‘Maryland puts The Grand back in Grand Lodge’

    

Baltimore Business Journal

The Grand Lodge of Maryland has acquired the building that originally was the brethren’s longtime headquarters, according to local media.

Baltimore Business Journal reported yesterday that the Grand Lodge purchased The Grand, which “has struggled with revolving ownership and financial woes in recent years.”

It was built by the Grand Lodge in 1866, but was sold in 1998 to a hotelier. After years of renovations, it reopened as a luxurious banquet hall and events venue named the Tremont Grand. Name changes ensued until it became The Grand in 2015. Maybe you’ve seen it as an on location site in episodes of House of Cards, Veep, and others.

The Grand

Financial difficulty characterized the building’s existence from the start. It was on Tuesday, November 20, 1866 when the Grand Lodge laid its cornerstone. The 1887 book of proceedings notes in reflection:

At the May Communication 1864, Grand Master Coates recommended that preliminary steps be taken looking to the inauguration of the enterprise. It was resolved to issue stock to the extent of $200,000 and that as soon as the subscriptions thereto amounted to $50,000, the Grand Charity Fund should be invested in the same security. A Building Committee was appointed consisting of [Grand Master] John Coates, Francis Burns, John S. Berry, Charles Webb, William Wilson, Jr., George J. Kennard, and James Logue. Bro. Edmund G. Lind was subsequently selected as Architect.

In November 1865, the Committee reported the purchase of the site of the present Temple on North Charles Street, and in May following, additional ground was bought to enlarge the lot. On the 20th November, 1866, the Grand Lodge laid the cornerstone of the New Temple with imposing ceremonies. The procession was immense, including Lodges, Chapters, and Commanderies at home and from various other States. The President of the United States, Bro. Andrew Johnson, Past Grand Master of Tennessee, with his Secretary, Bro. Robert Johnson, escorted by Governor Swann and his uniformed Staff, joined the procession at the Governor's residence on Franklin Street and marched with the Grand Master his suite through the open lines to the site of the new Building.

Hymns composed for the occasion by Rev. Andrew Longacre and Hon. Brantz Mayer were sung by a choir of two hundred voices, accompanied by an orchestra, under the supervision of Bro. Robert J. Kerr. Rev. R.W. McMurdy of New York, Grand Prelate of the Grand Encampment of the United States, acted as Grand Chaplain.

Our distinguished and now venerable Brother, John H.B. Latrobe, delivered an able and eloquent oration, concluding with the following beautiful peroration: “Whether Freemasonry may go back to the Mithratic caves, Egyptian or Grecian temples, to Roman Collegia, to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Moriah—to the preceptories of the Templars—to the Crusades—to the charter of Athelstan—or the Lodge of Kilwinning—is, after all, but of little moment. Its principles can alone be relied on to maintain our time honored Order in its purity. They inculcate charity to all mankind—a charity without stint—a brotherhood without boundaries—religion without sectarianism— patriotism without party—a union, not of hands only, but of hearts—a union not limited to persons, but embracing states and nations and all this accompanied by the profoundest recognition of man’s dependence upon Him, whose All Seeing Eye is our emblem, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the Earth with a span, and comprehended the dust of the Earth in a balance and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance….”

The building of the new Temple had meanwhile progressed amid rejoicing and congratulation and at the May Communication 1869, Grand Master Coates, Chairman of the Building Committee, reported that the Temple was completed and ready for occupancy. But now came “the tug of war.” It had not been paid for...

All efforts were now directed towards raising the means to meet the pressing claims. Taxation upon the Subordinate Lodges was necessarily resorted to, and in the emergency a host of critics arose to find fault with the plan of building and even the policy of erecting the structure at all. Unfortunately the main hall, which had been relied upon as a source of large revenue from rentals, proved deficient in its most important requirement: acoustics.

Murmurings of discontent, complaints, and even denunciations, became the order of the day, and many brethren who could doubtless have built a different Temple, felt and expressed confidence that they could have built a better one. Meanwhile the creditors, not content with urging the payment of their claims by pacific methods, had resorted to legal process and the sale of the Temple to satisfy its liens was only delayed by the struggle for priority among the various claimants. It happened at this critical juncture in the affairs of the Grand Lodge, as it always does in meritorious cases in human affairs, that men were found to meet the emergency. At the November Communication 1780, Brother John H.B. Latrobe, who had delivered the Oration at the laying of the cornerstone of the building, was elected Grand Master and at once called a halt in the rapid march towards financial disgrace.

Their records show the costs of acquiring the land (first one lot, then a second), and the construction, furnishing, decorating, etc. of the new headquarters approached $500,000—legitimately a shocking sum for a fraternal order. In his History of Freemasonry in Maryland (Vol. 4), author Edward Thomas Schultz writes:

...and in consequence, the Grand Lodge became greatly embarrassed financially. Many and great complaints were heard and censures expressed by the brethren against the plan and cost of the building. While there is no doubt the building cost too much, and was in some respects not constructed to meet fully the requirements of the fraternity, it is not certain that another committee under the circumstances then existing, would have done better. It was perhaps unfortunate that the building had not been commenced in 1859, when the subject was first agitated and when building materials and labor were very low, whereas in the first few years after the war materials and labor were higher than perhaps ever known in Baltimore before or since.

At Grand Lodge’s semi-annual communication on May 10, 1869, Grand Master John Coates informed the brethren that he believed a public celebration of dedicating and opening the building should be avoided, saying:

The certainty that in a few days, our subordinate Lodges and other Masonic bodies will occupy the several rooms prepared for their use, renders it necessary that provision should be made for the dedication of our New Temple. This has been to me a matter of serious consideration, in view of the great necessity for money to pay off the debts yet due upon the Temple, and my desire as well as that of the Craft generally, to celebrate the completion of this great enterprise, in such a manner as would be creditable to the Fraternity of Maryland. After due reflection and a consultation with the Grand Officers and other prominent Masons, we have deemed it most wise and prudent to perform the ceremony of Dedication during the session of the Grand Lodge, without any public demonstration, involving as it would, a heavy expenditure of money. The very great responsibility we have assumed in building this Temple, involving us in heavy obligations, and upon the faithful discharge of which our honor and very existence depends, demands of us the husbanding of every dollar of our means, and the strictest economy in the management of our finances. There is yet required to pay off the remaining floating debt upon the Temple, about forty thousand dollars, which the Building Committee are endeavoring to secure. A heavy tax has been laid upon our city Lodges to meet the expenses incurred in furnishing the various rooms prepared for their use, which has exhausted all the funds in their possession. Under these circumstances we are wholly unable to make such a public demonstration as would be creditable to us, and would not detract from the reputation we have already established by that most grand and imposing display made on the occasion of laying the cornerstone.

Joanna Campbell Rocky 98.5

Joanna Campbell Rocky 98.5

Joanna Campbell Rocky 98.5

Joanna Campbell Rocky 98.5

I hope a suitable celebration will mark the return of Freemasonry to the historic site. Congratulations, brethren!

     

‘Rubicon: Masons Who Read’

    

The snickering on social media aside, let me assure you that Ukraine’s bombing of Yandex data centers and the interruption of this blog’s streak of forty-one posts in forty-one consecutive days is entirely coincidental! Speaking of centers of data, the Kentucky brethren’s “21st Century Conversations on Freemasonry” lectures on the YouTube continued yesterday with their posting of Timothy J. Bramble’s lecture titled “Masons Who Read.”

Episode LXXXVI (I think that’s 86) runs a little more than an hour. Click this image:

The series is co-hosted by the Rubicon Masonic Society, William O. Ware Lodge of Research, and Lexington Lodge 1. Bramble, is at labor in Lexington 1 (and others), is chaplain of W.O.W., and is a member of Rubicon.

Last year, Rubicon challenged its members to read one book on Freemasonry per month during the period from May 2025 through June of ’26. Bramble read fifty-one books. In this talk, he lists those he read, and discusses the pleasure and profit derived. Enjoy.

     

‘Alma: a night at the opera’

    

Tickets here.

I’m not at all embarrassed to admit everything I know of Alma Mahler comes from the Tom Lehrer song, but I’ve known every word of the song since 1980. In more recent news, Bro. Valentin Peytchinov, of Scotia Lodge 634, presents Alma, the opera, coming to New York! From the publicity:

Alma

Saturday, October 17

8 to 9 p.m.

Theatre of St. Jean’s

150 East 76th Street,

between Lexington & Third

Tickets here

Dear Brothers and Friends,

We are bringing Alma—a moving new opera about Alma Mahler’s life—to New York City, and I’m reaching out personally because this project is deeply meaningful to me.

This production will also honor the 75th birthday of Lubo Denev, the celebrated Bulgarian composer, conductor, and jazz artist. Presenting Alma in New York as a tribute to his legacy makes this moment truly special.

Overview

Alma the opera, comes to New York: a powerful monodrama of love, art, war, and Alma Mahler’s relentless pursuit of artistic freedom. Alma is a powerful monodrama inspired by the extraordinary life of Alma Mahler—composer, muse, lover, wife, and witness to the collapse of old Europe. Surrounded by the genius of Gustav Mahler, the passionate intensity of painter Oskar Kokoschka, the visionary architect Walter Gropius, and the poet Franz Werfel, Alma is swept through love, betrayal, war, and an unrelenting search for artistic freedom.

Her deeply personal journey becomes a mirror of an entire era—a story of passion, art, and the price of dreams. With music by celebrated Bulgarian composer Lubomir Denev and a libretto by Guerguan Tsenov, Alma brings Alma Mahler’s extraordinary story to the stage through an intimate and compelling musical portrait.

The New York premiere features soprano Teresa Castillo in the title role, with Ahmed Alom conducting a chamber ensemble. The New York premiere carries a special historical significance. After fleeing war-torn Europe, Alma Mahler spent the final two decades of her life in the United States and died in New York City on December 11, 1964. Presenting Alma in New York is therefore more than a premiere—it is, in many ways, a symbolic homecoming for one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable artistic figures.

Following its acclaimed Bulgarian premieres in 2025 at the March Music Days International Festival in Ruse and the Sofia Music Weeks International Festival, Alma now comes to New York in a production celebrating the 75th birthday of composer Lubomir Denev. Soprano Teresa Castillo, together with a chamber ensemble conducted by Ahmed Alom, will bring this intimate monodrama to life at Theatre at Saint Jean. The project is presented by Valentin Peytchinov Vocal Studios in collaboration with Vocal Productions NYC.

Throughout his distinguished international career, Valentin Peytchinov has devoted himself to mentoring young singers and creating opportunities for emerging artists. Alma continues that mission by bringing a remarkable contemporary opera to New York while providing a professional stage for exceptional young performers and celebrating the work of its composer, librettist, conductor, and performers.

You know something? Lehrer never mentioned Kokoschka!

      

‘Meditation techniques at Livingston Library’

    

“A light heart lives long.”

William Shakespeare

Love’s Labour’s Lost

The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library offers a change of pace for its monthly lecture this time. Different day too. (Let’s attend and head downstairs for The ALR after.) From the publicity:

HeartMath Meditation!

Tuesday, October 27 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall, 14th floor

Zoom here

Join us for an uplifting presentation on managing stress and anxiety. Learn an easy and practical tool for maintaining emotional balance, mental clarity, and sustaining resilience to navigate these unpredictable and challenging times. Come and learn how love, kindness, and compassion help improve our immune system, health, and self-security. The intelligence of the human heart is a powerful force, and this technique will help connect you to your heart’s intuition.

Leigh-Ann Carls, MSN, CCRN, AHN-BC, is an experienced ICU nurse with a 17-year obsession with consciousness, noetic science, and the mind-body connection as it relates to our health. She is a Certified Holistic Nurse, Integrative Health and Wellness Coach, Radical Remission Workshop Instructor and Coach, Advanced Reiki Practitioner, and certified HeartMath practitioner.

     

‘James Royal Case award this month’

         

Things Masonic sometimes are denominated in threes, and Connecticut’s Masonic Lodge of Research 401 has settled on its tertiary choice of date to present its James Royal Case award, which will be at its meeting this month.

W. Bro. Martin Ede, the highly regarded local historian, scholar, perennial Worshipful Master, etc., will be honored with the lodge’s wonderfully prestigious James Royal Case Fellowship at the New Haven Masonic Temple on Wednesday the 28th. The lodge will meet at seven o’clock, and the public award presentation will follow.

There is no cost to attend. If you had paid to book your seats for the previous two planned dates, expect a refund from the lodge.

Case (1895-1987) was, among other things, a Past Master and a Fellow of The American Lodge of Research. He was one of those mid-twentieth century American scholars in Masonry prolific in authoring books and research papers. He studied and wrote of histories outside the Masonic Order also, such as the Revolutionary War pertaining to Connecticut. His book titles include: 

 ▸ Tryon’s Raid on Danbury, 1777: The Battle of Ridgefield and Gen. David Wooster’s Career

 ▸ Fifty Early American Military Freemasons

 ▸ The Case Collection: Biographies of Masonic Notables, Volumes I and II (for Missouri Lodge of Research)

 ▸ Freemasons at the First Inauguration of George Washington, April 30, 1789 (for the Masonic Service Association)

 ▸ Thank You, Mr. Edwards: A Bicentennial History of the Grand Lodge, AF&AM of Connecticut

 ▸ A History of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Connecticut

And, unsurprisingly, recent James Royal Case Fellows include familiar Masons, such as Dick Fletcher, Chris Hodapp, Tim Hogan, Arturo de Hoyos, Brent Morris, Roy Wells, and a lot of local talent, including Ron Goldwyn.

Somewhere I had a photo of Case standing in The ALR from, maybe, the sixties. Can’t find it.

     

‘Research chapter to meet in Manhattan’

         

Thomas Smith Webb Chapter of Research 1798 will meet this month…in Manhattan!

The companions will hold their convocation in Masonic Hall on Saturday, October 24 at 4 p.m. Look for the Fifth Manhattan District’s room (I don’t know where that is).

Presenters to include Rene Perez, possibly Michael Chaplin, and hopefully another (maybe you?). A Zoom connection for those who cannot attend is forthcoming, but if you can get there, be sure to budget time for a post-meeting meal at a restaurant.

     

‘Grand Master’s Day reset for April’

    

I’m late with this, but I’m sure the word got out before anyone went to Tappan only to find the place deserted. See you next April.

     

‘MMRI telethon in just 24 hours’

    

UPDATE: When they had to sign off at 8:45, more than $409,000 had been raised!

We are now a mere twenty-four hours from the start of the MMRI’s first global telethon to support this outstanding non-profit biomedical research center.

The work of the Masonic Medical Research Institute encompasses:

⚕️ heart disease research—investigating the genetic and environmental causes of heart disease since 1958;

⚕️ neurocognitive disease research—studying the causes of, and seeking treatments for, conditions affecting cognitive function and neurological processes; and

⚕️ autoimmune disease research—aims to find the causes of chronic illnesses in which the body’s immune system attacks the body’s own tissues.

Our hosts tomorrow night will be The Most Worshipful Robert L. Hogan, Jr., Grand Master of Mason in the State of New York; and MW William R. Sardone, Past Grand Master.

Click here to watch Tuesday night.

    

‘Librarians poised to take Manhattan!’

    

The summer issue of The Page & Pillars, the newsletter of the Masonic Library and Museum Association, hit inboxes last week (actually missing summer by a few days), which reminds me to plug our impending visit to New York City in less than two weeks.

The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library has volunteered to host this 2026 annual meeting. We will gather there, at Masonic Hall, on the morning of Saturday the 17th for the business meeting. Plus, there will be tours of the library and the building, and we’ll be greeted by Deputy Grand Master Oscar Alleyne before the helicopter idling on the roof whisks him to Buffalo.

At one in the afternoon, we’ll catch our breath and enjoy lunch together. Then we’ll commute downtown to The Battery to catch the Staten Island Ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. At 5 p.m., we’ll be found inside nearby Fraunces Tavern Museum for a behind-the-scenes tour before settling in for dinner downstairs (in the Washington Room, I’m guessing). Everybody loves Fraunces.

If this sounds like fun to you, click here to register—but do it now—and join us. Also, why not join us in membership?

For only a few bucks a year, you can support a totally unsung, but very valuable, group. The major Masonic libraries and museums in the U.S. are among our institutional members, as are many smaller facilities, but we have individual members also. If you are a researcher or even an occasional seeker of books and other materials that are hard to find, your colleagues in the MLMA most likely can bring your search to fruition. Research lodges may join at the institutional level—any lodge can, but if your lodge has a library, it and you should join.

Among the latest initiatives are the BINO database and the MLMA Exchange. BINO is Books Indexed Neatly Online, which is an ever expanding record of our members’ inventories of books. If a title you seek has been elusive, BINO probably can put you in touch with the librarians who have that book. The Exchange is a kind of classifieds listing, where our institutional members may offer books, artifacts, regalia, etc. for sale, trade, or donation. Everybody has duplicates (or more) of things taking up precious space.

Both of these are exclusive to MLMA members. Click here.

In basic communications, there is the official Google Group for news, conversation, and questions via email. Also, every two months on Sundays, we host videoconference “Fireside Chats” where a speaker gives a presentation on his museum's current projects or other suitable talks. The perfect way to exchange information.

Our annual meetings hopscotch around the country. In the coming years, we’ll visit Washington State, Massachusetts, and Minnesota—as determined by institutional members that volunteer to host.

Hope to see you the weekend after next. On the Friday night, we’ll get together for an informal dinner at a place to be determined, but seek us out at the Hampton Inn, near the corner of 24th and Sixth, at seven o’clock.

     

‘This month at The ALR’

    

Bro. James Harding’s traveling document,
1756, Philadelphia.

The American Lodge of Research will begin its new year in a few weeks with its Stated Communication here in New York City.

Tuesday, October 27 at 7 p.m.

Masonic Hall

Empire Room, 12th floor

  

Dinner after in French Ionic on ten

RSVP here

On the agenda: W. Bro. Conor, a Fellow of The ALR, will present “A Curious Certificate: An Analysis of the 1756 Traveling Certificate of James Harding of Philadelphia.”

And we’ll probably have some business for the Active Members’ ballots.

I can’t remember the last time I was in Empire. See you there. (Remember: I’m Tiler. You must bring me… a shrubbery!)

     

‘Led Zeppelin: Alchemical Quartet’

    

This just in: Alaska’s research lodge will meet Saturday via videoconference for a talk on symbolism and music. From the publicity:

Led Zeppelin:

The Alchemical Quartet

Saturday, October 3

Noon Eastern

Academia Lux Borealis Lodge 25

Click here

What does Led Zeppelin have to do with Masonry? It doesn’t. However, some of their songs contain some exceptional symbolism and allegory. MW Bro. John May will present “Led Zeppelin: The Alchemical Quartet.”

This presentation is geared toward those brethren who struggle with symbolism and allegory. Come enjoy this musical journey and some new insights into symbolism and allegory through a contemporary and, perhaps, a more familiar lens.

This series is open to all Master Masons.

Last Friday was the 46th anniversary of the death of Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, which caused the dissolution of the group. I remember learning of this over breakfast the following day, listening to Paul Harvey’s early morning broadcast. All these years later, I marvel at how singer Robert Plant is, far as I’m concerned, the only star from the sixties who remains creative and relevant in this second quarter of the 21st century.

     

‘Be sure to read this month’s Short Talk Bulletin’

    

October? Already?

Well, on the plus side, I’m looking forward to this month’s meetings of Civil War Lodge of Research in Virginia, and both the MLMA and The ALR here in the city. And, I’ve been told the October Short Talk Bulletin is to be the one I sent to the Masonic Service Association in late August.

When I was Master of New Jersey’s research lodge, I had the idea of getting our prolific writers to submit drafts to the MSA for consideration as STBs. That didn’t come together and, for the next two decades, I personally procrastinated, forgot, and otherwise never got it done. The October topic is Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842), the renowned Massachusetts Mason who authored some of the ritual many of us in the United States use in our lodges. Maybe you are familiar with:

RW Thaddeus Mason Harris

‣ The Ancient Prayer, at making or Opening (“...where two or three are gathered together in thy name…”);

‣ Charge at the Closing of a Lodge (“You are now to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue, to mix again with the world…”);

‣ A Prayer used at closing the Lodge (“May the blessing of Heaven rest upon us, and all regular masons! May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue cement us.”); and more.

To see the whole picture, read Harris’ book from 1801 titled Discourses, Delivered on Public Occasions, Illustrating the Principles, Displaying the Tendency, and Vindicating the Design, of Free Masonry (known as Discourses, for short).

My thanks to Mark Tabbert for encouraging me to send in something but, I’ll tell ya, I’ve been writing for publication since 1985, and I’ve never been edited like this. I’m not used to being edited at all, really, except an occasional tweak so an editor can say he did something. This was a learning experience. But don’t let that deter you!

Mark is looking for approximately 1,300 words on Masonic history, symbolism, charity, etc. He says he’s all set for the remainder of this year, but e-mail him here. I’m working on my next two.

Big changes are coming to the MSANA, so let’s support them with a $20 subscription. Click here.

      

‘Tickets on sale for Oscar Night’

    

The particulars of Oscar Night—that is, the Deputy Grand Master’s Dinner—have been posted. Click here, and hope to see you there.

     

‘New Haven Masonic Temple’s centenary’

    

Quinta Essential 500

Click to enlarge.

Thank you for reading The Magpie Mason. Today we begin our nineteenth—and most likely penultimate—year together.

So let me tell you about the centennial anniversary of the New Haven Masonic Temple, which will be celebrated next month with two events.

On Saturday, October 3, the Grand Lodge of Connecticut will rededicate the building, after which the brethren will host an open house featuring displays by the groups who meet there. The event will begin at 10 a.m. and should conclude at 2 p.m.

On Saturday, October 24, a formal gala awaits you. Doors at six o’clock. Only $55 per person. There will be music and a celebration of the historic building’s past. You’ll take home gifts too. Click here.

In addition, or in lieu of, there is the Centennial Club. Your $100 donation to preserve the temple will have your name added to the Centennial Club plaque, and will get you the commemorative coin and a club tie. Click here.

MW Arthur Nash

It was on Saturday, June 12, 1926 when Grand Master Arthur N. Nash led an impressive retinue of Grand Lodge officers—including half a dozen Past Grand Masters, the Grand Architect(!), and Grand Bible Bearer—from their Special Communication at Hiram Lodge’s digs on nearby Crown Street to the future site of 285 Whitney Avenue, the Masonic Temple, where they proceeded to lay its cornerstone.

A ton of artifacts were deposited into that stone (I’m assuming a time capsule) and New Haven Mayor (and Hiram 1’s Senior Warden) James B. Tower delivered a “brief speech” before everyone returned to Hiram’s meeting place to close the Grand Lodge meeting and head to the Hotel Taft for dinner.

In his subsequent report to the Grand Lodge, MW Nash noted:

Click to enlarge.

“When completed, this will be one of the finest Temples in Connecticut, if not New England,” he added. “For some of us, this was a long day, from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.”

And don’t think this was the only Masonic temple in New Haven. Just two months prior, the Grand Lodge laid the foundation stone of the building Olive Branch 84 was constructing on Whalley Avenue, and that building was dedicated November 20. In June of 1924, Adelphi Lodge 63 broke ground on Grand Avenue.

It is rare for a building to stand for a hundred years in this country, much less remain in use, and especially remain in use by the original owner. Happy anniversary, brethren!

     

‘Alcyone Equinox Journal launches’

    

Just after the Autumn Equinox, word comes of a new publication’s launch. From the publicity:

Brethren,

I am proud to announce the release of the first issue of Alcyone Equinox Journal, created as a space for Masonic education, reflection, symbolism, and the continued search for Light.

My hope is that with each equinox, we can continue building upon it, with contributions from our brethren and ideas that inspire us to explore the deeper meaning of our Craft. I invite brothers from throughout the state to contribute to future issues. If you have an article, research, reflection, or Masonic topic you would like to share, I would be honored to include the voices and perspectives of our brothers as this journal continues to grow.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making Issue No. 1 possible. May this be the first of many, and may we continue our collective search for further Light.

Fraternally,

Bro. Jonathan Maldonado

Editor-in-Chief

Alcyone Equinox Journal

Maldonado serves in the South of Alcyone Lodge 695 on Long Island. His YouTube channel is here.

I’m not sure I can squeeze another deadline into my schedule but, with a production run for only two issues per year, maybe something can be done. And, no, I don’t know where we may read this publication. I’ll update this if I learn anything.

     

‘A word about post-nominals’

   

The Committee on Correspondence chairman received third billing on the title page of the book of proceedings, after only the Grand High Priest and the Grand Secretary.

If you’ve read the books of proceedings of grand lodges, grand chapters, etc., especially from generations past, you noticed the best part of the book is the report of the correspondence committee. There, we find the then current events of other grand bodies, provided they are in amity and they bothered to have sent in their news.

This is the duty of our grand representatives, although I don’t know how many today actually perform this work. For example, the Grand Lodge of ABC’s Grand Representative near the Grand Lodge of XYZ ideally would send XYZ’s annual news, however he might package it, to ABC. (I think that’s right.) ABC’s correspondence committee receives it, and takes what it wants for inclusion in its annual report for the book of proceedings. This annual report is written at the discretion of the committee chairman, who may select whatever information he pleases—and don’t be surprised if he editorializes in relaying the foreign news to you, the reader, which, sometimes, can be fun.

So, for reasons I won’t bother with here, I’ve been perusing the books of the Royal Arch Grand Chapter of New Jersey. In the volume for 1871-72 comes word from the Grand Chapter of South Carolina—land of Mackey, Dalcho, et al.

Comp. Thomas J. Corson, a Past GHP of the Grand Chapter of New Jersey, was chairman of its Committee on Foreign Correspondence (and paid a hundred bucks for it!), and evidently he was the type who would comment on other grand chapters’ reportage.

Apparently, South Carolina Past GHP James Birnie had written of General Grand Chapter Deputy GGHP Robert Bruns’ use of Scottish Rite post-nominals in Royal Arch Masonry.* Excerpted from Corson’s comments:

Speaking of Comp. Bruns using the “32°” after his name in a Royal Arch connection, he says: “As it don’t hurt anybody, we don’t see why so much ado should be made about it.”

Certainly not. Now, all ye reporters, take due notice that we will severely punish any one of you who dares to make fun of our Bruns. He shall have a tail to his name, so he shall— for doesn’t Darwin say that we are all descended from monkeys?

If Drummond can use his 101°; Robertson, of Canada, his 33°; J. Conway Brown, of Nova Scotia, his 18°; and Wright, of Iowa, his 32°, why should not Robert have his 32°? Wherefore notly?

And if Bruns will come to Trenton, we will initiate him into the “Windy Boys of Waterloo,” and then he will be a “W.B.W.,” so he will.

P.S.  Drummond, Gouley and Hornor need not apply for this degree. They are not eligible, for it’s a strictly moral degree.

And people give me the stink eye for telling it like it is!

*Both Birnie and Bruns would be dead the following year.

     

‘Kopenski to bring Sherer to Ebenezer’

    

There’s a lot to be said for still employing Masonic carpets, tracing boards, and other narrative art used in lodge during degrees generations ago. Not everything has to be electronic if you have the option. In our Masonic travels, we’ve seen framed antique artworks on the walls of dining rooms and other recreational spaces that ought to be hanging in the lodge room for candidate instruction.

One of America’s best contributors to this category of our material culture was John Sherer, an Ohio Mason, and an engraver by profession, who authored The Masonic Ladder and who created tracing boards for our degrees in the mid nineteenth century.

Use your favorite search engine to see his work. Maybe you’ve looked at his images here and there without knowing their story. And, if you are in or near the Grand Lodge of Ohio’s 20th Masonic District, get to Ebenezer Lodge 33 on October 28 to learn about Sherer and his art from Chad Kopenski, who has been researching the subject for years. The graphic at top has the details.

It would be great to get RW Kopenski to research lodges all over the place.

     

‘Joshua Associations still exist!’

    

Magpie file photo

The East of Oriental Hall, Masonic Temple, Philadelphia. The Joshua Association will meet therein Monday night.

I had no idea, but an announcement the other day from Comp. Nick showed how the Joshua Association of Philadelphia is still in business, which led me to find that other Joshua Associations are alive too. I assumed these groups, which got their start more than a century ago, had withered and disappeared like ancillary capillaries that shut down quietly as the overall fraternity atrophies.

Anyway, Nick reports his Joshua Association (he’s Second Vice President) will meet next week! From the publicity:

Ye Antient, Olde & Original

Joshua Association

Monday, September 28

Dinner at six o’clock

Meeting at seven in Oriental Hall

Masonic Temple

1 North Broad Street, Philadelphia

For dinner, meet at 5:45 at Sabroso+Sorbo in the Notary Hotel (corner of Juniper and Filbert). The Knife & Fork Degree will be conferred on new members. Any Companions who would like to receive the degree are welcome to attend.

M.E. Thomas McConnell

If you’re not familiar, the best I can do is this brief comment from M.E. Thomas McConnell, Jr., Grand High Priest of the Grand Holy Royal Arch Chapter of Pennsylvania, at its Annual Grand Communication of December 27, 1917 at that historic Masonic Temple:

About ten years ago, a voluntary association of the Most Excellent High Priests of Chapters meeting in Philadelphia was formed under the title of “Joshua Association” to which Past High Priests, Kings, and Scribes have since been made eligible, and it seems also to be a part of their plan to elect Grand Officers to honorary membership as soon as they are elected in Grand Chapter.

The plan of the Association has been to visit Chapters in and about Philadelphia and encourage and help them. They have always been in hearty and sympathetic accord with the work of Grand Chapter, and especially so during the past year. The officers and members have cordially and earnestly seconded my work wherever possible, have in many instances timed their visitations to accord with mine, and, while their Association has no official status as an association, the officers and members are entitled to a word of commendation for the able and unselfish work they are doing to build up Royal Arch Masonry in Philadelphia and its vicinity. I wish more of the Companions in this and other localities would emulate their example.

And, speaking exactly two years later at the same location, MEGHP David J. Davis said:

On Saturday evening, January 25, I attended the Annual Meeting and banquet of the Joshua Association of Philadelphia. The enthusiasm and fraternal feeling among the Companions convinced me that they are an Association of efficient officers and good fellows. They are sincere, loyal and ever ready to serve. Am proud of the excellent results accomplished by them and the good work they are now doing for the benefit of Capitular Masonry in this Jurisdiction.

From what I understand, this original association in Philly would assist chapters with ritual work. That focus of a century ago has dissipated, and today the association is simply social in its activities. Also, it seems membership has extended across the Delaware River to embrace Royal Arch Masons from New Jersey and Delaware. The companions will meet next on March 22, 2027.

Other Joshua Associations, from what I see, include Anthracite No. 2, which meets in central Pennsylvania (wear red socks); and Lehigh Valley, which will reach its 86th anniversary next March 31 in Lenhartsville.

Who’s Joshua? First, click here, then pursue further Light by taking the degrees of Royal Arch Masonry.