Freemasonry's Material Culture
We should do all we can to preserve it
In the past, I’ve written about, and talked about, preserving those small tangible bits of our Masonic history.
Things like the ivory gavel that was given to one of our Past Grand Masters by a Lodge in Alaska, back when Alaskan Lodges were a part of the Grand Lodge of Washington. It was found by a friend of mine at a yard sale.
Things like the Masonic “Black Book” that was used by a no longer existing Lodge here in Southwest Washington, in which the Lodge recorded the names of nefarious people in the area, just in case those people ever decided to petition the Lodge.
Things like the very first minute book of a Lodge I’m heavily involved with, that I discovered was just traveling around in the back seat of the Worshipful Master’s car for no good reason.
Very especially, things like the aprons that were proudly worn by men who came generations before us. Luckily today our Jurisdiction is able to entomb these discarded aprons in a fitting and honorable memorial structure, keeping hundreds or thousands of them out of junk stores.
But it isn’t just the little things we need to preserve, it’s the big things as well.
Things like the sign pictured above. That photograph was taken yesterday, as the sign was installed at Robert Morris Lodge, not far from my home. It had, for decades, lit the way to the Masonic Temple in Mount Vernon, Washington. When it lost its home there, it was relocated here, a few hours away. The neon will be replaced in a few days, and it will once again light the way to Lodge.
It would have been easy to leave the sign for the buyers of its former location. It would have been easy to have it hauled off to a landfill or a recycler. The hard thing was saving it, but by saving it, another Lodge was helped, and a Masonic treasure that speaks to an earlier time in our nation’s history was preserved for motorists and Masons to enjoy for decades and decades to come.
We need to do what we can to preserve the little tangible pieces of our Masonic history. But we need to save the big things too, when we are in any way able.
This goes for our buildings as well.
Not too long ago, a very rurally located Masonic building was sold, and the Lodge that owned it moved into a nearby mid-sized city. In a lot of ways, maybe that was a good thing. The Lodge no longer needed to concern itself with managing a building. Its new meeting place is more comfortable and more convenient. It has an elevator and functional kitchens.
But…
The Lodge’s connection with its community was lost. No one from the Lodge attended the spring festival the community hosts every year, despite the Lodge being intimately involved with that festival for decades and decades. No one from the Lodge even thinks much about that community anymore, and certainly no one from the Lodge knows it well any longer.
The building could have been saved. The Lodge could have turned it into a short term rental facility and raised all the money needed for its continued operation. But, it didn’t. It was easier to move.
I think that today, with the benefit of hindsight, the Lodge likely regrets its decision.
In fairness, and full disclosure, had I been a member of that particular Lodge, I don’t know how I would have voted. I might have very well voted to sell, it certainly seemed like a rational decision at the time.
Ultimately, I think that selling, discarding, and throwing away is easy. And that’s the problem.
Preserving things is a hell of a lot of work.
Just consider the sign above. The Lodge had to make a decision to give it to me. It took a crew of men to load it on to the truck that drove it across the State. It took a crew of men to unload it. And it took a Lodge full of men to hang it on a pole, high in the sky. Not to mention the costs of restoration.
It’s easier to sell, or throw things away. And that’s a problem, if we unintentionally confuse the easy decision with the correct decision.
We do well to only discard the material treasure of the past, after extremely thoughtful and sober consideration. We do well to ensure that we do not confuse that which is easy with that which is best.
It's amazing what treasures you can find in your home lodge if you start looking around.
At the lodge in Port Orchard, there is a section under part of the foyer and adjacent to the dining area they call the dungeon. It's all cinderblock and cement, and features a number of cubby holes and lockers for storage. There is even a room off to the side featuring a massive vault door that you'd find in a turn of the century bank. A lot of the lodge (and concordant bodies) filing cabinets and records as well as piles upon piles of junk are buried there. But along the junk there are treasures to be found if you bother to look long enough.
One brother had found a late 1800s cavalry sword and scabbard literally rusting away in the vault, sitting in a puddle of water that had seeped through the walls. He took it, cleaned up up as best he could, and it now sits proudly in a display case in the tyler's room. It's believed that it belonged to one of the founding members of the lodge, an ex army officer who might have donated it to act as a tyler's sword. It's an amazing piece of lodge history that should never have been treated the way it was. It does beg the question, why? Why was it relegated to the floor of a dingy dirty musty wet area of the lodge, instead of displayed properly? We may never know, but I have my suspicions.
It would be a good exercise to have new members rummage throughout lodges across the state and look for these forgotten treasures occasionally. You never know what you'll find.
MW this is so true. I make it my mission to do my small part whenever I can. Back on July 4th I was in Augusta, Georgia to celebrate not only the National Birthday but my own 52nd birthday! As part of that I took part in a ceremony at the Signers Monument in downtown Augusta that I restarted in 2011. Back then I was in Augusta with my family and realized that there was nothing going on in Augusta on the 4th to honor Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The Signers Monument had been dedicated July 4, 1848 in a hugh ceremony that included the Masons of the State. The Grand Master of the time gave one of the keynote speeches.
The plan had been to bury all three of the Signers in vaults under the Monument but they could only locate two, Lyman Hall and George Walton. Button Gwinnett had been killed in a duel in Savannah in 1777 and buried in an unmarked grave. Today nobody is truly sure where he is buried although Savannah believes they have located the proper burial location.
At any rate rumor has it that when they dug up Lyman Hall they also dug up his wife so she wouldn’t be alone in the family cemetery. They say they buried her in the vault meant for Gwinnett.
Anyway in 2011 we held an informal ceremony and had maybe 10 people including the six I brought from Delaware. This year marked the 13th annual ceremony and we had upwards of a hundred.
We have speeches and read the names of the Signers while the children present get to ring a bell after each name is read.
After running it largely by myself from 700 miles away I have over the last couple of years turned the ceremony over to members of the National Sojourners, to lead it. They have assisted in getting more and more local Masons and Lodges to take part over the years.
One of the Signers, George Walton was a Mason and George Walton Lodge in Augusta is named for him. His home is also in Augusta and is owned by the DAR. When we started in 2011 his home was actually closed on the Fourth of July of all the days!
After several years of pushing them they have taken to opening the home for free tours on the Fourth and have a whole day of programming there for the public. It has fast become their biggest visitation day of the year and the “donations” they take in far exceed what they would have gotten from an average day at $4 a tour.
But this year as we were finishing on off the Brothers who is a PM and Secretary of Webb Lodge (yes named for Thomas Smith Webb) asked me how long I would be in Augusta, I told him that I was headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee that afternoon. He advised not before he gave me something he had picked up two years before and had been meaning to give me during one of my visits.
As the chairs needed to be returned to Webb Lodge I agreed to meet him there. When he arrived he presented me with a framed letter from President Reagan to the then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Delaware in March of 1982. The Grand Master had written him in late 1981 and sent him, his pin for the year and advised the President that the Grand Lodge of Delaware was celebrating its 175th anniversary that year. The President thanked the Grand Master and wished the Grand Lodge well in its anniversary.
Somehow this amazing piece of history had gotten separated from PGM Craig’s estate, when he died several years ago. Maybe his family didn’t care about it. Whatever the reason at least it wasn’t thrown out! But it made it to a random coin store in Augusta where PM Goldenberg found it and just knew he needed to get it and ensure it made it back to Delaware through me. So on my 52nd birthday it was one of the greatest gifts I received. Yesterday when I came home it made it’s way back to Delaware again, this time for good!
There isn’t a function to share a photo or I would but I was struck by your message and just wanted to share my own little story about saving our Masonic history.
Fraternally,
James R. Hanby, Sr.
RW Senior Grand Warden, Deputy Grand Master Elect, Grand Lodge of Delaware