LODGE HISTORY
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We were born over a decade later and the town hadn't grown much. World War II took care of that. Thousands upon thousands of people immigrated, principally from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. They came to work in the defense plants and El Cajon and the surrounding area provided much less expensive housing than the metropolitan San Diego area. We both attended Bostonia Elementary School during the boom years of East County.

As the City of El Cajon grew, El Cajon Valley Lodge grew.

One-day we were musing about the earlier days of El Cajon when most of the businesses were on Main Street. We mentally strolled the south side of Main Street from west to east and the north side from east to west. Between the two of us we could remember every business in town. Two drug stores (with soda fountains), two banks, W. D. Hall's (the world famous lumberyard and hardware store), a theater, several grocery stores and a myriad of other businesses came to mind until we had covered almost every business in town.

With only one exception... every business was owned, managed or operated by a Master Mason who was a member of El Cajon Valley Lodge. In those days the Lodge met over the bank on the corner of Main and Magnolia. What happened inside the Lodge room may have been a mystery to everyone in town, but what the Masons did in the town was a well-known fact. Not only did they own the businesses, and run the businesses, they administered the schools and much of the city, and they did a good job of it.

The Lodge was so successful at integrating their activities into the community that the Lodge building hosted the largest Bethel of Job's Daughters in the country. Many of the high school athletes and scholars were members of DeMolay. Activities, including barbecues, dinners, picnics, ball games and all manner of entertainment were part of the family of Freemasonry in El Cajon.

The Lodge grew (along with the rest of Freemasonry) at an alarming rate during the '40s and '50s, and during the 50s the lodge moved to their present location on Ballantyne Street. It was not unusual for the Lodge to host six degrees in a week. That outlandish growth is now history. Organizations that are involved in the community are now said to be a thing of the past.

On of the primary differences today has to do with society itself. The businesses on Main Street, and elsewhere in the city, are no longer owned by individual proprietors. Corporate ownership is the mainstay of commerce in the world today. There are, therefore, fewer City Fathers, and fewer citizen leaders. This is reflected in the lack of activities and growth in the service clubs and Chamber of Commerce.

But, the lamp is still lighted. Young men continue to be attracted to a fraternity of men whose philosophy consists of the basic ingredients of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth.

Remembering the El Cajon of Yesterday

By Robert R. Watkins, Master 1973 and Robert E. Winterton, Master 1988