Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
After President Washington had approved the original plans by L ’ Enfant , the commissioners he appointed surveyed the area and the city began with Masonic ceremonies . A Masonic procession on April 15 , 1791 , placed the stone at Jones Point on the Potomac , from which all the boundary lines of the District would be laid . 22 A reenactment of this by the Grand Lodge was conducted in 1976 when Grand Master John B . Layton and officers of the Grand Lodge performed the parts played by their predecessors at that first ceremony , one of many over the years that the Grand Lodge has sponsored to remind Washingtonians of their heritage . 23 In helping with the boundary stones , the Grand Lodge is unique for in a sense it thus helped set the boundaries of its own jurisdiction , rather than in almost all other cases where a grand lodge organized itself within existing borders .
Construction work in the new city led to recruiting stonemasons who were also Freemasons . In the case of the building of the White House , they were supervised by Brother James Hoban ( c . 1762 – 1831 ) who had immigrated to America in 1785 . After the cornerstone of the White House was laid in 1792 , the mostly Scottish workers organized into what became Federal Lodge No . 1 , with Hoban as its charter Master . This was crucial to the later formation of the Grand Lodge , whose founding necessitated already existing lodges .
The Age of Reason Made Manifest
The classical references made
by the new buildings also were references to the classical ideas about democracy made in ancient Greece and Rome and recalled in Masonic ritual . Throughout this account , we emphasize the distinction between actual physical evidence of Masonic influence on the city and the pervasive intellectual influence . It exercised claims about the secret architectural significances have been sweeping : “ Can it be a coincidence , therefore , that on 15 April 1791 at 3:30 p . m ., a congregation of Freemasons gathered in Alexandria near the future site of Washington , DC , the sun was in Pisces , a Christic symbol , when the constellation of Leo ( a “ kingly ” symbol ) was on the rise in the east .” 24 An answer is that while undoubtedly there are coincidences , they frequently
tered in 1783 as Alexandria Lodge No . 39 by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , became Alexandria Lodge No . 22 of the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1788 . ( In 1804 , about four years after the death of Washington , the Lodge changed its name to Alexandria-Washington Lodge No . 22 .) Brooke Lodge No . 47 . chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia in December 1796 , was named for Robert Brooke , Grand Master of Virginia ( 1796 – 1797 ) and governor of Virginia ( 1794 – 1796 ).
22 Morris , S . B . ( 1993 ). Cornerstones of freedom : a masonic tradition ( p . 29 ). Washington , DC : The Supreme Council .
23 Many of the George Washington artifacts which have been used at the various ceremonies mentioned in this book are well described in Charles H . Callahan , The Lodge of Washington and His Masonic Neighbors , Alexandria-Washington Lodge No . 22 , 1938 .
24 Hancock , G . and Bauval , R . ( 2004 ). Talisman : Sacred Cities , Secret Faith ( p . 473 ). Toronto : Doubleday Canada .
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