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So Who Are These 'Odd Fellows' on 7th St. NW?

IF YOU WALK DOWN 7TH STREET NW in Penn Quarter, you might be surprised to see ads heralding the arrival of a second location of the Textile Musuem. This summer, The Post noted that the Kalorama-based museum, looking to increase its traffic and visibility, will open three floors of downtown exhibition space sometime early next year.

IOOFThe building the museum's moving into is 421 7th St. NW — the one that's got a plaque on it reading "International Order of Odd Fellows." So who are these people?

For starters, the IOOF is the Textile Museum's new landlord. But it's also a fraternal organization that can trace its history to at least 1748 in England — and, according to some accounts, to Roman times, although its earliest origins are still unknown.

From a history of the Odd Fellows, posted on the organization's Web site:

There are several different reasons given for our strange name. One old and apparently authoritative history of Odd Fellowship gives the explanation, "That common laboring men should associate themselves together and form a fraternity for social unity and fellowship and for mutual help was such a marked violation of the trends of the times (England in the 1700s) that they became known as 'peculiar' or 'odd,' and hence they were derided as 'Odd Fellows.' Because of the appropriateness of the name, those engaged in forming these unions accepted it. When legally incorporated the title 'Odd Fellows' was adopted."
According to the inscription on the organization's seal, pictured above, members are commanded to "visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan." So there you go.

The Odd Fellows' first American group met in New York City in 1806, formed by "three boat builders, a comedian and a vocalist," the history says, "a group befitting the name 'Odd Fellows,' indeed." Poor attendance and the War of 1812 caused the demise of the New York group. A Washington lodge was founded in 1819, as was an outpost in Baltimore. Soon, the group expanded to other areas of the country, separated from the English order and accepted women in 1851, making it the first national fraternity to do so. Today, it remains committed to charity, specifically medical research.

According to "Capital Losses," a book about D.C.'s destroyed buildings, the Odd Fellows were inspired by the original Corcoran Gallery (today's Renwick Gallery) and built a hall at 423 7th St. NW in a grandiose Second-Empire design. That was torn down in 1917, so today's Odd Fellows building could rise.

Now, the Textile Museum is moving on in and a new era in the building's history is starting.

» "Textile Museum Wasn't Kidding (421 7th St NW)" [PQ Living]
» "Textile Museum to Expand" [WaPo]
» "International Order of Odd Fellows" [Official Site]

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