African American Odd Fellows Lodge, Midway, Kentucky

Social organizations, like the Free Masons and Odd Fellows, played an important part in Kentucky communities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The buildings constructed by these groups often remain as significant examples of vernacular architecture even if the lodge itself is no longer active. Such is the case with a wonderful two-story frame building with an eye-catching central cross gable in one of Kentucky’s prettiest railroad towns – Midway, Kentucky.

The building once known as the “Colored Odd Fellows Lodge” in Midway, Kentucky.

The Odd Fellows in America trace their beginnings back to England, where the first documented evidence of the fraternal organization dates to 1730. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was chartered on this side of the pond in 1819, in Baltimore. From the beginning, the group focused on charity and benevolence, but no one can quite agree on why the name “odd fellow” was chosen.

A section of the 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Midway, showing the building in question (highlight by blue arrow).

Sadly, though, this lodge building in Midway, constructed around 1900 for an African American Odd Fellows Lodge, is not in the best shape. The building hasn’t been occupied for over a decade, and while I have no first hand knowledge of its deterioration, I’ve heard from several folks concerned about its condition.

Undated historic photo of the Odd Fellows building, showing the first floor storefront, now much altered. Photograph courtesy of Bill Penn.

Like many Lodge buildings, the second floor housed the lodge meeting rooms, while the first story was rented out to a commercial enterprise – sometimes more than one shop or business. While it now has a window/door/door/window fenestration pattern on the first floor, you can see from the black and white photo that it originally had three doors (one likely leading right onto a stairwell with access to the upper level lodge rooms) and what looks like two businesses operating on the first floor.

I didn’t uncover much about the history of this building, nor the longevity of the lodge. But the dearth of information doesn’t make this building any less important. Midway benefits greatly from the tourist trade, and this building should be a viable part of a downtown commercial district that makes thousands of people every year (including me) stop, smile, and marvel at the diverse range of historic buildings lining each side of the railroad tracks. These historic buildings function as vital parts of today’s streetscape, but they also provide important links to our past – and those links need to be maintained and tended to – both literally and metaphorically.