Phalanx lodge was first formed October 4th, 1779 under a regimental warrant issued by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to the Fourth North Carolina contingent in the Continental army for the formation of Lodge No. 20.  In 1780, this lodge and other units of the North Carolina Continental were moved to Charleston, South Carolina for defense of that city.  On the city's capitulation to Sir Henry Clinton on May 12th 1780,  they were made prisoners of war.

 

 

 

In 1784, Pennsylvania revoked its military lodge warrants. Lodge No. 20 obtained a charter from the Grand Lodge of South Carolina in 1787 as Phalanx Lodge No. 7, Ancient York Masons.  The lodge relocated to Charlotte and was chartered December 2nd, 1797 as Phalanx Lodge No. 31 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, under the North Carolina Grand Lodge. 

 

Unique in having been chartered by three separate jurisdictions and being the only one of the thousands of lodges throughout the world bearing the meaningful title PHALANX, our lodge has the distinction of being described as the parent lodge of all Blue Lodges and affiliated bodies in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.  There are no records of a lodge in Mecklenburg County prior to 1797, though Freemasonry was active and militant in Charlotte during the pre-revolutionary days.  The nearest Masonic lodge at that time was Old Cone Lodge in Salisbury, North Carolina.