Chinese Masons Rebuild

[PHOTO]  Breaks Sod For New Home Of Chinese Masonic Lodge

           Monday, May 26, 1952, is Red Letter Day in local Chinese circles as first sod is turned in re-establishment of Chinese Masonic building, 7^th Avenue, following recent fire which totally destroyed original Masonic and Dart Coon Club building.

           Mayor R.E. Sang congratulates Mr. Wong Yee Hon, Past Master and member of the Order for sixty years, who turns the sod as interested parties in project look on.

           Left to right: Jim Sing, fund promoter; Mr. Wong; Mayor Sang; Lee Hoy Hee, Masonic Secretary; Mah Kong, project supervisor; Frank Jones, contractor’s representative.  At rear, Lt. A. Millar, Arthur Jones, and A. Hummel, excavator.

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CHINESE MASONS TO REBUILD TEMPLE –

           To rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of the recently burned Chinese Masonic and Art Coon Club buildings on 7^th Avenue, is to be the up-to-date two storey building for which the first sod was turned in a neat ceremony Monday morning of this week.

           Supervised by Mr. Jim Sing, a Chinese business man in the import-export business of Toronto, the first sod was turned by Mr. Wong Yee Hon, a past Master of the Order, and a member for sixty years, as Mayor R.E. Sang of this city, Frank Jones of the contracting firm of A.E. Jones Co. Ltd., and Chinese Masonic officers looked on.

           Mr. Sing, who contacted member lodges practically from Coast to Coast after the disastrous fire which destroyed the Masonic home for aged Chinese, gathered money and pledges which enabled him, as building committee chairman, to place the initial contract rated in the neighborhood of $25,000, which will provide the local lodge with a two storey, stuccoed building of 25 by 65 feet on the old site, with rooming accommodations for fifteen old aged members, and two handsome lodge rooms with modern facilities.

           Expansion of the building on the adjoining lot is confidently looked forward to by the lodge officers in the very near future.

           The present new building is slated for official opening August 15^th next with appropriate ceremonies in keeping with the importance of the occasion.

           With Mr. Jim Sing on the building committee are Harry Lim, secretary, Lee Poo Wing, Treasurer, and Man Wah Sun, manager of Sun Lee Yun Co., accountant, with Mr. Lee Hoy Hee, manager, Sam Yick Co., secretary for the Chinese Masonic Order and Dart Coon Club project, Mah Kong, supervisor and Joe Lein, Chinese secretary.

           These gentlemen, along with Mayor Sang, Ald. W.A. Burton, Lt. and Mrs. Austin Millar, of the Salvation Army, Messrs. F. and A. Jones and Mr. Hummel, sat down to a delicious spread in the banquet room of the Sun Sun Café, following the brief ceremony.  Proposing a toast to the new project, His Worship paid a tribute to Cranbrook Chinese citizens, whom he had found, during over thirty years of association to be “honest, upright, community-minded and all round good citizens.”  The new project, he said, designed by them to assist the aged members of their community and carry on their charitable work, was of considerable importance in the community, and he wished them well in their new undertaking.