Red Rose Lodge # 16 Fraternal Order of Police turned 100 years old on March 16th, 2019. Our lodge has a very significant honor, which very few lodges within the entire Fraternal Order of Police organization enjoy. Our lodge charter was signed on March 16, 1919, as Red Rose Lodge # 16 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by the two original creators of this great organization, Martin O’Toole, and Delbert Nagle, who at the time, were President and Secretary of the organization who created the FOP in Pittsburgh, PA only four years earlier in 1915.
In 1922 our members were told to drop out of the F.O.P. membership roles or be terminated. As a result, the lodge disbanded that year. In 1928, Red Rose Lodge 16 was reinstated. The lodge has quite a bit of documented history. Some highlights of our history can be accessed through links on the “Lodge 16 news from the past” page. Our lodge was home to members from all agencies in Lancaster County including PA State Police. PSP members of Lodge 16 were permitted to form their lodge in 1952 and did so, forming Conestoga Lodge #66. Lodge 66 changed its name to Robert D. Lapp Lodge following the line of Duty Death of Trooper Lapp in 1972.
Red Rose Lodge 16 held annual elections until 1951. Elections ever since then have been two-year terms, held every other year on odd-numbered years.