Grange Hall

I was recently in a Lions Club
meeting at the Prunedale
Grange Hall on California’s central coast. These halls are buildings
of The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, a fraternal
organization for American farmers, founded in 1867. The Grange is the oldest
surviving agricultural organization in America, important politically after the
Civil War.

Meeting in a Grange Hall felt a little like doing business in Boston’s
Faneuil Hall,
a building still in use but suffused with history. On the wall was
this Mission Statement:

The Granges of California provide opportunities to enhance your
communities today for the generations of tomorrow by promoting
growth through family, community, and grassroots legislative action.

The dents in the wooden floor were testimony to heavy use of the
Prunedale Grange.

Images Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson