AF and AM Lodge 687, Orangeville

203 W. High St., Orangeville, Illinois. County/parish: Stephenson.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places May 09, 2003. NRIS 03000354.

1 contributing building.

Also known as:

AF and AM Lodge 687: The Ancient Free and Accepted Masons Lodge 687 (AF and AM), also known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows J.R. Scruggs Lodge 372, is a building constructed in 1876 as a Masonic Hall. It is located in downtown Orangeville, Illinois, United States, a small village in Stephenson County. The building, originally built by the local Masonic Lodge, was bought by the locally more numerous Independent Order of Oddfellows fraternal organization in 1893. The building has served all of Orangeville's fraternal organizations for more than 125 years, from the time it was built. The two-story, front gabled building has Italianate architecture elements. It had a rear wing added to it in 1903. By 2003, the first floor has been returned to use as a community center, holding dinner theatre and other community functions, much as the building had originally served the community until first floor space was rented out for commercial use in the late 19th century. The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The building is the home of the Mighty Richmond Players Dinner Theatre (MRPDT) dinner theatre which seats 54 persons and has scheduled four different productions for the 2010 season. A $150,000 renovation of the building was recently completed. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as AF and AM Lodge 687, Orangeville in 2003.
(read more...)