Honoring Prince Hall, Memorial Day 2023. / John Burt photo
UPDATED June 24: On Memorial Day, officers and members of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge visited Prince Hall’s grave at Copp’s Hill in the North End of Boston.
They then traveled to the Prince Hall Mystic Cemetery, along Gardner Street in East Arlington, for a short ceremony. Some introductions and greetings preceded a prayer, playing of taps and a wreath-laying to honor Hall — the founder of the Masonic Lodge in Boston in 1776.
For more about Hall, and information about the Arlington cemetery’s history, click here >>
To celebrate Prince Hall Day this year, the Arlington Historical Society, the Town of Arlington’s diversity, equity and inclusion division and the Mystic Valley Lodge of Freemasons are the hosts for a talk by Rosemarie Smurzinski on the life and legacy of Prince Hall. The event was held June 24, at the Arlington Masonic Temple at 19 Academy St.
Prince Hall marker, North End.
In 2021, Town Meeting overwhelming approved Beth Melofchik’s article to request that the Select Board declare June 24 “Prince Hall Day,” to commemorate his talk (or “charge”) at African Lodge #1 in Menotomy (the former name for Arlington) on June 24, 1797.
On June 21, 2021, the Arlington Select Board made that proclamation.
Before the talk, a member of the Select Board plans to read the proclamation, and Melofchik is scheduled to read excerpts from the 1797 charge.
June 23, 2023: Prince Hall’s words heard, 225 years after
This news announcement was published Sunday, June 4, 2023, based on information from local residents Jo Anne Preston and Alan Jones. It was updated June 24, 2023, to rearrange text and to clarify wording.
