Please ensure that your Lodges and groups are aware of this letter.
The Freemasons’ Hall and home to Your Grand Lodge Office is alive and well! We are well on our way to having one of the greatest Masonic Temples in the all of the United States. The Freemasons’ Hall is home to your Indiana Grand Lodge Office, The Masonic Home Foundation Office, one of the greatest Library and Museums in the State and country (dedicated to Freemasonry), The Masonic Society National Office, The Masonic Scholarship Board, the State Office for Indiana DeMolay, the Masonic Relief Board, the Indianapolis York Rite Bodies, consisting of Raper Commandry #1, Indianapolis Council #2 and Indianapolis Chapter #5, seven Blue Lodges and an AMD Council, an Eastern Star Chapter and a DeMolay Chapter.
Freemasons’ Hall has had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into the building over the last 10 years. The Grand Lodge office was recently renovated, The IMHF offices were completely renovated, new fire escape, new windows, new doors, new dining room and lighting, new kitchen and updated bathrooms, new plumbing from the basement to the third floor, ADA Ramp and accessories, landscaping, fencing, new air conditioning and heating in the Grand Lodge office, new heating coils and new boilers for heating the building.
In short, just to clarify some rumors, the Freemasons’ Hall is here for many years to come and, for what you might have heard, we are not selling, moving, abandoning, leaving, or anything that you might have heard. We have a few million dollars invested into this building and over 107 years of history. Structurally, this building is one of the best built buildings in Downtown Indianapolis, and we are here for the foreseeable future.
Now comes the part we ask for your help! Usually this type of request comes in the form of asking for a check, (although we will accept any donation you send), this request is for your volunteer time and your expertise. We have the need for volunteers. We need skilled and unskilled labor. We have a lot of projects from cleaning, sweeping, landscaping, painting, washing, polishing, to electricians, concrete repair, welders, plumbers, trophies and engraving and repairing, backdrop and artist that can paint large scale paintings, plasterers, to cabinet makers. We are accepting volunteers Monday through Friday, from 08:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and some nights and weekends. To expedite the volunteers, and to ensure that we have materials and jobs for you to perform, we ask only that you coordinate, (especially skilled labor), through Randy Spaulding at his email address at randy@indytemple.org
You can always show up, any day, unannounced, it just slows the process down a bit. Starting next week, March 28th, we are looking for volunteers every day. We are cleaning stairs, polishing brass, painting ceilings and walls, and many other projects. We have an immediate need for electricians, plumbers and a concrete finisher. Remember this is volunteer time.
So, for the next two months, we are asking for your help, so that we can get the building shining, before Grand Lodge in May, and to impress upon a potential donor, that his money invested in our building, will be a wise investment. We have been doing this for the last 60 days and, except for the Indianapolis York Rite, most of the volunteers have been from outside the building.
It is time for the members of Freemasons’ Hall to answer the call, and come and help make this building a shining gem in the world of Freemasonry!
Fraternally,
The Indianapolis Masonic Temple Association
525 N. Illinois StreetI
ndianapolis, Indiana
Brother Hodapp, this is precisely how we rebuilt the Park Avenue Temple in Memphis. For several years (Yes, it takes that long but it's well worth the time and energy!) we met on weekends, week nights, even holidays when possible. We repaired and replaced floors, sanded, stained and sealed the maple flooring, reglazed leaking windows, plastered walls that had lost the fight with gravity, and replaced the entire ceiling in the Chapter Room. Usually, there was a core set of brothers and others came as they could.
ReplyDeleteThe fellowship and collective accomplishment cannot be understated. It will bring brothers together in ways that ordinary monthly meetings cannot.
Indiana's leadership is rock solid.
Dennis Robert Clark