Mountain View Lodge was founded on 30 May 1876 and 150 years later to the day, we held a grand celebration to commemorate the anniversary and look forward with continued commitment to our fellowship and community. Our day started by hosting the Grand Lodge Board of Directors in our upstairs lodge hall. In the afternoon, the anniversary celebration opened downstairs with time for fellowship and viewing a twelve minute video with photos of people, documents, artifacts, and scenes from 1876 to 2026. After a delightful banquet, our lodge Chaplain, Debra LaVerne, said a prayer and District Deputy Grand Master Debbie Wolf introduced me. I acknowledged some of the dignitaries who graced us with their presence,
including:
● Emily Ramos, Mayor of Mountain View
● Carlos Juarez, Grand Master, California Odd Fellows, and Mayor of Santa Paula
● Adam Potolsky, Deputy Grand Master
● Annie Cronin, Grand Warden
● Rita Cooper, Jr. Past Grand Master
After introductions, I addressed the lodge and our guests, saying that our celebration itself presented many examples of who we are as a lodge. Our past Noble Grand Sinead Toolis and current Vice Grand Tatiana Kuvaldina designed the logo, banner, and the beautiful new Friendship – Truth – Love display panels. The first California Grand Master from Mountain View, Michael Greenzeiger, produced our tshirts, pennants, and mugs (available for sale on our Storenvy page). Two-time Noble Grand Ria Toolis was our event planner. Mountain View Noble Grand and Grand Instructor Zoe Timmerman developed our historic artifacts cabinets. The first Rebekah Assembly President from Mountain View, Debra LaVergne sewed our new Odd Fellows themed bathroom curtains. Debbie Wolf, a lodge member and our DDGM, managed the event clean up. In small things and in large the Mountain View lodge is a talented and a generous group of hardworking and fun-loving folks.
It has been one of our tasks during this anniversary year not only to celebrate who we are but to research who we have been. Some of the results of that research were in the video as well as in the cabinet artifacts, pictures, and wall hangings. There are still gaps in our knowledge. For example, California Odd Fellows Grand Lodge records were largely burned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and some of our lodge’s oldest log books are still missing. In addition to gaps, we have also seen continuity. The Odd Fellows red velvet embroidered collar I wore during my presentation may have been one of those pictured on one of our earliest lodge member photos, from about 1890 and again worn by the lodge leaders pictured in 1905. Some mysteries remain.
Our 1910 building was originally a bank with grand front columns that show up in many photos of early downtown Mountain View. Grand Lodge reports tell us that the Mountain View Lodge met in this building for years before buying it in 1970. However, we are still working out exactly when the columns were removed. We know about some lodge fellowship projects like the 1938 Books of Friendship in the display cabinet that toured California. The 1938 Books came back with drawings, statements of faith, poems, signatures and warm greetings from many lodges on the West Coast. We are still learning and making discoveries about our past.
At the same time, Mountain View lodge is growing into a fellowship unlike that envisioned by our 1876 founders. As of 2004, only four years after women were accepted as members, Jackie Brown became our first female Noble Grand. She would go on to serve as Noble Grand ten times as well as frequently leading the Hermenia Rebekahs lodge. Jackie was followed by many more women as well as several nonbinary Noble Grands. Each has gifted our community with their unique understanding of what it means to lead and be an example to others. From our earliest time as a lodge, we have seen members who, based on their names, were probably brothers or fathers and sons. Since 2024, we have had two women Noble Grands who sat in the big chair after their Noble Grand daughters. We will continue to explore new ways of exploring and evolving Odd Fellowship.
I presented certificates of appreciation to just a few of our lodge luminaries in the often-overlapping categories of long-service, being a first, and helping to create the anniversary event. Certificates went to, Jackie Brown, Ed Brown, Mary Lou Lang, Linnea Bredenberg, Michael Greenzeiger, Sinead Toolis, Ria Toolis, Debra LaVern, Mason Wolf, Zoe Timmerman, Tatiana Kuvaldina, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Sally Calpo, Ron Myres and Duane Sandland. I also thanked Joseph Ouellette and his cooking, painting, and cleaning crews for taking such good care of us.
My presentation was followed by remarks by California Grand Master Carlos Juarez who gave us a certificate to honor the event. Next up was Mason Wolf who read a 1913 IOOF lodge dedication (the closest ritual we could find to celebrate a lodge anniversary). We took pictures of the Mountain View Noble Grands present wearing the 1890s IOOF red velvet collars. Thank you to all lodge members who work so hard to create, continue, and maintain our lodge, beautify it and enrich its remarkable history. Thanks also to our guests for their good wishes and company during the sesquicentennial of our beloved Mountain View lodge.
— By Katy Dickinson
