The building houses Hiram Lodge No. 7, founded in 1809. It was built in 1823, and is the oldest public building in Franklin and the oldest Masonic Hall in continuous use in Tennessee. In 1830, it was the site of negotiations between the Chickasaw Indians and a commission headed by President Andrew Jackson, which resulted in the Treaty of Franklin. This treaty, the first of the Indian removal agreements made in the wake of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, called for the Chickasaw to sell their lands and move west to today's Oklahoma. The treaty was never ratified, and the Chickasaw were later forced into the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek.
