In the year of our Lord 1931, several Master Masons from Rockland County, New York operating 
out of Enoch Grand Lodge (Four Letter) petitioned the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge 
in the county of Rockland, State of New York. The charter was granted on December17, 1932 by the Most Worshipful Edward T. Sherwood, Jr., Grand Master for the State of New York. The three original principal officers of the Lodge were: Worshipful Master Samuel Palmer, Senior Warden Richard Blackburn and Junior Warden James Vicks.

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Tappan Zee Lodge No.79 began operations in leased premises at Sparkhill Church in Sparkhill, 
New York. Once operations began Tappan Zee became a Lodge on the move in both membership and location. From Sparkhill it moved to Piermont, New York and from Piermont, New York to Franklin Street, Nyack, New York. When the premises on Franklin Street became unavailable the Lodge moved yet to another location, the Odds Fellow Hall on Franklin and Main Street, Nyack,  New York in the year 1963.

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Tappan Zee Lodge No.79 early years were emphasized by its migration to three villages and four meeting places in thirty one years. During this time the idea of a permanent home began to grow. In 1966, by “unanimous resolution”, the Lodge decided to start a Building Fund to acquire an edifice to provide a permanent home for the lodge. The efforts came to fruition in February 1976 when Tappan Zee Square Club, the fund raising arm of the Lodge, signed a contract on a building at 76 North Main Street in Spring Valley, New York. The migration had come to an end. 

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The new home of Tappan Zee Lodge No.79 in Spring Valley was dedicated on July 18, 1976 by 
Past Grand Master Herman V. Bailey and his staff, with Worshipful Master George Gause of Tappan Zee Lodge No.79 presiding. The first regular communication in its new home was held on September 4, 1976.

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Since the late seventies the Lodge has granted scholarship aid to both students in general and to the most brilliant Rockland County African American students  evolving to students who achieve “Against the Odds” averaging two to three $500 stipends a year under the banner of the George F. Gause Scholarship Program (in 2009). For more than twenty years the Lodge has 
sponsored thanksgiving dinners for senior citizens and currently the Willie Joe Thompson 
Thanksgiving Dinner Project (2012) feeds more than two hundred senior citizens at four locations in Rockland County: the Harvest House and Lakeview Village Center in Spring Valley, the Clarkstown Senior Center in West Nyack and the Nyack Senior Center in Nyack. In 2010, the 
Keeping It Real Project was implemented for the purpose of emphasizing what behaviors should and should not be displayed when stopped by the police. In 2011, the Pen Pal Project for our Widows was started. In 2013, the Lodge sponsored a county-wide essay contest “What the Emancipation Proclamation Means to Me and Its Impact on America” for junior and senior high school students, sponsored an educational bus trip to the Schomburg Center for Black Culture in Harlem for junior and senior high school students, sponsored a county-wide Juneteenth celebration – all in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the historic signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. The Lodge also sponsors students for two weeks during the summer at Camp Eureka in Roscoe, New York. 

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The Lodge continues to progress and has migrated to a cost efficient rental location at the Ramapo Senior Center, 319 Haverstraw Road, Montebello, NY 10901.

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Updated February 8, 2017 By R:. W:. Tommy Wheeler