The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, home to the GL of PA, was prominently featured on the Allegiance, a new prime time show on NBC. The tour guide is Brother Danny Hinds, Superintendent of the Temple and Aide to the Grand Master.
Here's the link:
H/T Seth Anthony
Pretty cool, although much like Hollywood, there are some inaccuracies. Our wonderful Grand Lodge is big, but definitely not the largest in America.
ReplyDeletesquareofvirtue, since Freemasons are so precise in our verbiage, I couldn't let your remark go without comment. The TV show said it (the building) was the largest "Freemason's Temple in the US," which is certainly not true as the Detroit Masonic Temple holds that distinction, being the largest in the world. You wrote that it (the building?) was not the largest Grand Lodge in America, however, a building is not a Grand Lodge. A Grand Lodge is the Governing Body of Freemasons in a specific Jurisdiction. Sometimes we refer to the Jurisdiction itself as "The Grand Lodge of ___," and using the term in that manner, it (The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania) IS the largest in the US. "The Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction Thereunto Belonging" is the largest Masonic Jurisdiction, in terms of membership, in North America -- and may also have the longest name.
ReplyDeleteYour comment does raise an interesting question. What is the largest Masonic building in the US (not being shared with non-masonic organizations) that houses the headquarters of a Grand Lodge? I don't think it is the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, but it might be. In any event, that historic landmark is certainly a wonder to see, and I encourage anyone visiting Philadelphia to stop by and tour it.
By the way, the TV show gave glimpses of three of the seven (formerly eight) lodge rooms in the Temple. As is probably often done in these sorts of shows when filming on location, they take an unusual path trough the building. They go from the exterior side entrance on the first floor, to Egyptian Hall on the second floor, then back to the first floor. There they enter the Benjamin Franklin room, which is next to Oriental Hall but does not communicate with it -- so they should have gone right back out through those impressive doors. From Oriental Hall they went back up to the second floor main hallway (where one character had earlier noted a security camera they wanted to avoid) and into Renaissance Hall. From this large second floor room they supposedly went straight to the basement. It seems like a very odd route, but they did get to see a few of the many impressive rooms, which inspired the dialog, "Who builds something like this? Masons!" Indeed we do, but we are loosing far to many of these wonderful buildings every year...
Fraternally,
Richard
I was remiss in not mentioning that you can take an on-line tour of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, here: http://www.pagrandlodge.org/tour/mtemple.html
ReplyDeleteIt's not nearly the same as being there, but it's a nice look around, and you can trace the convoluted path taken in the TV show.
Richard
If you are a fan if the HBO series "Veep," then you should know the Scottish Rite building in Baltimore City (where "Veep" is filmed) was used for the party convention episode last year.
ReplyDelete