‘A look inside the Masonic Building in Boston’

    

Magpie coverage of the Boston Tea Party anniversary celebration last weekend continues belatedly with a quick tour of the Masonic Building, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in Boston. The following photos were shot both during a formal guided tour and while I was exploring on my own. Some items are permanently displayed; others were exhibited for the special weekend. Descriptions are mostly the official histories, but some also have my editorializing, which you’ll be able to discern. Enjoy.

The seal of the Grand Lodge greets you upon entering the side door. Not a typical mosaic, but each tile is a stone shaft of (I think) two inches bored into the floor by artisans from Italy who labored several years throughout the building in the early twentieth century. A shame everyone trods across, but evidently it can take it. You might recognize ‘Follow Reason,’ which also is the motto of St. John’s Lodge 1 in New York. A tour guide was unsure where the motto originates, but it may come from the coat of arms of the Duke of Montague, sixth Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England. Those are beavers flanking the shield; a nineteenth century study by Grand Lodge said they were lizards! (Don’t tell David Icke.) The tour guide didn’t know what to make of the left side, saying the castles may have something to do with Henry Knox, but of course that comes from the arms of the first Grand Lodge of England, and is still used on the UGLE’s arms.

I was told this portrait of Bro. George Washington was painted by Gilbert Stuart, which is not impossible, I suppose, considering the artist’s Athenaeum Portrait is displayed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The brother also mentioned it had undergone very extensive restoration in recent years.

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, (1767-1842) first Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

Christmastime is a good time to visit Boston.

The immortal Warren!
That such men lived is miraculous.

A sample of the Boston Tea Party tea! Said to have come out of the boots of one of the participants, and donated to the Grand Lodge by W. Bro. Paul F. Dudley of Milton Lodge.

Read the description below.

Click to enlarge.

A copy of the very rare first edition of Ahiman Rezon, Pennsylvania’s Masonic constitutions, dedicated to George Washington.

Joseph Warren’s King James Bible, printed 1614.

Until modern scholarship, which I’ll get to in the next edition of The Magpie Mason, this eyewitness account of the Boston Tea Party by George Hewes is the most reliable source. (I was told on Faceypage last week that the Tea Party was a revolt against the Stamp Act. ‘Tea tax,’ I reminded the brother. He told me to read the lodge secretary’s minutes. Ooh boy.)

Certificate of Rising States Lodge, Boston, signed by Paul Revere, September 3, 1800.

You know St. Andrew’s Lodge was the Scottish lodge that met in the Green Dragon Tavern, but you might not have known that the tavern got its name on account of the oxidized copper dragon employed as signage above the door. It turned green over time. And this is it! The actual green dragon!

Note the dragon above the entrance.

Detail.

Henry Price. The reason Massachusetts claims to have the first grand lodge in the Western Hemisphere is because Provincial Grand Master Henry Price constituted the original grand lodge there. Knowledge of the original Grand Lodge of England’s way of doing things is needed, I think, because while we today might assume provincial grand lodges were akin to our current Masonic districts, the truth is the Premier Grand Lodge considered provincial grand lodges to be local sovereign authorities.

Henry Price’s headstone. At some point, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts obtained permission from Price’s family to take possession of this headstone and move it to the Masonic Building to prevent damage caused by time and weather. It now is installed in a wall upstairs. In exchange, the brethren commissioned a massive monument for their founder.

MW John T. Heard, Grand Master 1856-58, was said to have weighed more than 400 pounds...

…consequently, this eight-legged chair was made for him.

Click to enlarge to read the card.

Franklin + Pallas Athena = Wisdom. Corinthian Hall.

And finally, a portrait of Ned Flanders. No inscription accompanies his portrait because he was not a grand master, but his picture hangs in respect for (I think) a massive donation he made to the Grand Lodge. Remind me to tell Tabbert there’s a Ned Flanders!

I shot many more photos, but these are the most interesting. Thanks for looking.