INNISFAIL – One of the town’s oldest service clubs is giving its old local headquarters a new fresh look.
This summer, 13 members of the local Orange Lodge are investing just under $5,000 to fix up the Orange Hall at 5204 - 49 Ave.
And by mid-September the public may be invited to come to an open house to learn more about the Innisfail Orange Lodge, which is affiliated with the Canadian branch of the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organization that began in County Armagh in Ireland in 1795.
The organization has been a part of many Canadian communities for the past 200 years. It has a history in Innisfail going back about 100 years, but the service group's popularity in town and across Canada has dwindled over the past half century.
But the local lodge is determined to once again be part of the community, and despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the first step towards that goal is to fix up the old hall, which was moved to Innisfail in 1960.
Ron Murphy, president of the local Orange Lodge, told The Albertan on July 28 that the hall’s basement meeting area was recently flooded and carpets had to be pulled out.
He said members gave fresh coats of paint to the building and repaired the ceiling. He said even the flag pole received a fresh coat of paint. Members then proudly raised the Union Jack and Canadian flags.
“We’re generally giving the old building a bit of a face lift,” said Murphy, whose home is Calgary. “The idea is for it to become what it used to be, which is a large part of the Innisfail community.”
Murphy said at one time the Innisfail Orange Lodge had up to 40 members. They included local businessmen and farmers who helped give the lodge a large profile in the community.
“The Orange had a big influence in a lot of small communities,” he said. “The buildings were used sometimes because there wasn’t a school in smaller farming communities. They doubled as a church in some cases. They doubled during an emergency as a place of shelter.
“They had a large profile in the smaller communities, like Innisfail,” he added. “We don’t think we are going to be able to rekindle that but we sure would like to be a bit more of the fabric of the community.”
Murphy said lodge members want to know more about the history of their building, which is owned by the Toronto-based Orange Association of Canada. They only know that it was moved to town in 1960, and that a local entrepreneur once took piano lessons in the upstairs meeting room.
“A lot of the history of the building we don’t know, and we want to revitalize that and we’d like the community to come with stories when we do open it up and hopefully share them with us,” he said, adding lodge members are looking for more tenants to use the building as members only meet once or twice a month.
He said after renovations the building will be in great shape, and will be available to other community groups to use.
“We are open to any suggestion the community comes back to us with,” said Murphy, adding the service group has submitted its name to the town as an “overflow” facility and available to rent out for meeting space at an affordable rate.
“We would like to get a semi-permanent tenant that we could rely on for a little bit of revenue,” he said. “We are a small organization and we plan to be here a long time.”
