WEST PARIS — The West Paris Lodge 15, IOOF, has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places according to Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. This designation indicates that the property has been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.
The lodge is a two-story frame building containing a dining room, kitchen, stage and fraternal meeting rooms. The building is located on Maine Street in the Oxford County town of West Paris, just a block from the center of town. Erected by the Odd Fellows Lodge between 1876 and 1880, the Italianate style building served as the meeting hall for the fraternal organization into the 1980s. It was also a community venue for entertainment and recreation throughout its history.
The lodge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance for its long term association with the social history of the town, and as a good example of the type of quasi-public hall that was used by both a fraternal organization and the greater local community.
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