Upcoming Special Events:

Elizabeth Spooner Cenotaph Placement Ceremony Saturday, April 11 at 10:00 a.m.

Please join us at the Fredericksburg Masonic Cemetery on Saturday, April 11 at 10am for the cenotaph tombstone placement ceremony of Elizabeth Spooner (c.1776-1803).

Elizabeth Spooner was the daughter of Lt. Col. Gustavus Brown Wallace (1751-1802), the wife of merchant and Councilman George W. B. Spooner (1763-1849), and the mother of seven children.

Much of Elizabeth’s life remains unknown and was largely forgotten until her tombstone was discovered in the 1980s. Broken and abandoned, the tombstone was recovered and donated to the Fredericksburg Area Museum by Mr. and Mrs. John H. Prasse. Many people worked tirelessly to locate her resting place and learn more about her life. Although her original burial site was never found, through collaborative efforts among the Fredericksburg Area Museum, Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, and the community, she is now being given a final resting place alongside her father, Lt. Col. Wallace, and near her son, Henry A. A. Spooner.

5th Virginia Convention Open House Friday, May 15 from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge No. 4 is celebrating the 250th anniversary of Virginia’s independence by hosting a free-to-the-public open house on Friday, May 15 from 5 to 9 p.m. On May 15, 1776, the 5th Virginia Convention declared the colony independent from King George III and Parliament, instructing its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to seek the same action for all the colonies.

The open house will feature tours of the historic 1816 building and new artifact displays, with complimentary birthday cake and refreshments available.

At 7 p.m., a lecture will be held on the 5th Virginia Convention by Shelby L. Chandler, a Past Master and the Lodge Historian. Spotsylvania county’s two members of the 5th Virginia Convention, Mann Page III and George Thornton, were Fredericksburg Freemasons. The lecture is the third in a series of ten free lectures to be held at the Lodge on Fredericksburg’s Revolutionary War Heroes, hosted in collaboration with the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. The topics and speakers can be found at masoniclodge4.org/lectures with the first lecture, an introduction to the 18th-century activities of the Lodge, being held this Thursday, April 9, at 7 p.m.