Chesapeake Atrium History

Baltimore

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR AFFILIATED BODY

Our Affiliated Body was originally addressed by Grand Lodge as Baltimore Pronaos.

The first Convocation was held on April 8, 1978 at the Quality Inn on York Road in Towson. At a business meeting following that first Convocation the members in attendance voted to change the name to Chesapeake Pronaos.

When I first attended a Pronaos Convocation in 1991, Chesapeake was well established. They were meeting in a beautiful old church building built in 1908 that was owned by the Women’s Club of Towson since 1954.

The Former Women’s Club of Towson

Over the years attendance declined as members moved away from the area. There had been meetings to discuss the idea of closing Chesapeake because the number of active and supporting members was insufficient to fulfill our obligation to maintain our charter as Pronaos.

Around that same time the Women’s Club members had decided to disband and sell their building. Our Pronaos was being supported by AMRA donations from a very few members. There was no way that we could afford the asking price of one million dollars.

In January of 2005 a letter was issued to inform our members that a decision must be made for the Good of the Order to either “Right Size” our AB to Atrium Group or dissolve Chesapeake completely. The building had been on the market so we were also faced with the possibility of having to seek a new meeting location.

This was a complex decision to make. We had been receiving many inquiries from new members in the area as well as interested seekers. There was a definite need for an Affiliated Body in or around Baltimore.

At our traditional Rosicrucian New Year ceremony on March 26th, 2005 R+C year 3358 it was officially announced that the newly formed Chesapeake Atrium Group would continue to serve our members. We were soon informed that the Women’s Club had found a buyer who was not willing to allow us to continue renting the space. We were asked to leave by April 9th of that year. Our new Affiliated Body was now homeless. This presented the opportunity to put our Rosicrucian principles into practice.

In addition to meditating and petitioning the Cosmic for a new place to meet, our members contacted many local facilities that proved to be either too expensive for our meager budget or were not accepting new tenants. One of our members mentioned that a book store in Baltimore had a back room where various classes were held. I contacted the owner and explained our situation.

As it turned out, not only had I known this gentleman and his wife as vendors from an annual event where I volunteered, he was also a former Rosicrucian Student. We were warmly invited to use their stockroom for our meetings.

Our first Convocation was held at the Turning Wheel book store on May 28th, 2005. This location served us well for some time but we continued our search for a more private space.

We arranged to move our meetings to the Perry Hall branch of the Baltimore County Public Library beginning on January 13th, 2007. This was an excellent space and our membership once again began to grow. In 2009 the BCPL closed the Perry Hall branch building and we were encouraged to move to the White Marsh branch.

The meeting room at White Marsh is beautiful but it was fraught with distractions. It became obvious that this was not the ideal location for our Work. A Sorror saw an ad for room rental at Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center and decided to call. We had inquired there before and considered it too expensive.

The members agreed that this was a bold move but it would be a place more conducive to our needs. The energy had become stagnate and it was time for renewal.

Our first Convocation in Hill House at Ruscombe was our traditional Rosicrucian Festival of Light ceremony held on December 10th, 2011. Since then it was as if Chesapeake has been given the breath of a fresh new life. As a Holistic Healing Center, Ruscombe Mansion is imbued with positive vibrations that contribute to the pleasant atmosphere of our meetings.