PAYPAL
Our History
Former North Hollywood Masonic Temple, 2012. Photo by Downtowngal (CC0).
North Hollywood Masonic Lodge No. 542 was chartered in 1923 as Lankershim Lodge. Its original name preserves a piece of neighborhood history. A century later, the lodge still carries the same number under the name North Hollywood.
Before North Hollywood
In 1923, the year the lodge received its charter, Lankershim was annexed to the City of Los Angeles. In 1927, the community took the name North Hollywood. The lodge kept the Lankershim name for another 23 years. Grand Lodge records date the official change to North Hollywood Lodge to October 12, 1950.
The temple on Tujunga Avenue
By the time the lodge took the North Hollywood name, the Masonic temple at 5122 Tujunga Avenue had already been built. Los Angeles city planning records date the building to 1949. The former temple is a physical reminder of the years when the lodge’s story and the neighborhood’s grew together.
See photographs of the former temple in the city’s historic nomination.
Audie Murphy and the lodge’s Hollywood ties
One of Lodge 542’s best-known members was Audie Murphy, the highly decorated World War II soldier who went on to become a Hollywood actor. In 2012, California Freemason reported that the former temple’s Audie Murphy Lounge displayed his Masonic membership application and several of his military medals.
The same illustrated lodge profile documented a later generation of members working in music, film, and television, including record producer Matt Hyde and composer Jeff McDonough.
Lodge 542 today
Today we carry that history forward through lodge meetings, fellowship, and volunteer work. North Hollywood remains part of our name and a focus of our community service. We currently meet at the Van Nuys Masonic Center.
