In the year 1850 there were only four masonic lodges in the newly created town of Birmingham, and they all met at the Town Hall Tavern, Anne Street (now known as Colmore Row). Some of the brethren, all zealous members of the same Lodge of Instruction, resolved to found a new lodge, which would show Masonry pure and undefiled, free from the old tavern associations, and applying its money to purely Masonic purposes. These excellent principles naturally attracted some opposition and the founders sustained some set backs, but eventually, on 27th January, 1851, Grand Lodge issued to them a Warrant of Constitution under the name of the Howe Lodge, No. 857, taking its name from Lord Howe, the Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire.
Suitable premises were found over the old Coal Wharf in Newhall Street, the site of’ which is now occupied by Richmond House, and on 10th March, 1851, the new Lodge held its first Regular Meeting in “The Masonic Rooms, Newhall Street”. W. Bro. T. C. Roden, a Past master of St. Pauls Lodge, No. 5 1, acted as Installing Master, and installed Bro. John Ward Lloyd as the first Worshipful Master of the Lodge, but there was no ceremony of consecration as would be the case in the present day. During the ensuring four years the Lodge grew and prospered devoting the whole of its income to purely Masonic purposes, until it was, at length, in a sufficiently strong financial position to carry out its original intention of erecting a Masonic Hall. In November 1855 a house, No. 27 (now No. 75) Newhall Street, nearly opposit