Location:  Congdon-Overlook Lodge, 11 Morristown Road, Bernardsville, NJ
Fee: $10 (To be collected at the door)
Snow Date: March 28

Freemasons are one of the oldest fraternal organizations in the world, a group that began during the Middle Ages in Europe as a guild of skilled builders who later spread out worldwide.  The fraternal order has more than a 250-year history in the Garden State.  Members of the enigmatic brotherhood include prominent politicians, Founding Fathers, titans of business, along with carpenters and stonemasons. 

Founded on the tenets of faith, hope, and charity, the lodges are also known as “temples.”  From humble meeting spaces to elaborate single-purpose centers, these buildings stand tribute to the memory and influence of one of the oldest fraternities in the world and have played important roles in the civic, social, and charitable life of many towns.  Congdon-Overlook lodge in the center of Bernardsville is one of six lodges that make up the 11th district of the most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.

Most of us only know about this order from the famous The Da Vinci Code, a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown, and the 2006 movie adapted from this novel starring Tom Hanks.  Do they really have a secret Freemason handshake, password, and rituals?

Erich Huhn, who is a member of the Congdon-Overlook Lodge and author of New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges, will be our Freemason Historian for the evening.  Learn all about this secret society that resides with us in the heart of downtown Bernardsville.  Signed copies of New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges will be available at the event.

Our Speaker

Erich Morgan Huhn is a PhD student in History & Culture at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.  His research focuses on the historical role of membership as a ‘placing marker’ within society, with a particular interest in the history of Freemasonry in the English-speaking world.

Erich has presented on various Masonic topics, collects rare Masonic texts, and in 2019 published New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges, which provides a photo guide analysis of the development of Masonic architecture from the Colonial period to the present.  Erich was raised as a Master Mason in November 2013 and is active within New Jersey Lodge of Research and Education, No. 1786.