Historic Philadelphia

After several changes took place in English
and American Masonry, the Provincial Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania was chartered on July
15, 1761, uniting lodges in Pennsylvania and
granting warrants that recognized lodges
being established elsewhere. As the result of a
“Grand Convention” of those lodges in 1786,
the Provincial Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
declared its independence of the Grand Lodge
of England and became “The Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction
Thereunto Belonging.” The latter part of the
title recognized that between 1761 and 1832,
the Philadelphia-based Grand Lodge warranted
lodges in six states, two territories, and six
foreign countries, including Mexico, Argentina,
Uruguay, and Cuba.
The change in 1786 signified the formal break
with British Masonry after the American
Revolution. At least nine signers of the Declaration
of Independence and thirteen signers of
the Constitution were Masons. In 1786 the
independent Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had
465 Masons in thirty-five lodges. At the start of
the twenty-first century, there are nearly 150,000
Pennsylvania Masons in more than 450 lodges.
There now is a Grand Lodge in each of the
United States. Worldwide, there are approximately
two hundred Grand Lodges in amity
with one another and a membership of some
four million Masons. The Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania, the third oldest Grand Lodge
in the world, holds a unique status as the
foundation of American Masonry.
Early Masonic membership rolls contain the
names of dozens of Philadelphia’s mayors,
businessmen and civic leaders. They include
Stephen Girard, America’s first multimillionaire,
a businessman, banker, and philanthropist
whose bequests still benefit the city; George
Mifflin Dallas, eleventh vice president of the
United States for whom Dallas, Texas, was
named; George Meade, victorious commanding
general at the Battle of Gettysburg, and John
Wanamaker, department store founder and U.S.
postmaster general.
There were many Masonic brothers closely
identified with the fraternity in Pennsylvania.
Among them were George Washington, the
Marquis de Lafayette, and James Buchanan,
the only Pennsylvanian among the fourteen
Master Masons who served as president of the
United States. President and General George
Washington served as master of his lodge
in Alexandria, Virginia, originally warranted by
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and part of
the “jurisdiction thereunto belonging.” Prized
among the collections of The Masonic Library
and Museum of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia is
the unique Masonic apron that the wife of
Lafayette embroidered and the Marquis presented
to Brother Washington as a gift.
In the early years, the Grand Lodge met in
various Philadelphia taverns, the typical
meeting place for organizations. In 1755, three
Philadelphia lodges erected the first building
dedicated to Freemasonry in the western
hemisphere, a plain brick structure along a side
street near Second and Walnut Streets. The
Grand Lodge met in other locations through
the years, including the second floor of
✧
Left: Masonic Hall was built in 1855 on
the north side of the 700 block of Chestnut
Street and was the Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania’s meeting place until the
present Masonic Temple was opened
in 1873.
Bottom, left: The Dedication Procession of
Masonic Temple, September 26, 1873, as
depicted in the New York Daily Graphic.
More than twenty thousand Masons from
nineteen of the thirty-eight states, plus
Ireland and Canada, took part in the fourhour
march on Broad Street.
Below: The Masonic Temple, built in 1873
at Broad and Filbert Streets in Philadelphia,
the mother city of freemasonry in America,
is the home of The Grand Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and
Masonic Jurisdiction Thereunto Belonging.
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