One of the first buildings erected after the town was surveyed in 1791 was the Masonic Lodge. A very important building in the infant community, it was the venue of church services, agricultural society meetings and the opening of the first session of the first Parliament of Upper Canada. The original lodge was burned in 1813. The new building, erected on the site in 1816, was used as a store, a school and military barracks until the 1870s when the freemasons bought the barracks and refitted it, thus returning to their original site.