Birch Clif in Toronto

I was honoured to sit in the West for the Installation of the new WM at Birch Cliff Lodge, on Friday the 13th, WBro George Baraki, and during the Investiture of his Officers for the ensuing twelve moneths, with RWBro Peter Sialtsis doing a great job as the IM this evening at the old East Toronto Masonic Temple, aka Chisholm Temple, in Toronto East District. The Beaches Lodge and Birch Cliff shared the same temple - "our home"  at Queen and Balsam in The Beach - for many decades prior to the erection of the now-sold Scarborough Masonic Temple, where I was initiated, passed and raised, and where both lodges used to also meet.
Birch Cliff Lodge was founded in 1922 as a daughter Lodge of Wilson Lodge No. 86, which was located in Toronto and named for William Mercer Wilson, the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada in The Province of Ontario. Birch Cliff held their first meeting under "Dispensation" on September 8th, 1922 in a renovated house on Birchcliff Ave. at Kingston Rd, Scarborough. In 1961 the Lodge, along with a number of other lodges from the Scarborough area, moved to the new Scarborough Masonic Temple, located at what was then a dirt road intersection at Ellesmere and Markham Roads. The first meeting of Birch Cliff Lodge was held on February 10th, 1961 in the new building.

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