Historic Philadelphia

✧
Above: The Museum in the Masonic Temple
displays such treasures as George
Washington’s Masonic apron embroidered by
Madame Lafayette in 1784; handwritten
letters from Washington to Pennsylvania
Masons; Benjamin Franklin’s Masonic sash
worn when he was master of a lodge in
Paris; ancient books and priceless art objects.
Below: George Washington’s Masonic apron
embroidered by Madame Lafayette and
presented to Washington by the Marquis de
Lafayette at Mount Vernon in August 1784.
Independence Hall. In 1811 an elaborate
Masonic Hall was built on Chestnut Street west
of Seventh. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt.
After meeting in another building between
1835 and 1855, the Masons completed a
magnificent Gothic headquarters on their
Chestnut Street lot. Philadelphians were
dazzled by its architecture. But, they hadn’t
seen anything yet!
On June 24, 1868, on the corner of Broad
and Filbert Streets, Grand Master Richard
Vaux, a former mayor of Philadelphia, presided
over the cornerstone-laying ceremony for
the present Masonic Temple. In laying the
nine-ton cornerstone, he wielded the gavel
used by George Washington in laying the
cornerstone for the nation’s Capitol building in
Washington D.C.
The architect was James H. Windrim, a
twenty-seven-year-old Mason. The dominating
tower of the Norman structure rises 250 feet.
When the Temple was dedicated on September
26, 1873, it had cost $1.6 million.
Some forty local Masonic lodges and
organizations meet regularly in the grandeur
of the Masonic Temple’s seven elegant
meeting halls, each done in a different
classical style: Corinthian, Ionic, Italian
Renaissance, Norman, Gothic, Oriental, and
Egyptian. Architect George Herzog, a Mason,
was largely respon-sible for the majestic
interior. The 51-by-43-foot Egyptian Hall,
with a twenty-two-foot high ceiling, was the
first room finished in 1889. Its motifs and
hieroglyphics are so authentic that students
of Egyptology visit the hall to study its walls
and columns.
Five guided tours on weekdays, plus two on
Saturday mornings, allow the public to marvel
at the magnificence of the Masonic Temple and
its lodge halls. Also in the building, which is
open to the public, is The Masonic Library and
Museum of Pennsylvania. The Library, dating
to 1817, houses more than seventy thousand
volumes related to Masons and Masonry. The
related Archives contain manuscripts, prints
and photographs, and biographical files. The
Museum, dedicated in 1908 by John
Wanamaker, contains one of the world’s finest
collections of Masonic treasures: approximately
thirty thousand items, including Masonic
regalia and furniture, portraits, sculpture,
antique glass, porcelain, textiles, and silver.
Masons of North America contribute an
astonishing $2 million each day toward
charitable works to help others. The Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania contributes about ten
percent of that sum, ranking first in charities
among the Grand Lodges of the continent.
Most notable among Masonic benevolent
efforts in Pennsylvania are the Masonic
Homes situated across the state that care for
Masons and their wives, widows of Masons
and others in need. The bountiful fourteen
hundred-acre main campus of the Masonic
Homes at Elizabethtown in Lancaster County
has long been known worldwide for the
quality and full range of state-of-the-art
lifestyle services including retirement,
congregate, assisted care, and healthcare
living. As the twentieth century ended, the
Masonic Homes combined with the Eastern
Star Homes, formerly owned and operated by
the Order of The Eastern Star, a Masonicallyrelated
ladies’ organization. Since, the
Masonic Homes has been expanding upon
those facilities to extend the benevolent
services to eastern and western Pennsylvania.
The Masonic Homes campus in Elizabeth-
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
138