ST. JOHN'S LODGE OF COLOMBO NO. 454 E.C.
Year of Warrant - 1838
Meets at the Kandy Masonic Temple, Siebel Place, Kandy, on the third Saturday, in the months of September, November, March, and May. Installation meeting in June on the nearest Saturday to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist; June 24th.
On 21st February 1838 a petition was addressed by twenty Brethren of the French Union Lodge of Colombo to the Grand Lodge of England praying for an English Warrant to establish a new Lodge to be called "St John's Lodge of Colombo". Accordingly a warrant was granted on 27th August 1838 under the Number 665. It was re-numbered 454 by Grand Lodge on the 6th July 1863.
The Lodge was moved to Kandy in 1858. Thus St. John's Lodge of Colombo No.454 EC Holden in Kandy is Sri Lanka's oldest surviving Lodge. It can justly claim direct ancestry not only from the French "L” Union founded in 1822 but also from The Dutch Lodge "Die Veneeniging" founded in 1794.
Till 1887 the Lodge had no settled habitat either in Colombo or in Kandy. Between 1887 and 1910, it met in the upper floor of Messrs John Walker & Company's Store in Kandy until it moved to the Henry Byrde Memorial Hall. After Forty-Three years at the Henry Byrde Memorial Hall, the Lodge moved to the Kandy Masonic Temple in 1953.
The Lodge centenary was celebrated on 24th August 1979, in the immediate presence of Right Worshipful The Assistant Grand Master the Hon. Edward Latham Baillies and a special centenary jewel was presented to mark the occasion.