DRAFT
American Culture Association and Popular Culture Association
San Diego, California - Saturday, April 3, 1999
San Diego Marriott Hotel - Panel 428 Columbia 3, NorthTower. 10:30 am
Panel: American Art and Architecture: The Uses of Space in American Fraternalism
Paul Rich, Chair
Looking at Masonic Buildings:
The Symbolic Blue Lodges of Freemasonry
Paul Rich
University of the Americas-Puebla, Mexico
For information rich@hoover.stanford.edu
See web page http://gente.udlap.mx/~rich/rich/index.html
- Our panel today deals with aspects of Masonic architecture. The
participants, Antonio Lara, Guillermo De Los Reyes, and Paul
Rich can claim to have visited dozens if not hundreds of Masonic
buildings. Occasionally attempting to find the Masonic temples
in a city results in being sent to locations such as a karate school,
a confusion which shows that many people are baffled when it
comes to the functions of the various organizations which make
up Freemasonry and whose buildings have probably gone
unnoticed even in their own city or town. Next year at New
Orleans we will for the first time have a section of PCA/ACA
dvoted to fraternal orders, and we hope people will want to
support this initiative.
Remarkably, there are an estimated 29,000 Masonic lodges in the
United States alone, although some disappear every day given the
average age of the members and the failure to recruit replacements. Just
here in California there are about 450 lodges with a membership of
more than 128,000. There are 14 lodges in San Diego alone. (These are
subordinate blue or symbolic lodges which give only the first three
degrees.)
The large number of lodges that still exist is one very good reason
for being interested in a subject which arises out of today´s panel:
preservation of the lodge buildings is important because they are part of
America´s folk heritage. In that respect, besides the Masons there are
many other fraternal organizations that have interesting structures
worth preserving, and they are in worse shape than the Masons as far as
membership is concerned. Sensitivity to the value of the artifacts and
architecture of fraternalism is one function of a discussion like ours
today.
To the extent that resources permitted, fraternal order buildings
were constructed to fit the peculiar ritual activities of the lodges, which
meant sacrificing rentals that could have been obtained if the layout was
less eccentric. Secret ritualistic societies place enormous importance on
the arrangements of their meeting rooms, relying on architecture
detailing to help impart the appropriate solemnity during the
initiation ceremonies. The Odd Fellows, Elks, Moose, Eagles, Pythians,
and Knights of Columbus all have architectural requirements for their
meetings.
But none of these organizations gives as much attention to
architecture as does does Freemasonry, which in fact conveys its great
interest in the building arts through a large special vocabulary.
(Sometimes authors take up the relationship between Freemasonry and
the stone masons, as is the case in this paper, and this discussion of
Masons and masons becomes confusing without the use of capitals for
the speculative or non-operative Masons.) In many of the Masonic
degrees the vocabulary of architecture -- Ionian capitals, trowels, rough
and polished ashlars or stones -- is used allegorically. Thus a sensitivity on
the part of the membes to the actual building where the ceremonies take
place is not surprising.
A lodge meeting hall or temple often will be shared by a number of
groups. Here in San Diego the Scottish Rite Masonic Center is used by
blue lodges and the Shrine is used by DeMolay. Even within
Freemasonry this ecumenicism is often dicatated by the pocketbook
rather than by friendship. There weren´t and aren´t enough members in
small towns to permit special facilities for each of the different rites.
Often construction was financed by stock shares sold in differing
amounts to the participating groups. The Eastern Star would have five
shares, the Royal Arch Masons would have six, the blue lodge would have
ten: share ownership depended on how much money each organization
gave to the building cost.
In metropolitan areas, there were sufficient members of the various
bodies to permit the construction of specialized temples and the result is
that one still encounters in cities such as San Diego several different
Masonic temples serving different organizations -- for example the
Scottish and Shrine facilities. Even, so, other groups use such buildings.
In fact, worried about possible taxes and seeking public relations, the
Masons have encouraged the use of their buildings for public service
projects such as reading clinics.
The Masons have been about the only American fraternal group
large enough and affluent enough to support not just one temple but a
variety of buildings to service the various rites that fall under the
Masonic umbrella. Other fraternities also have had more than one
organization as part of their scheme. The Odd Fellows sponsor the
Patriarchs Millitant and Rebakah, for example. But having separate
buildings which carry out in architecture the rituals has been financailly
impossible.
The Masons alone have been able to build not one temple but
several, each on a theme fitting the rituals practiced inside. Although
Masonry claims to have originated in the Middle Ages, it for a long time
has included organizations that use a number of architectural motifs:
the Shrine relies on Islamic designs, the Royal Arch uses Old Testament
motifs, the Knights Templar do use medieval architecture. This variety
of styles within the greater Masonic movement bears out the view of
Magali Larson, who writes:
Differences can be marked through size, form, ornament, and
style (which includes all of the bove). Responding to a collective
intentionality, architects fill buildings with connoted meanings. So do,
imporantly and unpredictably, layers upon historical layers of different
users. For instance, the program for Philadlephia´s late nineteenth
centuy City Hall brazenly indicated that the doors of public rooms had
to be tall and massive enough, and their handles placed high enough,
to awe immigrant masses assumed to be short.
Each of what one might call the Masonic sects has had an
architectural bias. And there are certainly a large number of Masonic
groups to consider. Most people here would be familiar with some of the
groups which constitute the Masonic family, such as DeMolay, Job's
Daughters, the Eastern Star, the Grotto, the Scottish Rite, and so on. A
generation ago many of us would have had family members who
belonged to one or another of these orders. All of them have fairly
recognizable building requirements dictated by their rituals. A purpose
built Scottish Rite cathedral would never be confused with a Shrine
Mosque or with a Templar sanctuary.
There is nevertheless no matter what the right or ritual a
commonality to Masonic architecture wherever found. Possibly one way
to explain this would be to note that restaurants are recognizable as
restaurants, but Chinese restaurants are quite different in decor from a
chain like Roy Rogers. The Scottish Rite, which Guillermo De Los Reyes
will discuss, is a good example of how within the Masonic framework
there can be distinctive varieties.
As for the blue lodge, its three degrees are not a nineteenth
century creation like the rituals of many of the competing fraternal
orders, and therefore the architecture often has a particular and at least
partly genuine antiquarian flavor and interest. Other fraternal orders
claim a parentage which is dubious, but there is no question but that
Masonry's origins are ancient. They are also controversial, partly because
some Masons are fond of embroidering the society's quite long history
and extending its genealogy further, back to King Alfred or even Adam.
A standard format is particularly noticable with regard to the blue
lodge architecture. Regardless of the national and regional differences,
the blue lodge everywhere needs a foyer where members can put on their
aprons and register with the tyler or door guard (and for closet storage of
offices´jewelry and the maul, stretcher, and other paraphernalia used in
the rituals), a preparation room where the candidate can be stripped of
his personal effects and clothed in a white uniform, and the main lodge
room, invariably rectangular, with thrones or at least elaborate seats for
the Master of the lodge (who represents King Solomon) and his two
wardens.
Not surprisingly, blue lodges often does use blue for the upholstery
and paint, the aprons, the ribbons from which the jewels hang, and in
other motifs of the lodge rooms. This is not the only case of a Masonic
body having a favorite color. The Holy Royal Arch degrees uses red and
the Cryptic Rite uses purple. The reasons given for the use of blue
include its use in heraldry to denote chastity and loyalty, its derivation
from the color of the sky, the fact that the Druids used blue robes, and
Biblical references to pomgranates of blue. A more probable historical
explanation is that blue was the color of the ribbon of the Order of the
Garter, the Order of the Bath, and the Order of the Thistle, the premier
chivalric decorations of the British Crown.
The most important activity in such a blue lodge is to confer three
degrees on the candidate, the three degrees which are essential to being a
Mason: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason. The first two
of these degrees really are a series of lectures, with the only drama being
the blindfolded candidate being walked around the room. Most of the
special effects are confined to paintings or charts and thus the
equipment needed is kept to a minimum. For example, the rituals refer
a ladder or winding stair, but this is seldom actually a physical feature of
the lodge. A feature that is often found is two pillars by the entrance to
the lodge room, capped by celestial and terrestrial globes.
The third degree involves the mock assassination of the candidate
and his burial, so sometimes a vault in the lodge floor is provided for the
internment, but that is rare. Another feature, rarely found in the
United States in connection with blue lodges although universally used
in the higher Templar degrees of the York system, and used throughout
Latin America, is the Chamber of Reflection with its human skull or
skeleton and flickering candle to place the candidate in a meditative
mood:
A few weeks ago I read some posting concerning the chamber of
reflection, along with references to various furnishings. While our lodge
DOES have what we refer to as "the preparation room", it is little more
than a changing room. I am curious about the universality (or lack
thereof) of the various furnishings. If I recall correctly, many posters
referred to a skull and candle, with others adding paper and a writing
instrument. The idea of a chamber of reflection strikes me as a very
powerful means of emphasizing the solemnity and seriousness of the
event. In short, I'd like to suggest that our lodge refurbish our
preparation room. To that end, I'd like to know: 1) what furnishings the
various lodges have in their chambers, 2) how widespread the existence of
such chambers is, 3) whether this is a recent (20th century) innovation,
and 4) what the candidate is told upon being brought into the chamber
for the first time.
While there are differences from place to place, the architecture of
the blue lodge giving the three degrees has in effect been sealed in amber
since the traditions are supposed to be handed down unchanged. A
seventeenth or eighteenth-century lodge room has resemblances to
modern lodge rooms. There is a fondness for a colonial, Early
American or Georgian design , although in tempelswith a number of
lodge rooms there can be an effort to provide varieties of architectural
settings: Norman,Egyptian, Elizabethian, and so forth.
If many of these temples go unremarked, it is partlty because
American blue lodges were often built on the second floor of a building
and the first floor was rented for lodge income. Protecting the secrecy of
the ceremonies was as important as protecting one's bank code number.
The two hundred year history of the American lodge building
involves a number of changes:
The situation in New Hampshire is that all of the lodges own at least part of a building through a
corporation formed by the lodge and perhaps other Masonic bodies to operate the property. Most of the
NH bodies are having some trouble maintaining the property. Those that are not tend to either have new
and inexpensive buildings or have rental property on the premises. For example, the practice here in the
late 1800's in some towns was to build a 2-3 story building with retail space on the first floor and Masonic
spaces on the upper floors.Most NH Masonic facilities are run by a volunteer board and either all or most
of the work is done by volunteers. There may be a paid caretaker in some of the larger buildings. Usually
he is a retired member of the lodge who is looking for some part-time income.
Most Masonic buildings in NH do not have property tax exemptions. I am opposed to
exemptions for Masonic property because 1). it is poor citizenship on our part, 2). there is no reason for
taxpayers to support what are basically private clubs and 3). I worry that taking public money even in the
form of tax exemptions will lead to public interference in our affairs. I do not believe that a building is
necessary for a lodge to function, although it is certainly the norm in the US. My lodge, which exists from
at least 1735 (constituted 1736) met for most of its first 100 years in rented rooms: taverns or the Senate
chamber of the New Hampshire state house. The reason to have a building would seem to be either to
house offices and/or a museum, which is necessary for some bodies, or to have permanent social quarters
available. The social quarters (sitting rooms, reading rooms, pool tables, etc.) were heavily used before the
advent of television but are seldom used now. The Portsmouth Masonic Temple has about 6 rooms
available for social purposes but is empty unless there is a meeting or some committee work going.
Masons just do not go to the Masonic Temple to play cribbage any more. We are also finding that the
building costs consume most of the dues ($33 out of $57 for my lodge) and cause a fair amount of hate and
discontent among the members whenever the cost of the building is discussed. The bodies in Portsmouth
(2 lodges, 3 York Rite bodies, a Scottish Rite valley and an Eastern Star Chapter) do not have a solution
but the expense and income figures are such that we need to address the situation more aggressively than
we have. Unfortunately there is a certain lack of realism on the part of some of our members.
I know this is not much help but perhaps you at least know that we have the same problem in NH.
Mark E. Furber
Senior Warden
St. John's Lodge No. 1
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA
Conspicuous, solvent, untaxed, or not, the symbolic or blue lodge is
the common denominator in Masonry and even today, with
fraternalism fighting television, there are few if any American towns or
cities without their blue lodge Masonic temples. Eighteenth-century
initiates would find that these lodge rooms are strikingly similar to that
where they took their degrees. Indeed, thanks to Jesuits, Christian
evangelicals, the political right and the political left, and muckraking
journalists, accurate accounts of the dramas and the temple interiors
have been frequently published over the centuries. The supporters of the
blue lodges regard them as the "meat and potatoes" of Masonry and view
with some suspicion the rush to get into the other groups whose
membership depends on joining the blue lodge:
Unless the candidate is suitably prepared before hand, how on earth can
they possible absorb any of the lessons or mysteries inherent in the Blue
Lodge degrees? (or in the AASR [Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite] or
York Rite for that matter?). To rush someone through the Masonic
system in one day is to trivialize the entire Masonic system, and IMO
mock what Masonry is all about. How can one feel any bond to the
brothers in the Lodge one was initiated into, if one will never set foot
within it again? How can one even begin to understand some of the
more subtle mysteries with only one visit within a Masonic Lodge? I
don't think that one can, if one is rushed through the degrees in order to
reach the Shrine in as short a period as possible.
- So the so-called higher bodies such as the Shrine which
Masons patronize rather than the blue lodge are a contentious subject.
Although certainly the most numerous, the blue lodge buildings are not
the only ones that will be encountered.
Since there are well over 1000 Masonic degrees or plays that
have been worked or staged at one time or another, the extent and
variety of Masonic architecture, the costuming, the scenic backdrops, the
furniture and all aspects of putting on the rituals becomes apparent. In a
more global perspective, when one adds to that the permutations created
by national and regional usages, black or Prince Hall Freemasonry, and
women's Freemasonry it is evident that, as far as what could be called
"secret ritualistic architecture" is concerned, an enormous amount of
territory can be explored.
Investigating the topic is easier in the United State than
elsewhere. As Antonio Lara will point out, Freemasonry in the United
States is not as secret or political as Freemasonry is in some other
countries, including Mexico. In small town America, where the Rainbow
Girls put on a pancake breakfast or the local High Twelve club has a joint
meeting with the Knights of Columbus, the secret side of the
movement is not apparent. Freemasonry in the United States is indeed
"discreet" about its activities, but there are (if one may pun) degrees of
secrecy. In contrast, in parts of Europe and in Latin America,
Freemasonry is extremely political, often virulently anticlerical, and
highly sensitive to disclosure of its rituals, as Antonio Lara will tell us.
First however, Guillermo De Los Reyes will provide some of the
background to the growth and the buildings of the Scottish Rite.