The Odd Fellows' Tug-of-War Over Permanence
Members of the Odd Fellows gather in Tacoma to debate moving their Grand Lodge headquarters to Seattle, highlighting a long-standing regional rivalry.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The meeting of the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for the state of Washington commenced this morning with the assembling of the Grand Encampment, the higher branch of the order, and the Grand Lodge of the Rebekah degree. So far as the public is concerned, the work of the present Grand Lodge will be of little interest. There is but one matter to be presented that can be construed otherwise than as routine and that, in fact, is an old question coming up again—namely, the attempt to be made to locate the Grand Lodge permanently in Seattle. The representatives say the measure will not carry, but in all probability a substitute for it, alternating the Grand Lodge meetings between Tacoma and Seattle, will become law. The reason given for selecting the two mentioned cities to the exclusion of the others available is purely one of economics. Three-fourths of the membership of the Odd Fellows in Washington live either on the Sound or bordering on it. By actual computation, it has been found that it would cost the order $150 more money to hold the Grand Lodge in Walla Walla, for instance, than it does to convene it in Tacoma.
“Three-fourths of the membership of the Odd Fellows in Washington live either on the Sound or bordering on it.”
The turn-of-the-century struggle over where to centralize organizational power mirrors the perennial 'Seattle vs. Tacoma' regional identity contest. Just as the Odd Fellows calculated the costs of travel and access for their membership, modern urban planning in the Puget Sound remains haunted by the friction of geography, transit time, and regional equity.
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