Zetland Hall (1st generation) - "The Bungalow" - IL 34 & IL 31 [1853-1865]

Submitted by annelisec on Sat, 09/18/2010 - 11:59
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
Date closed / demolished

—Dated January 28th, 1853.—Extracted from the Overland " Friend of China."

Surveyor-General Cleverly, S.W. of the Zetland Lodge, give promise of an erection that will prove a unique ornament to our city. The Prov. Grand Master, and Officers of the Grand Lodge of China, with the Masters, Past Masters, Officers, and Brethren of the two southern Lodges, will convene at eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning, the cerenlony taking place at noon. To complete the day's festivity, the Zetland Lodge have issued numerous invitations for a ball at the Club House, of which we hope to furnish a full account in due time, the meeting being taken advantage of to present to the B. W. Samuel Eawson, P. G. M., a valuable token of the esteem in which he is held by the Brethren in Hong-Kong.

Photos that show this Place

Comments

FOREIGN.

CHINA.

Projected Ceremony on Laying the Foundation-stone of a New Masonic Hall. — Tuesday, the 1st of February, was appointed for laying, with due ceremony, the foundation-stone of a Masonic Hall in Hong-Kong; a building the want of which has been, on several occasions, of serious inconvenience to the Fraternity. The site of the intended hall, on the Inland Lot, No. 34, just below St. Paul's College, is as central as can well be, and the plans, prepared by Mr.Surveyor-General Cleverly, S.W. of the Zetland Lodge, give promise of an erection that will prove a unique ornament to our city. The Prov. Grand Master, and Officers of the Grand Lodge of China, with the Masters, Past Masters, Officers, and Brethren of the two southern Lodges, will convene at eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning, the cerenlony taking place at noon. To complete the day's festivity, the Zetland Lodge have issued numerous invitations for a ball at the Club House [Hong Kong Club], of which we hope to furnish a full account in due time, the meeting being taken advantage of to present to the B. W. Samuel Eawson, P. G. M., a valuable token of the esteem in which he is held by the Brethren in Hong-Kong.—Dated January 2&th, 1853.—Extracted from the Overland " Friend of China."

From the HK Freemason website: 

The first Masonic Hall in Hong Kong was built in 1846 by The Zetland Lodge No. 525, English Constitution and was named Zetland Hall in honour of the Lodge that built it. The Zetland Lodge itself was named as a compliment to the then Grand Master, Thomas, Second Earl of Zetland, who was The Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1844 to 1870.

In 1865 this hall was replaced by a second larger and more impressive building in Zetland Street in the Central business district. This second Zetland Hall lasted until 1944 when it was destroyed by American bombing, Hong Kong then being under Japanese occupation.

Between 1945 to 1950 the Freemasons of Hong Kong met in temporary premises while a site for a new hall was found. Work on the third and present Zetland Hall at No. 1 Kennedy Road began in 1949 and was finished in January 1950. The Hall was dedicated to Masonic use in an impressive ceremony on 30 January 1950.

Source here

From your article above it seems that the Masons had builder trouble so I would date the 1st Generation Masons hall 1853-1865