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Fall 2024 Issue Out Now: The Heroes of Freemasonry

Fall 2024 Issue Out Now: The Heroes of Masonry

What’s the best part of being grand master? I’m asked that often as I crisscross the state visiting as many lodges as I can. It’s certainly not the travel, which can be exhausting.

The simple answer is that the best part of this job is the people I’ve been blessed to meet on this journey. No matter where I go, I’m always impressed by the commitment of California Masons to one another, to their communities, and to our craft. I get to see brotherly love, relief, and truth put into practice in a million different ways—some big and dramatic, some small and close to home. But in every case, I know when I come to a Masonic lodge, I’m going to meet brothers who are taking the values and teachings of Freemasonry and putting them into action.

This issue is a celebration of those people, those lodges, and those ideas. It’s through their actions that we make Freemasonry come to life. It’s when we’re interacting with our neighbors, strengthening our community, or helping elderly members get the support they need that we most truly embody the Masonic spirit and push our craft forward.

G. Sean Metroka
Grand Master of Masons in California

Underwater, Reminders of a Forgotten Masonic Cemetery

Read the After Life issue: californiafreemason.org/aquaticpark

In San Francisco, an underwater reminder of a century-old battle over the fate of the city’s dead.

By Ian A. Stewart and Tony Gilbert

Aquatic Park is one of the most picturesque vistas in all of San Francisco, a city of postcard views. A tiny, sandy cove ringed by Ghirardelli Square, Beach Street, and the historic Hyde Street Pier, the park is one of the most reliably sunny spots in town. Most weekend days, you’ll see a stream of swimmers, kayakers, and rowers pulling their way across its protected waters. Beyond them, sailboats navigate the choppy bay against the backdrop of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.

But the charming, jewel box scene belies a more lurid chapter of the city’s history. It’s invisible to all but the most carefully trained eye. Yet clues of the city’s distant past are there in the seemingly mismatched stones that form the sweeping breakwater.

It wasn’t long ago that names could still be read on these stones. But with each wave that laps the seawall, the memory of how the municipal pier was born—as well as many other of the city’s large urban projects of the early 20th century—is further erased. These are the tombstones of Aquatic Park, dug up by workers clearing the city’s cemeteries a century ago and unceremoniously deposited around San Francisco.

They aren’t the only ones. Grave markers can be spotted by the jetty at the Golden Gate Yacht Club, at Ocean Beach, and at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Even a walking path in Buena Vista Park is lined with old tombstones, some still visible today. During major building renovations, Gold Rush–era caskets were found beneath the Asian Art Museum, the Legion of Honor, and countless private homes. The city is practically brimming with these morbid reminders from yesteryear.

Like so many other aspects of California history, Freemasonry plays a key role in the story.

A Final Resting Place

At the turn of the last century, San Francisco was a city practically full of cemeteries—by one count, as many as 30 within the city’s seven-by-seven-mile square. There were graveyards for deceased Chinese, French, German, Italian, Greek, Native American, Japanese, Scottish, and Scandinavian people. There were cemeteries for Jewish, Catholic, and Chinese Christian parishioners, among many others. There were plots for orphans, seamen, firefighters, and members of the typographical union. But perhaps the most elaborate of them all was the 38-acre Masonic Cemetery on Lone Mountain.

The land for the Masonic Cemetery was purchased in 1854 on what is now the University of San Francisco’s grounds. It opened a decade later, eventually serving nearly 20,000 souls. Together with the nearby Odd Fellows Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery, and Laurel Hill Cemetery, they made up the “big four” graveyards of Lone Mountain.

Built at the height of the so-called “beautification of death” movement, which ushered in a much more theatrical approach to mortuary work, like ornate casket furnishings and elaborate monuments to the deceased, the Masonic was by some estimations the finest of them all. The San Francisco Morning Call newspaper in 1887 described it as “elaborately beautified in floral design, and contain[ing] many handsome monuments.”

The entrance to the park was marked by a large castellated tomb; other decorations included a white marble obelisk topped by a statue of Grief, and monuments to preeminent San Francisco Masons including the sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckles and Munroe Ashbury, an early champion of Golden Gate Park and the namesake of Ashbury Street (of the famous Haight-Ashbury district). Other notable figures buried there included Etienne Guittard, the famous French-born chocolatier; Jacob Neff, the Gold Rush mining kingpin elected lieutenant governor in 1899; and the city’s most beloved eccentric, Emperor Norton I, a charter member of Occidental Lodge № 22.

An 1880s tourist guidebook went so far as to recommend the cemetery for sightseeing: “The broad, serpentine walks, the fountain playing in the center, the profusion of flowers, and the large number of handsome monuments make it well worth a visit.”

A Battle Over the Dead

However, space for the dead began to interfere with space for the living in the growing city. So in 1901, mayor James Phelan banned any new burials or cremations within city limits, kicking off what would become a multi-decade campaign to eradicate the city’s profusion of graveyards.

Families of the deceased, incensed by the apparent sacrilege, did not give in without a fight. However, several factors worked against them. First was the urgent need for new housing in the cramped city. Second was a change in tastes, as the Victorian-era “garden-park cemeteries” like the Masonic began falling out of fashion. But perhaps most important was the 1906 earthquake, which badly damaged the city’s many cemeteries, including the Masonic. In the aftermath, the crumbling graveyards were seen as public eyesores and a threat to public health.

Heated litigation over the forced removal stretched on for years, ultimately reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. But major rulings in 1914 and then 1924 sealed the fate of most of San Francisco’s cemeteries. Seeing the writing on the wall, the San Francisco Masonic Cemetery Association, which managed the site, began negotiating a sale to St. Ignatius College, now the University of San Francisco.

Move to Colma

The final death knell came in 1930, when the city officially rezoned the area of Lone Mountain, which formally allowed the boards of the big four cemeteries to sell off their land and reinter their dead elsewhere. As the moves began, one cemetery at a time, caskets were dug up and transported south to the sleepy town of Lawndale, now known as Colma, the so-called “city of souls.” Today, Colma is home to 18 cemeteries. Nearly 1.5 million people are buried there, 1,000 times its living population.

With the cemetery’s closure imminent, the San Francisco Masonic Cemetery Association raised funds to purchase land for a new resting place in Colma called Woodlawn Memorial Park. (In 1996, Woodlawn was sold to a private corporation, but remains the largest de facto Masonic cemetery in the Bay Area.) Most of the bodies originally buried at the San Francisco site were dug up and transported to Woodlawn, though a few wound up at nearby cemeteries including Olivet Memorial Park, Cypress Lawn, and Greenlawn Memorial Park just a few blocks away.

Many, however, were never removed at all—an exceedingly common occurrence citywide during the great reinterrment period. One study found that at Golden Gate Cemetery (now the site of the Legion of Honor and the Lincoln Park Golf Course), only about 1,000 bodies’ remains were ever actually removed, leaving an estimated 18,000 still in the ground. (A museum excavation in 1993 uncovered 800 of them.)

At the four Lone Mountain cemeteries, the herculean task of digging up the deceased was, understandably, challenging. One report described it as “chaotic and hasty.” While many caskets could be moved intact, others were in various states of decomposition, and only some of the remains were moved. Others were left “wholly untouched,” according to a 2011 archaeological survey conducted on behalf of the University of San Francisco.

In the end, relatively few of the deceased were ever provided with new individual grave markers. Of the 20,000 people buried at the Masonic Cemetery, about 5,000 remains were claimed by family members and reinterred in Colma, according to a fraternity report at the time. The rest—up to 15,000—were, like the rest of the city’s unclaimed, placed in mass graves, their tombstones left behind. Even Masonic dignitaries met that fate: Among those moved to an unmarked grave in the common plot was Jonathan Stevenson, the first grand master of California. It wasn’t until 1954 that he was reinterred in the California № 1 lodge plot at Cypress Lawn and a memorial plaque was erected in his memory.

Above:
A postcard lithograph from the late 1800s, depicting the Masonic Cemetery bounded by Masonic and Parker avenues and Turk and Fulton streets. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

Reclaiming the Remains

“The place of public history is vulnerable to the advance of urban progress,” wrote historian Tamara Venit-Shelton of the mass reburial efforts in the Journal of California History. There could hardly be a more apt visual metaphor than in the thousands of deserted tombstones left behind in the mass exhumation and reinterment of San Francisco’s dead. Families of the deceased were instructed to claim the headstones themselves, but few ever did. Eventually, workers from the city’s Department of Public Works collected the thousands of marble and granite stones for use as building materials. According to Shelton, those stones were used in construction projects all over the city, including the breakwaters at Aquatic Park and the municipal yacht harbor, and for paving roads in the North Beach neighborhood.

There are no records of which headstones were sent where. And with the passing of time, their markings have become harder and harder to decipher. But for many old-time members of the city’s rowing clubs, which use Aquatic Park as their headquarters, it was only a generation ago that swimmers passing close to the seawall could make out the names of the departed carved into the odd bit of rock. Perhaps in some protected nook or cranny, a Masonic square and compass survives.

It can be hard to reconcile the seemingly pitiless exhumation of the city’s deceased with the supposed finality of a casket laid to rest. But an appropriate metaphor can be drawn from Masonry, which teaches members that their work aims to build a temple in spirit. Even the grandest temple of stone can be destroyed, but no material is as long-lasting as memory.

So while the stones memorializing the Masons buried at Lone Mountain have long since vanished or been eroded by time and tide, their story lives on in other ways. The loveliness of Aquatic Park, protected from the harsh San Francisco Bay by the breakwater, certainly suggests as much. At Lone Mountain, their memory lives on, hiding in plain sight to every person who passes the old site as they walk or drive along what’s now known as Masonic Avenue.

Tony Gilbert is a writer and member of Golden Gate Speranza № 30, as well as a past board member of the South End Rowing Club. Ian A. Stewart is a writer and editor of California Freemason.

Pyramid Scheme

What started as an idea to turn a quick buck on a national holiday morphed into a million-dollar idea for Jim McCullough. As a starving artist in the seventies, McCullough fell backward into owning the copyright to the Eye of Providence, that mysterious image on the dollar bill. And while he never managed to cash in on his fortune, the story behind it is about as bizarre as the floating, radiating eye itself.

“It’s the most iconic image on the planet,” McCullough says. “Everyone knows that symbol.”

The saga started in 1976. McCullough, a member of Mill Valley No. 356, and his business partner, Preston “Presto” Stuart, were film students in San Francisco, where they ran a T-shirt business. In honor of the bicentennial, they’d been designing shirts sporting classic Americana like the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. Then another idea struck them: How about a T-shirt featuring the Eye of Providence, that strange, trippy symbol on the back of the dollar bill?

Certainly, it’s one of the strangest government symbols around: a floating human eye within a triangle, illuminated by a shining ray of light, levitating over an unfinished brick pyramid. To an artistic spirit like McCullough, it was practically irresistible.

For generations, the image has baffled onlookers and, thanks to what seems like a connection to Freemasonry, inspired countless conspiracies. In reality, the all-seeing eye isn’t unique to Masonry, and is actually a common representation of divine protection used in many religious traditions.

In the case of the circa-1782 seal on the dollar, the eye watching over an unfinished, 13-step pyramid is typically interpreted as God’s benevolent sanction of the new nation. It’s surrounded by the phrases annuit coeptis (“He has favored our undertakings”) and novus ordo seclorum (“a new succession of ages”). The film National Treasure and the novels of Dan Brown have contributed to the misbelief that the image conceals a secret Masonic meaning. And while there are iconographic echoes aplenty to be found in the great seal where Masonry is concerned, they’re more likely emblematic of a shared affinity for Renaissance-era symbolism than any kind of conspiratorial clue.

All McCollough wanted to know was: Could he get sued for using it?

He wrote to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to inquire, and in response was sent a Form H application for reproduction copyright. McCullough called the copyright office back. He wasn’t trying to buy the rights to the Eye of Providence, he explained. Just put it on a shirt.

The staffer explained: The Eye of Providence was an unprotected image. But McCullough and Stuart could file a reproduction copyright claim on it for a simple $6 fee. So they did. Weeks later, they received a stamped certification in the mail. They now owned one of the most recognizable images in American pop culture. “I remember being exhilarated,” McCullough recalls. “It was amazing. I guess we were supposed to have it.”

Well, maybe. That was 45 years ago. McCullough still believes he owns the copyright. But that’s where things get hazy. As for other documentation, McCullough cites his attorney from the time, a former guitar player who goes by the name Lonesome Eddy, who says he has the paperwork related to the copyright in his basement. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, only a federal court can determine a copyright if it’s contested. (This one isn’t.) Furthermore, any work made pre-1926 is in the public domain.

As Eddy explains, McCullough and Presto don’t actually own the Eye of Providence; they own their sketch of it, which happens to look the same. So the million-dollar question remains: Are McCullough, Presto, and Lonesome Eddy sitting on a potential goldmine?

Lord only knows. McCullough and Presto never tried or managed to make money off the image, and the T-shirt company is long gone. McCullough says he’s seen the symbol out in the wild, but never taken any steps to sue anyone for copyright infringement.

It’s better that way, he says. Both Stuart and McCullough are jovial, aging artists with no appetite for courtroom drama. The symbol, they say, shouldn’t belong to litigious profiteers.

Still, the eye is “secretive and wonderful,” says McCullough, now a marketing consultant for Hollywood films. He always wanted to turn his unlikely copyright into some kind of lasting project, one that might make a buck. Instead, it’s left a different kind of legacy, he says. “It was good for a laugh.”

R.I.P. Finally

How did a 19th century Masonic tombstone from Piedmont find its way to the side of the road in Stanislaus County, 100 miles away? That’s exactly what members of Oak Summit Lodge No. 112 set out to discover—and to lay a long-lost brother to rest.

Read more about lodges in the the California’s Mother Lode in the newest issue of California Freemason at californiafreemason.org/ripfinally

Check out the digital issue on our newly redesigned home page, californiafreemason.org. And search for your favorite topics, peruse past issues, and find the latest news from the fraternity all in one convenient place.

Generations Connected

Two perspectives on DeMolay, Masonry, and Life

By Cécile Revaugér

DeMolay provides early exposure to positive values and life skills. Masonry is its natural continuation, giving young men an opportunity to put into practice the values they have learned. Two Senior DeMolays and current Masons exemplify the teachings that both organizations impart.

GLENN WOODY RYAN TONDARES

80 years old 25 years old
DeMolay since 1952 DeMolay since 2008
58 years as a Mason Four years as a Mason

How old were you when you became a DeMolay and what chapter did you join?

Glenn: “I was 14 years old, and at the time, that was earliest age you could sign up. I belonged to the E.Y. Lee Chapter in Lubbock, Texas. ”

Ryan: “I was 12 years old. My uncle’s sons were in DeMolay, as were two of my best friends. I belonged to the Walt Disney Chapter in Anaheim, California.”

Did you serve in any leadership positions?

Glenn: “Did you serve in any leadership positions? I took to DeMolay like a duck to water. I was active until I was 21 years old. I served as master councilor of my chapter and was then elected to area master councilor, then state master councilor. I was a member of the DeMolay International Supreme Council for a number of years. ”

Ryan: “I served in high school as chapter master councilor. My first year of college, I was the illustrious knight commander of Saint Bernard Priory, where I assisted the Southern California jurisdiction of DeMolay.”

What did you learn in DeMolay?

Glenn: “It was rewarding to learn about leadership, organization, planning skills, and mentorship. I gained great experience that enhanced my public speaking skills for the rest of my life. I believe most of the doors of opportunity that opened for me were a result of things I was exposed to early on in DeMolay.”

Ryan: “My DeMolay events were funded by our jurisdiction or chapter, so we all worked together to pay for our events. I learned planning, budgeting, finance, and preparation. I also learned a lot about leadership and responsibility, and it gave me little steps toward maturity. It was rewarding to gain the skills for becoming an adult. I always wanted to be a businessman, and those precepts instilled values to remain polite, and not do things that would tarnish my reputation.”

How important are your DeMolay and Masonic friendships?

Glenn: “In my 40s, I was sitting on a balcony in a beautiful hotel in Hawaii and I began to think about my life. I wrote down the names of the people who had been instrumental. It was my mother, my father, who became a Mason during the time I was in DeMolay, and five other men who were mentors and advisors to me early in DeMolay. The point is that, except for my mother, they were all Masons. DeMolay and Masonry created lifelong friendships.”

Ryan: “Masonry follows DeMolay, especially with brotherhood and the degrees. My brother and my dad were a part of my degrees. The lodge feels like a family. The events that we do are fun, but we also give back to the community. I’ve learned that giving back is spiritually rewarding.”

If you could tell other men one thing about DeMolay and Masonry, what would it be?

Glenn: “It is the leading place to be exposed to positive values and be given the opportunity to practice them and develop them in your own life. Some people reach an age at which they wonder if they’ve made a difference. Advisors for the Masonic youth groups, DeMolay, Jobs Daughters and Rainbow for Girls don’t ever have to ask that question.”

Ryan: “Honestly, it’s a group that pushes you and reminds you to do good and be a better person by following lessons learned in the degrees and in the rights of joining Masonry and DeMolay. Young men grow through DeMolay to do good and be better young men.”

Photo Credit: KLK Photography

Permission to reprint original articles in CALIFORNIA FREEMASON is granted to all recognized Masonic publications with credit to the author, photographer, and this publication. Contact the editor at editor@freemason.org.

Mentorship is Meaningful

Adult leaders are critical to the overall success and survival of a youth order.

DeMolay International, Job’s Daughters International, and the International Order of Rainbow for Girls rely on lodges and adult leaders for support and mentoring. The role of an advisor is fulfilling and rewarding – and one that is vital today for the future of Masonry.

If you are interested in getting involved, visit the Masons4Youth website to learn more about the opportunities available.

For Our Children. For Our Future.

California masons’ partnership with raising a reader has brought crucial literacy training to nearly 600 classrooms – and we’re not close to done yet!

Every day in underresourced public school classrooms throughout California, young children are struggling to read. The majority – up to 95 percent – don’t have a single book at home. For these children, the letters on the page seem foreign; what they represent is opaque. And if the children can’t achieve literacy by third grade, their chances for educational success are grim. When compared to their peers who are academically on track, impoverished children who cannot read at grade level by third grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school.

These alarming statistics are at the crux of the California Masonic Foundation’s partnership with Raising A Reader (RAR), a nationally recognized leader in early childhood literacy. RAR provides children with high-quality books, teaches their parents the importance of reading at home – and how to begin – and connects families with local public libraries for a lifetime of learning.

RAR works. In the 448 California classrooms that have benefitted from our partnership so far, educators have seen dramatic improvements in test scores, comprehension, and family engagement. Our RAR schools have 42 percent more students reading at grade level than those without the program – after participating just a single year.

Deborah Hoffman, a Head Start teacher who works with RAR families in the Coachella Valley, has seen this impact first hand. “When I have done home visits I have found that there’s a great need for books in the homes. With technology now, you don’t see a lot of books,” she says in a recent interview with CBS News. “This is a fabulous program.”

Recent research by United Way of the Desert corroborates her praise, noting that RAR has been able to successfully impact the region’s most economically disadvantaged students.

“I’ve had kids come back to me two or three years later and they’ll say, ‘Ms. Hoffman, I remember that book, when we read ‘Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.’ It’s like wow, I really made a difference. They remember reading those books.”

Perhaps Sabrina Hijazi, mother of an RAR student says it best: “Without reading you don’t have anything else to begin with. It’s fundamental and a building block to anything.”

California Masons are making a profound difference in the lives of families who need us most. And, by working together, we are capable of reaching so many more.

Watch a video about Raising A Reader’s impact in the Coachella Valley.

Photo Credit: Angela DeCenzo

A Big Spark

A NEW LODGE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BLENDS A RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE WITH LOVE FOR COMMUNITY

By Drea Muldavin-Roemer

When called for an interview, Alfred Isagulyan of Raven’s Rock Lodge, U.D. is walking up the stairs. His energy is palpable. He explains that he is out of breath from the incline, yes, but also because he is so excited to talk about his lodge. Raven’s Rock Lodge, which is currently under constitution, opened its doors on June 10, 2017. It has since been busy producing local events that revolve around education and the arts, aiming to lift the community while staying true to Masonic tenets and traditions.

“It’s all in the name of Masonry,” says Isagulyan, who is the current lodge secretary. He explains that one of the main reasons for forming this lodge was to bring the fire back to the community, creating sparks of positivity that would effect far-reaching change on a local level, as well as in the world beyond. “We wanted to start creating action to benefit society more,” he says. “We’ve been very passive lately… as a society, and within Masonry.” Fellow members echo Isagulyan’s passion and commitment. They agree that Masonry has made them better men and they hope to see the lodge better their community.

The idea of Raven’s Rock Lodge came about when Isagulyan sat down to lunch with his good friend Jordan Yelinek, a fellow Freemason. Right then a spark was ignited. “It was exciting just knowing we could go through the steps and create something beautiful,” Isagulyan says. “A big light opened up in my mind.” The idea of building a lodge that was totally new, from the ground up, was too energizing to ignore, so he went back to his close friends (all fellow Freemasons) and asked if they wanted to form a lodge together, grounded in their existing relationships with Masonry and each other. “Our approach in Masonry is not about titles or positions,” he says. “In the end, we are friends that are trying to create this change and keep this fire in the community. We are channeling our energy now in our lives, and we have a lot of it.”

Though the idea of the lodge came about naturally and the brothers’ roots are firmly planted, building this lodge has been a huge undertaking for the friends. “In creating the lodge, we learned more about Masonry. Welearned how things get created and the energy that requires,” Isagulyan says. “It has been a rollercoaster ride of feelings. We have felt at times like, ‘Are we doing this right?’ But then we see our work in action and we feel it in action!”

One way that the brothers have been able to see and feel the impact of their work is through their immediate community of friends, family, and local public schools. Raven’s Rock Lodge is predominantly Armenian, which is more a matter of location than intention. Most of its members live in Glendale, a city with one of the largest populations of people of Armenian descent in the United States. The lodge welcomes people of all ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. Its international and local membership includes brothers who maintain memberships in other lodges, as well. Without negating the benefits of such diversity, having so many members living in the same city is a strong suit; it makes it easy for brothers to witness their efforts at the end of the day.

The lodge helps members stay engaged by combining their personal and charitable interests. For instance, because several of the lodge’s members are proud classic car owners, they will host a car show in May from which all proceeds will benefit a local elementary school. If all goes well, they plan to hold similar events at other schools in the future. “We’re trying to keep it fun while benefitting our community,” Isagulyan says.

Last October they included their Armenian heritage in this approach, producing a cultural performance, “Khachaturian on Brand.” At this free event, open to the public, a string quartet played the songs of the late Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian while a local ballet danced to the music. “Khachaturian on Brand” was a local success, and was even covered by the Armenian media. It will now be an annual event. It was such an undertaking that beforehand the lodge worried about being able to pull it off. But, the lodge came together and made it happen. Their success reinvigorated their motivation to do more.

In addition to local events, Raven’s Rock Lodge has done work abroad. They recently planted 70 trees in Armenia, which will someday become a Masonic garden. This act is emblematic of the lodge’s overall intentions: to plant seeds and encourage growth, all over the world. Through the tenets of traditional Masonry, working both locally and internationally, Raven’s Rock Lodge has a long vision and a broad scope. “We’re trying to think big,” Isagulyan says. “We’re trying to make a real impact.”

Wonders of Masonic America

If you’ve been seeking an excuse to see the country, there’s no better time than the present. The lens of Freemasonry offers a fascinating perspective!

GEORGE WASHINGTON MASONIC NATIONAL MEMORIAL

Alexandria, Virginia

Come for the Masonic history and incredible architecture, stay for the amazing view. Brother Harvey Wiley Corbett, the building’s architect, drew upon the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World, as his inspiration.

In addition to employing many Greco-Roman architectural styles, the building includes Replica Lodge Room – duplicating the design of Alexandria Lodge No. 22’s first permanent lodge room built in 1801. Preservation of this stunning Masonic building is funded by Masons around the United States (a donation to the memorial is included in California Masons’ per capita).

gwmemorial.org

THE HOUSE OF THE TEMPLE

Washington, District of Columbia

Located in our nation’s capital, the House of the Temple is the headquarters of the Supreme Council, 33°, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, USA. Modeled after the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in Turkey – recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the House of the Temple has been open to the public since its 1915 construction.

Take an awe-inspiring tour of John Russell Pope’s breathtaking architecture, including the two 17-ton sphinxes that adorn the building’s entrance and the magnificent dome ceiling of the Temple Room, which soars 100 feet above the altar. You’ll also be dazzled by a good amount of Masonic memorabilia in the mini-exhibits throughout the interior.

scottishrite.org/headquarters

MASONIC HALL NYC

New York City, New York

Foodies and historians unite in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, where you can take in the beautiful turn-of-the-century Masonic architecture alongside food trucks and high-end cuisine alike.

This impressive Masonic temple was built in 1873 and serves as the meeting place of the Grand Lodge of New York. Among its 15 immaculately restored event spaces are the fresco-embellished Renaissance Room and star-adorned Gothic Room. Its 14th floor houses the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Library and Museum, which includes more than 60,000 volumes detailing Masonic history, philosophy, and symbolism.

masonichallnyc.org

THE PHILADELPHIA MASONIC TEMPLE

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A visit to the City of Brotherly Love isn’t complete without a visit to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Considered to be one of the most beautiful Masonicbuildings in the world, the temple that houses the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania boasts stunning rooms based on themes of the ancient architectural world, including Egyptian, Moorish, and Corinthian rooms.

Constructed in 1873, it is filled with intricate ornamentation representing Masonic philosophy, symbolism, values, and history. Its museum counts among its many treasures the Masonic apron worn by United States President George Washington in the 18th century. Take a selfie with the bigger-than-life bronze statues of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in front of the building.

pamasonictemple.org/temple

SANTA FE SCOTTISH RITE CENTER

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Built in 1912, this pink Moorish-style building includes a mural of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella accepting the surrender of Boabdil, the last Islamic ruler of Granada, Spain, in 1492.It was listed with the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

You can’t miss it – its architecture and interior garden sets it apart from its surroundings. Cool down from the hot sun with a tour of the lovely Alhambra Theater and more.

santafescottishrite.org

PLAN THE MASONIC ADVENTURE OF YOUR DREAMS!

Follow this simple checklist to make sure your trip is on the level.

Contact Member Services: Well in advance of your journey, contact Grand Lodge Member Services at (415) 292-9180 or memberservices@freemason.org. Share your dates and the places you’d like to visit. Member Services will confirm that our jurisdictions share recognition, handle initial communications on your behalf, and let you know which lodge to visit (if you haven’t already researched and specified one).
Obtain your letter of introduction: Member Services will send an official letter of introduction to you and to the grand lodge you would like to visit.
Pack your current California dues card: Be prepared to display your current dues card upon arrival.
Pack universal attire Unless you are certain that the lodge you will visit follows casual dress, you should prepare to wear a dark suit and tie, white gloves, and apron.
Arrive early for the examination: Give yourself at least 30 minutes before the stated meeting to present your credentials and take the oral exam to confirm your membership (usually conducted by three brothers).
Follow the ritual as you know it: Although ritual can vary between jurisdictions, it’s best to follow that of your home lodge to ensure the least disturbance to your hosts. Afterwards, you can discuss any differences.

Masons4Mitts: Baseball Is Back!

Dust off those gloves and get ready to knock one out of the park for your team: The 2018 Masons4Mitts season is now underway!

California Masons are once again stepping up to the plate in support of local kids. Every $20 gift puts a high-quality leather baseball mitt – embossed with the Masons of California logo – into the hands of a child in need.

Welcoming Angels Baseball
The California Masonic Foundation is excited to welcome our newest Masons4Mitts partner team: Angels Baseball. Through a special partnership with the Angels Baseball Foundation, children in the greater Anaheim region can now count on California Masons for a chance to play ball and lead healthier lives.

Mark Your Calendar for Masons Nights!
As in previous years, the team from each region that raises the greatest number of mitts will present their check publicly, along with Grand Master Galloway, at Masons Night in each stadium! All Masons are encouraged to attend these fun-filled evenings of baseball and fellowship to show our support of local communities and kids. There’s never been a more fun opportunity to see yourself and your brothers on the Jumbotron!

Anaheim – New!
August 28, 2018 at 7:07 p.m.
Angels Baseball vs. Colorado Rockies

Los Angeles
September 17, 2018 at 7:10 p.m.
Los Angels Dodgers vs. Colorado Rockies

San Diego
September 18, 2018 at 7:10 p.m.
San Diego Padres vs. San Francisco Giants

San Francisco
September 25 at 7:15 p.m.
San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres

Share the fun! Spread the word about Masons4Mitts to your brothers, family, friends and community: masons4mitts.org.

Questions? Email jcastro@freemason.org.