As I type this, I’ve just returned to my hotel from an extremely long day inside a true Masonic Treasure. The Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie Oklahoma. I’ll be returning there in the morning around 6:00.
Have you ever been to this amazing building?
For those who have not, video tours are available, although they do not do it justice. You can watch a virtual tour of some of the rooms by clicking here.
I would guess that this Temple is about the size of our Legislative Building in Washington State, but that does not include the ‘inn’ where candidates stay, nor the dining hall where they eat, also a massive structure.
Of course the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple is not the only Masonic building of national or even international importance. Philadelphia and Detroit also certainly have such structures as do other cities.
As memory serves, we almost lost the Detroit Masonic Temple a few years ago because there just weren’t enough funds to keep it going. Luckily it was saved at the last moment, but as a Fraternity we shouldn’t rely upon luck.
I believe that collectively, we should, as Masons, determine what buildings the Fraternity owns that truly are of national importance. Buildings like the one in Guthrie.
Then we should figure out how we can help to fund them.
The Fraternity in Washington doesn’t possess anything like the Temple in Guthrie, but Washington Masons do benefit from that Temple. I’m here with Washington Brothers who just today became 14th Degree Scottish Rite Masons, and with others who traveled down for the extremely rare opportunity to see all the Scottish Rite Degrees, 4-32.
Could not a way be figured out for Brothers from across the country to be able to contribute to keeping these treasures within the Fraternity forever? I think it could. We do it with the George Washington Masonic Memorial, and we could figure out how to support other extremely significant Masonic buildings as well.
I fear that if we do not, we will lose them, for some of these structures are just too much for a single Jurisdiction to afford given current membership numbers and current costs.
We do not want to lose any of our handful of truly significant structures, but if we don’t collectively lend a financial hand, undoubtedly we will. Figuring out how to save them is a challenge that we must collectively face.
I’m conflicted about this issue. On the one hand, I recognize the beauty of the edifices we’ve constructed as a fraternity, but logically it doesn’t make sense to hold onto something that big for as small an organization we’ve become. We will probably never grow so big to have either the money or the manpower to need something so ostentatious.
Our own grand lodge sold its buildings when it became financially untenable to keep them.
For that particular building, the Scottish rite organization should be responsible for the upkeep of their buildings. Same with the Shriners and their hospitals.
At one time the masons were the financially well off members of their communities. Members bequeathed large sums of money to the lodges and concordant bodies for such purposes. Organizations sit on millions of dollars in investments and property. The problem is, much like masonry itself, it’s not in one big pot. The lions share is spread out among groups like the Shriners. If the amount of money the masons spent in oes, Shriners, Scottish rite, etc was actually kept within the blue lodges, we wouldn’t be needing to beg for money.
There are so many organizations in our communities providing similar experiences, yet all are financially struggling. What really is the difference between the elks and the eagles? The American legion and the vfw?
Sorry, went off on yet another tangent.
Something so grand and prominent as a historic building should have plenty of opportunities to raise capital. We had a sizeable building back in my home lodge and had very high occupancy which raised ample capital to help support our needs. Something to consider is how we can become much more proficient at the business side of running a building. How to run events that raise money. Estate planning with our brothers. Grants, donations, sponsorships. As our population waxes and wanes, it becomes more difficult to keep depending on our brothers to be the sole financial support.