.
Within weeks, the group petitioned the Grand Lodge of California for a formal charter. It was granted on May 6, 1851, and the lodge took on a new name shortly after: Temple Lodge, chosen in part because "Sonoma" carries a Native American meaning close to "moon," while Freemasonry's traditional symbolism looks instead to the sun.
Freemasons and the Bear Flag Era
Sonoma's Masonic history is closely tied to its role in California's early pioneer era. Several men connected to the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt were known Freemasons, and Masonic figures were prominent in the years that followed, as U.S. Army officers stationed in Sonoma after the Mexican War helped shape the town's civic life.
On July 9, 1846, Navy Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere — a grandson of Paul Revere and a Freemason himself — lowered the Bear Flag over Sonoma Plaza and raised the American flag in its place for the first time.
Among the officers stationed in Sonoma were Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson, who commanded the first U.S. Army regiment garrisoned in the Bay Area and later became California's first Masonic Grand Master, and Lieutenant George Stoneman Jr., a West Point graduate who rose to Major General in the Union Army and later served as California's governor.
The Lodge's First Home
A formal dispensation authorized local Freemasons on November 25, 1850, to open a lodge in Sonoma. On April 9, 1851, eight Masons began meeting in an upstairs room of the historic Ray House — also known as Adler's Adobe — at the corner of Spain and Second Street East. The room, roughly 15 by 35 feet, served as the lodge's first meeting space. The building still stands today as a private residence, and Masonic insignia remain visible on its walls.
Grand Master Jonathan D. Stevenson officiated at the chartering ceremony on May 6, 1851. Several West Point graduates were among the Lodge's first officers, including Lieutenant George Horatio Derby, its first Elected Master.
A Lodge on the Move
By 1857, Temple Lodge had grown to 42 members, and the following year the Lodge relocated to the second floor of the Salvador Vallejo Adobe on First Street West — a building that still stands today.
Around 1879, the Lodge moved again, to the Vaslit Building near the Plaza, which later became the Sonoma Valley Bank. The Order of Eastern Star No. 61 became affiliated with Temple Lodge in 1884. In 1889, fire destroyed the building and most of the Lodge's early records, though several officers' jewels from the founding year were later recovered.
The Lodge later met in the Oddfellows building on Broadway until a new Sonoma Valley Bank building was completed, with lodge rooms on its second floor — at the time considered one of the finest buildings north of San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake damaged the upper floor badly enough that it had to be removed, though Temple Lodge retained rights to the space until 1994.
For a few years afterward, meetings were held in members' homes, until a new lodge building on the west side of the Sonoma Plaza was completed in 1909. Temple Lodge would call that building home for the next 84 years, growing to more than 300 members.
General Hap Arnold
After retiring from military service at the end of World War II, five-star General Henry "Hap" Arnold — a pioneering figure in U.S. military aviation, trained to fly by the Wright Brothers and considered the father of the modern Air Force — settled in the Sonoma Valley. Though not a member of Temple Lodge himself, he visited often and became the most prominent Freemason in the valley since Governor George Stoneman.
A bronze marker commemorating General Arnold now stands at the base of a flagpole in the Sonoma Masonic Center courtyard — the same flagpole that once flew above his historic ranch in the hills above town.
Chuck Williams and Williams-Sonoma
On November 14, 1956, Charles E. "Chuck" Williams was raised to the Third Degree as a Master Mason at Temple Lodge No. 14 — the same year he opened his very first cookware store in Sonoma, just a block from where the Lodge meets today. Williams would go on to found Williams-Sonoma, Inc., now one of the best-known specialty retailers in American home goods.
By some accounts, the roots of the company trace back to friendships formed within the Lodge — a fellow member is credited with hosting Williams on a formative first trip to Europe, where he encountered the French cookware that would inspire his business. The Grand Lodge of California later honored Williams with a cover feature in its official publication, marking his standing as one of the most recognized Masonic businessmen of his era.
A New Chapter on Broadway
In 1991, the City of Sonoma determined that the Lodge's historic First Street West building needed structural reinforcement it could not economically support, and the building was sold. Today it houses a local tavern, though traces of the original lodge room are still visible on the second floor.
After a search for a new home — including a period meeting in a community center — Temple Lodge settled into its current location at 669 Broadway. The lodge room there was substantially remodeled during the summer of 2007, a project carried out under the leadership of a Lodge member and still considered an ongoing labor of dedication by the brothers involved.
Historical accounts of the Lodge's earliest years were preserved in part through the writing of Robert Albion Poppe, whose 1885 history recorded the founding officers, early membership rolls, and the Lodge's first three meeting rooms — a record that remains a key source for Temple Lodge's story today.
Temple Lodge Today
More than 170 years after its charter, Temple Lodge No. 14 continues its tradition of fellowship, Masonic education, and community service — including its long-running sponsorship of the Sonoma Valley "Teacher of the Year" award. From an adobe room near the Plaza to its current home on Broadway, the Lodge remains an active thread in the civic and fraternal history of Sonoma.