Ballard Encampment #76 is the Seattle unit of the Encampment branch of Odd Fellowship. The family of Odd Fellowship includes Odd Fellow and Rebekah lodges, for adult men and women respectively; Encampments and Ladies' Encampment Auxiliaries, for Odd Fellows and Rebekahs who wish to progress further in the Order's work and teachings; Cantons and LAPMs, the uniformed branches of the Order, which preserve traditions of military drill and, in many jurisdictions, provide a basis for community-based emergency preparedness and disaster response programs; and Junior Lodges and Theta Rho Clubs, for youth age 10-18. The Encampment branch has been considered the philosophical and symbolic branch of Odd Fellowship, as well as the "fun branch" of the Order.
Ballard Encampment was a latecomer among the Encampments in the jurisdiction of Washington. The Encampment branch of the Order had reached Washington State in 1875, with the chartering of Alpha Encampment #1 at Olympia on April 14th of that year. Unity #2, the first Seattle Encampment, was founded two years later, on August 24th, 1877. By the time Seattle's Ballard neighborhood was ready for an Encampment of its own, in 1910, three other Encampments -- Seattle #21, Paran #47 and Green Lake #63 -- had preceded it onto the books of the Grand Encampment. On December 7th, 1910, Grand Patriarch C.E. Lum instituted Ballard Encampment #76; there were 17 charter members, and 14 candidates were brought into the new Encampment in the course of the ceremony.
Never among the largest or most active of the Seattle Encampments, Ballard #76 proved to have unmatched staying power. By the end of World War I, Ballard and Unity #2 were the only Encampments left in town. Unity went out of existence in 1978. Despite the declining membership that was afflicting all fraternal orders at that time, Ballard #76 held onto its charter until 1992, when it was forced to close its doors.
Though no one expected it at the time, however, help was already on its way, in the form of a revival of interest in Odd Fellowship among younger men in the Seattle area. Ballard (now Ballard Alki) Lodge #170 came back from the edge of disbandment in the early 1990s, and by 1996 the reorganization of Ballard Encampment was again a possibility. Accordingly, on October 26, 1996, Grand Patriarch Antonio Tamburello presided over the reinstitution of Ballard #76. Since that time the Encampment has grown slowly but steadily.
Ballard Encampment #76 meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM at the Ballard IOOF Hall, 1706 NW Market Street, in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. Visiting Patriarchs are always welcome!
Ballard Encampment #76 can be reached:
by mail, c/o Ballard IOOF Hall, 1706 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107;
by phone, at (206) 781-4610 (the Ballard IOOF message line);
or by email at ioof170@ballardoddfellows.org.