A new Traditional Observance Lodge has formed in Louisiana: O. K. Allen Lodge U.D. in Winnfield, Louisiana has been granted dispensation to work. Its charter Master is RWB Bryan Price, who has also been named for 2011-2012 as the Grand Tyler for the Grand Lodge of Louisiana F&AM.What makes O.K. Allen Lodge doubly unusual, apart from adopting the TO model, is that it will also be working the Scottish Rite Craft rituals for its three degrees, which are based on pre-Louisiana Purchase era French rituals, and rarely seen outside of Louisiana. It is totally different from the Preston/Webb York ritual worked in the overwhelming majority of the U.S.
The Grand Lodge of Louisiana F&AM currently has one other TO lodge, the Lodge of the Nine Muses No. 9, in Baton Rouge.
Oscar Kelly Allen was a Freemason and a member of Eastern Star Lodge No. 151 F&AM in Winnfield, Louisiana. Allen served as the 42nd Governor of the State of Louisiana from 1932-36. At the time of his death, he was the Democratic nominee for Huey Long's vacated Senate seat. For more information about Traditional Observance and European Concept lodges in the U.S., see the website of the Masonic Restoration Foundation.
