Dayton Masonic Center Cornerstone Ceremony and Open House This Sunday 5/17

by Christopher Hodapp

Ohio's incredible Dayton Masonic Center is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. To commemorate the event, the Grand Lodge of Ohio will be performing a Cornerstone Ceremony this coming Sunday May 17, 2026 at 2PM. 

This will be the 100th anniversary of the dedication of its cornerstone in 1926, two years before the Crash hit the nation. It was a feat our own members today couldn't manage if our lives depended on it (and I can make an argument that they DO depend on it... but that's another discussion). 

The ground was broken on July 20th, 1925, the cornerstone was laid on May 19th, 1926, and the building was opened on April 1st, 1928.

This is a free event open to the public. There's no requirement to register before the event, but doing so at the link below will allow them to plan and make preparations accordingly.

https://www.daytonmasoniccenter.org/events/centennial-cornerstone-celebration-open-house-with-culture-works

If you've never visited this magnificent place and you're anywhere near central Ohio this weekend, make the opportunity to be there, because Masons are losing these massive Temples – built during the heady days between WWI and the Great Depression – every year. The Dayton center is really the last of its kind in the state of Ohio that's still in Masonic hands. 

The Center is located at 525 W. Riverview Avenue across from the Dayton Art Institute, in the Grafton Hill neighborhood. Some details are as follows:

May 17, 2026, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

2:00 - Reenactment of the Laying of the Cornerstone
2:30 - Welcome by MWB Johnson and Congressman Mike Turner
3:00 - Guests Welcomed into the building to explore the beautiful spaces
4:30 - Grand Finale - Schiewetz Auditorium 

Consider these sobering statistics: It was built by an association of 14 different Masonic lodges and related appendant organizations. Back in the day, Dayton Masons raised $1.5 million in just 7 seven days to finance the building's construction. It took nearly 3 years to complete, employing 450 workers and artisans (many of whom were Masons themselves) and would cost more than $40-million today. 

The Dayton Masonic Center has beautiful lodge rooms, York Rite rooms, and a lavish Scottish Rite 1,700-seat auditorium all under one roof, along with an impressive library, stunning lobbies and social rooms, a ballroom, and much more. Sitting on a commanding hillside overlooking the city and the Great Miami River, even the beautifully landscaped piece of property it sits on gives this temple a far more impressive presence than most urban Masonic buildings jammed into downtown areas have. 

It's truly worth going out of your way to see, and Sunday will be an ideal open house situation to wander the entire building and discover its many wonders for yourself. This Rooms will be open to explore with entertainment curated by Culture Works, a new event organizing partner for the Masonic Center. There will be food throughout the building, and beverages and libations will be served in various rooms. Various live performances will also take place throughout the building.

This event is just part of a $20 million campaign to continue upgrading and operating this stunning temple for the foreseeable future. Don't let it fall out of the hands of the fraternity! We lose these remaining buildings at our own peril, for we will never again even come close to competing with what came before us. As Masons flee places like this in favor of a tin shed in a soybean field, we vanish farther and farther from cultural the landscape of our communities. Yes, our forefathers should have set up foundations and long-range funding to be sure we could preserve them for future generations. But they didn't ask us to build better than they did – only to respect, repair and preserve what they already did for us. 

(H/T: Daniel Fry)