Congratulations to Oscar Alleyne and the GL of New York

by Christopher L. Hodapp

The 244th annual communication of the Grand Lodge of New York F&AM took place this past week and I want to congratulate all of their newly elected grand officers: Most Worshipful Robert L. Hogan Jr. - Grand Master; Right Worshipful John Haslam Sr. - Senior Grand Warden; Right Worshipful William Toth - Junior Grand Warden; Right Worshipful John Hansen - Grand Treasurer; and Right Worshipful Richard Schulz - Grand Secretary.

But I especially want to congratulate a Brother known to so many Masons all over the world: Right Worshipful E. Oscar Alleyne who has just been elected to serve as Deputy Grand Master for New York. I've known Oscar longer than I can possibly remember (we first met at a Scottish Rite event in New Jersey, as I recall, where he was part of a degree cast), and he is one of the most widely-traveled, widely-read, and widely-experienced Mason you will ever encounter. 

All the best, my friend and Brother. The Masons of New York are in excellent hands!

BTW, the jurisdiction of New York is so large that it's unreasonable to expect any grand officer to effectively visit a large number of their lodges in a single year, so they elect officers for two-year terms. These Brethren will serve from now until May 2028.

Upstate New York Masonic Temple For Sale

by Christopher Hodapp

If you ever wanted to own your own impressive Masonic hall, head for upstate New York. It’s not every day a nearly-110-year-old, castle-like Masonic Temple with bowling lanes, a ballroom, an organ, and movie-ready tech hits the market for under half-a-million smackers.

The massive former Masonic Temple in Little Falls, NY has just gone on the market for just $499,900. (If it looks familiar, I also wrote about it in 2017, the last time it went on the market: 'When The Profane World Protects Treasures We Toss') It’s not just one lot, either—it comes with four parcels bundled together. That definitely seems like a steal for what you’re getting, as long as you're ready to relocate to Little Falls, which definitely has its charm. After all, it's the home of the Yogi Berra Museum.

Built in 1914, this imposing building perches majestically at the corner of Prospect and School Streets, offering killer views of the Mohawk River and valley hills. Designed by architect William Neil Smith in the French-Medieval style, the building is brick, stone, half-timber, and cement stucco, all rolled into one. The lodge room is intact along with a Templar Commandery drill hall/banquet room (we served "banquets" then, not cold spaghetti on paper plates with plastic sporks).

The current owners have clearly treated this gem like their playground. On the main level, they installed a slick bar just begging for soirees. They plopped a $150K full-motion projection system (yes, movie nights in the castle!), draped it with custom ballroom curtains from France, and added a partial but gorgeous custom kitchen. There’s even living quarters with soaring ceilings, two bedrooms, and killer views. Bonus: they’re leaving behind stacks of building materials for whoever's next to bring the vision home. 

Even the former Commandery's glass-front uniform lockers are still there in the Armory. All still preserved, but now with a new living space, bedroom, and modern kitchen on one floor. It is artistically beautiful, and architecturally unique. 

And it all used to belong to us. 

It doesn't anymore.

The New York Masons were building for the Ages. William Moore thought this Temple noteworthy enough to mention it in his book, Masonic Temples: Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes. Out here in the Midwest where we make our human sacrifices to the Corn Gods, the modern-day choice of Masonic hall construction is pre-fab steel pole barns that might as well be a swine barn, soybean warehouse or veterinarian's office. 

In 1995 as the lodge suffered from declining membership, they sold the building to a prominent local couple who turned it into their own private home and pottery business. They allowed the Masons to continue meeting in their original lodge room for several years. The local Little Falls lodge moved out in 2004 when they consolidated with a lodge in Dolesville. At its height, this was home to 350 Masons and 173 Order of Eastern Star members. Over the years it’s been a nursery school, pottery and art studio, a dance and music venue.

This place is enormous—16,960 square feet (about 12,000+ square feet inside). Think cathedral ceilings, epic entertaining spaces, and enough room to get wildly creative. The lower level once had its own bowling alley with two huge lanes—accessed from School Street. The first floor social and club rooms are accessed through the main entrance through a charming tower at the street corner. The second floor features a kitchen, a ballroom complete with a bar and stage, plus a foyer leading to mezzanine dressing rooms, coat rooms, and lockers. 

For this much updated epicness, the price is pretty amazing at $499,900, which breaks down to roughly $29 per square foot, and I'll make a bet you couldn't build a new steel pole barn architectural eyesore in a corn field for that today.

New York's "Welcome Brother" Package

by Christopher Hodapp

A new Entered Apprentice with the moniker Zealousideal-Hunt242 posted this photo on Reddit of a 'welcome box' of information and Masonic swag he recently received from the Grand Lodge of New York. Looks to be his dues card, a coffee cup, a set of stickers, a 'Welcome Brother" booklet of reference information, and a bottle of hand sanitizer (for cleanup after making those dodgy handshakes we're so famous for, dontcha know). 

Not a bad little welcome package from the grand lodge level, and a minimal expense to make a good impression on a new member. Nicely done. The box alone can be filled with anything: grand masters' pin, a tie, a special 'new Brother' name badge, a grand lodge monitor, a directory of lodges in the state with visitation protocols, a memory stick with loads of information... anything to cement the feeling that the fraternity has invested some effort and consideration in welcoming a new member. In other words, something more than just an invoice for the year's dues, an invitation to the appendant groups, and a plea to become an officer.

Those Spooky Masonic Messages Are EVERYWHERE

by Christopher Hodapp

Check out the subway station sign in New York City just outside of the Grand Lodge F&AM of New York's beautiful headquarters building on 23rd Street. 

"Freemasonry is the Path to 33"

It's a big secret conspiracy. 

Everybody knows about it.

(H/T to the Scottish Rite Freemasonry Facebook page.)

2025 U.S. Masonic Cons and More

by Christopher Hodapp

Grab your Masonic Calendar as the Masonic conference season kicks into full swing. Freemasons are organizing fun and educational events all over the country. 

The Grand Lodge of New York started off the year with their Masonic Con back in mid-January, but as the weather warms up, other jurisdictions are announcing their own similar events. Please alert me if yours isn't listed below and I'll add it to this list.

Montana Masonic Con April 25-26, 2025 – Great Falls, Montana

NOTE! This event has been cancelled as of April 15th.

Esotericon 2025 in Virginia has been postponed
www.esotericon.net

Midwest Conference on Masonic Education – May 2-4, 2025 – Indianapolis

http://www.mcme1949.org/

Hudson Valley Masonic Con – June 7th, 2025 – Middletown, New York

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hudson-valley-masonicon-2025-tickets-1298075571979

Masonic Con Kansas – July 18-19th, 2025 – Kansas (FREE this year!)

www.MasonicConKansas.com

John Skene Masonic Conference – August 23rd, 2025 – Plainfield, New Jersey

https://www.facebook.com/events/1005564854738595/

Texas MasoniCon – November 14-15, 2025 – Texas
www.TexasMasoniCon.com

Camp Cornerstone – August 22-24, 2025 – Arizona
www.flagstaff7.org

Masonic Con South – October 18-19, 2025 – North Carolina

www.MasonicConSouth.com

San Antonio Esoteric Summit - June 7, 2025 – Texas
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E44ADAB2FA2FB6-51446264-lodges#/

AMD/Masonic Week 2026 - February date not yet determined – Alexandria, Virginia

https://amdusa.org/wp/masonic-week-2025/

Thanks To Rochester, New York's College of Freemasonry

by Christopher Hodapp

Last Saturday I was supposed to be in New York to make a presentation at the 2025 College of Freemasonry, sponsored by the Scottish Rite Valley of Rochester. The theme of the event was the 200th anniversary of the disappearance of William Morgan in nearby Batavia back in 1825. Alice and I were hoping to drag out the Airstream and camp out in upstate New York after this event. Unfortunately, Alice is still recuperating from her foot surgery performed back in February and is unable to walk yet, which means she can't be left alone for more than a few hours. So, I was unable to attend in person.

Fortunately, Shawn Eyer WAS there in person, and presented on the wider topic of Anti-Masonry in America. Thankfully, the Rochester brethren were quite understanding and permitted me to present my talk through the miracle of Zoom. Both John Bizzack and I gave our presentations via long distance and participated in a follow-up discussion. 

John's drew heavily on his 2022 book, The Age of Unreason, in which he carefully examines what is provably true in the Morgan case, versus the reams of exaggerations, untruths and downright fabrications made over the last two centuries on all sides of the story. If you know nothing about Morgan, start with John's volume. As a longtime veteran police investigator, he approaches the case with a dispassionate point of view, separating the serious evidence from the nonsense.

My presentation was about an almost completely unknown work from 1896 that most researchers into Morgan know nothing about: a bizarre, esoteric science fiction/adventure novel called Etidorpha, or the End Of the Earth. Written by a renowned Cincinnati pharmacist named John Uri Lloyd, it describes an un-named protagonist – known only as 'I Am The Man Who Did It' (or simply, 'I Am The Man') – who is clearly supposed to be Morgan himself. It describes his desire to seek the knowledge to Life, the Universe and Everything, which leads him to join the Masons; his falling on hard financial times; his moment of weakness in which he publishes an exposure of the fraternity's rituals; his arrest and kidnapping near the Canadian border... All obviously Morgan's story.

But Morgan's Masonic captors do NOT kill him. Instead, he is taken to a hidden cave in Kentucky where he encounters a strange, glowing blue humanoid figure who guides him down into the bowels of the Earth where he sees prehistoric creatures, experiences weightlessness, hallucinates in a forest of giant magic mushrooms, crosses a vast underground sea that defies all known physics, and finally meets Etidorpha (the goddess Aphrodite, spelled backwards) who informs him that he is to become part of a select group of enlightened adepts (presumably Masons) who have gently guided mankind throughout the Ages. 

Talk about rehabilitating both Morgan's AND his Masonic captors' reputations in one novel!

The book is a wild, esoteric variation on Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, with a touch of Bulwer-Lytton's Vril, the Power of the Coming Race. Its illustrations were done by J. Augustus Knapp, who eventually became a Theosophist and illustrated Manly P. Hall’s famous esoteric work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 30 years later.

Finally, I wish to extend my deepest thanks to the College for presenting me with the Thomas W. Jackson Masonic Education Award. This particular award is especially poignant. I first spoke at the College back in 2010 and shared the podium with none other than Tom Jackson himself. I'd met and chatted with Tom at Masonic Week several times over the years, but it was the first opportunity we'd ever really had to spend some time together and get to know each other. He is sorely missed every day, so this beautiful award will be a constant reminder of his friendship. 

The 1st Masonic Con New York – 'Freemasonry in the 21st Century': January 17-18, 2025

by Christopher Hodapp

The very first Masonic Con New York is coming to the magnificent New York Masonic Hall on the weekend of January 17, 2025. Built around the theme Freemasonry in the 21st Century: Self and Society, this premiere Masonic Con will showcase experts discussing the urgency of Masonic teachings and the importance of Brotherhood in our lives and communities. If you are familiar with the U.S. Surgeon General’s recent study on the epidemic of male loneliness in American society, or with any of the various news reports on this problem, you may wish to hear from these speakers and glean ideas for preparing for Freemasonry’s future.

(Click to enlarge)

 

The weekend will begin the evening of Friday, January 17 with the legendary Mariners Lodge 67 Maritime Festive Board and Beefsteak Banquet inside the Masonic Hall's spacious Grand Lodge Room at 6 p.m. If you have yet to experience it, prepare to be amazed by the camaraderie of Masonic feasting and singing in harmony.

A Mariner's Lodge Festive Board & Beefsteak Banquet

On Saturday the 18th, the speakers program, open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. Keynote speaker Maj. Gen. William Green, Jr., the U.S. Army’s Chief of Chaplains, will speak to America’s loneliness epidemic and man’s need for fraternal connections in life.

(Click to enlarge)

 

Additional featured Speakers:

• Dr. Heather Calloway, Executive Director of Indiana University’s Center for Fraternal Collections and Research, will discuss the cultural relevance of fraternal orders in America.
• Bro. Chuck Dunning, of Texas, the nationally renowned author and educator on the subject of meditation and mindfulness techniques, will impart ways Masons and our lodges may profit from these practices.
• Bro. Bull Garlington, of Illinois, is famous for his journalistic essays on how he overcame loneliness in adulthood by discovering Freemasonry.
• Bro. Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of our Livingston Library, will share his expertise in the craft of self-actualization.
• Bro. Jim Loporto will close the speakers program with his dramatic presentation “The Elephant in the Room.” This will be open only to regular Freemasons—and we especially encourage Apprentices, Fellows, and new Master Masons to experience it.

 

There will also be tours of Masonic Hall and the Livingston Library, Masonic vendors, and plenty of networking opportunities.

Masonic Con will close with a special cocktail reception, where attendees can mingle with the guest speakers and Grand Lodge leadership while also supporting New York’s Brotherhood Fund 1781 Society.

For more information, to purchase tickets, sign up for vendors' tables or make hotel reservations, visit https://masonicconnewyork.com/

(H/T Thanks to Grand Secretary Richard Schultz for passing this along)

 

Speaking at New York's Pelham Lodge 712 on City Island, April 16

by Christopher Hodapp

Next Tuesday night, April 16th, I'll be speaking at Pelham Lodge 712 on City Island in Bronx, New York. I had originally been scheduled to be here last September, but a decidedly UN-scheduled broken ankle rent everyone's best-laid plans in twain. My thanks go out to the brethren there for their kind understanding and for rescheduling this event.

For those who are so inclined, I should have plenty of books on hand.

Pelham Lodge is in the beautiful Bronx District of the Grand Lodge of New York, and located in the City Island Masonic Temple at 241 City Island Avenue. Dinner will be at 6:30pm, and lodge opens at 7:30pm. Master Masons only for the meeting itself. Please RSVP to Brothers Muñoz or Cuthbert at the numbers listed on the poster.

New York Mayor Eric Adams Made a Prince Hall Mason

by Christopher Hodapp

On Tuesday last week, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge F&AM of New York conferred the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason degrees upon New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a special ceremony. Also raised at this event was the city's Police Commissioner, Edward Caban, and Chief of Police, Jeffrey Maddrey.

(LtoR)Grand Master Gregory Roberson Smith, Jr,
Mayor Eric Adams, Commissioner Edward Caban,
Chief Jeffery Maddrey.

The historic event was held at Gracie Mansion, the city's official mayoral residence, and MW Grand Master Gregory Roberson Smith, Jr. presided. He was accompanied by the Grand Lodge officers, including RW Kevin Wardally, Grand Senior Deacon (who is a Board Member of The Masonic Society). 

This type of special ceremony that confers the degrees in a single day is sometimes known as making a Mason "at sight" and is a prerogative of grand masters in many jurisdictions (dating back to a privilege granted to GMs in Rev. James Anderson's Constitutions in 1723). It usually permits GMs to waive any waiting and proficiency period between degrees so that they can all be conferred in a single day. In the majority of grand lodges where this is permitted, it does NOT accelerate or alter the actual degree rituals themselves, nor is it some kind of separate truncated ceremony.

In addition to the Craft lodge degrees for the Mayor and the Commissioner, Sovereign Grand Inspector General Deputy (SGIG), Illus. Rev. Hermon J. Simpson, 33° of the Prince Hall Scottish Rite NMJ, took the opportunity to elevate three esteemed brethren – New York Police Department Borough Commander Ruel Stephenson, New York and Yonkers Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow (D-Mount Vernon), and Citywide Public Housing Liaison to the Mayor Tony Hebert –  to the 32° degree of the Scottish Rite, Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.

The event was made public in a press release issued by the Grand Lodge. (Click image to enlarge.) Photos were shared by Grand Master Smith on his Facebook page.

CANCELLED: Tuesday, Sept 5th Event at New York's Pelham Lodge 712

MY SPEAKING EVENT AT NEW YORK'S PELHAM LODGE 712 ON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH HAS BEEN CANCELLED!

I BROKE MY LEG AND ANKLE AND HAD EMERGENCY SURGERY ON FRIDAY.

I AM UNABLE TO TRAVEL AT THIS TIME.

My deepest apologies to everyone who was planning to attend.

THIS EVENT WILL BE RE-SCHEDULED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

(Here's my surgeon's handiwork. Looks like my own questionable carpentry skills, except he knows what he's doing.)

---

UPDATE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

My deepest thanks go to RW William Sardone, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York 2028-21 for answering the last-minute call from Pelham Lodge and speaking to the brethren Tuesday night.

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men"

by Christopher Hodapp

As I reported last week, I managed to fall and break a bone in my ankle ten days ago. No great story to regale you with — no spectacular bar fight, no mishap on my tricky ascent up the north face of Mount Schmatterhorn, no I wasn't worked over by a gang of pirates or bootleggers. I just managed to get a leg cramp after standing up all weekend, and fell over, snapping the ankle joint on my fibula (the thin calf bone in your leg), splitting the bone right up the center. So, I go in Friday morning for surgery when they'll fix it using the same technology I use in my own poor attempts at carpentry: drive a handful of screws in it and spackle over the problem.

The immediate bad news is that I must cancel my speaking engagement next Tuesday, September 5th at New York's Pelham Lodge 712 in the Bronx. I've spent two days on the phone with Brothers Hanson Cuthbert and Matthew Aponte trying to come up with a suitable solution (possibly driving to Indy, renting a flatbed trailer, and lashing me down onto it in a LaZBoy for an exciting road trip). But with the surgery, recovery, and followup appointments afterwards, I can't even commit to cogently presenting on video, as it's probable I'll still be loopy on pain-killing hallucinogens next Tuesday night. So, my deepest apologies to the lodge and to everyone who was planning on attending. I'm even more disappointed than you, I assure you. As soon as I am more certain as to recovery time, we will reschedule the event.

I also have events scheduled in October and late November, in Ohio and Connecticut. I'm not canceling those engagements at this time, but I will know a lot more in about a week or so.

GL of New York Restores Amity with the GL of Scotland

NY GM restores amity with Scotland (artist rendering).

by Christopher Hodapp

The Grand Lodge of New York has at last settled its six-year-long dispute with the Grand Lodge of Scotland and restored fraternal relations. Announcements were officially issued this morning by New York's Grand Master, Most Worshipful Richard J. Kessler, and Scotland's Grand Secretary, RW William M.S. Semple. (Click images below to enlarge.)

Scotland never did suspend recognition of New York, so their letter merely states the resumption of fraternal relations.

The original dispute came about in 2017 after a chain of events in the Middle Eastern nation of Lebanon (yes, really). Grand lodges of Scotland, New York and the Grande Loge Nationale Française (GLNF) have all had regularly chartered lodges in that country for decades, and shared that territory (along with at least six more unrecognized and/or irregular grand lodges that chartered other lodges of their own). New York first established lodges in Lebanon in 1924, and created its own District Grand Lodge of Syria-Lebanon back in 1955.

Meanwhile, Scotland's first lodge in the area was chartered in 1861, back when the region was called Greater Syria, and the Scottish lodges flourished during the period of the Ottoman Empire. The GL of Scotland formed its own own District Grand Lodge of Lebanon in 2012, and I believe they currently have a dozen lodges at work there.

Complicating matters, the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia chartered two of its own Lebanon lodges that resulted in New York suspending relations with them briefly in 2008-09 for improperly invading the territory. They patched up their feud pretty quickly.

But the longer gripe with Scotland came when a pair of expelled New York Masons in Lebanon jumped ship, joined a Scottish-constitution lodge, AND helped charter the District of Columbia's new Lebanon lodges. Despite New York's actions, the GL of Scotland not only refused to acknowledge and honor the expulsions, but went even further and bestowed provincial grand rank on the two men.

Here is the letter from the GL of New York back in 2017 announcing the withdrawal amity, just for reference:

Confused yet? For a longer explanation of this saga, see this story from 2017 (Click Here).

PGM William Sarbane (right, in the hat) issued a
charter for the new Grand Lodge of Lebanon in 2018.

Further mucking up this melange, three of the Grand Lodge of New York's chartered 

Lebanon lodges petitioned to form their own grand lodge. A charter to that effect was signed and issued by the Grand Lodge of the F&AM of the State of New York on October 24, 2018 creating the Grand Lodge of the F&AM of Lebanon. They currently have six chartered lodges at work, plus a lodge of research. However, there still remain 12 active New York lodges in their District Grand Lodge of Syria-Lebanon, along with Scotland's lodges in their District Grand Lodge of Lebanon.

And I don't even want to talk about the GLNF's French lodges because it becomes too headache inducing.

In Thomas Jefferson's inaugural address in 1801, he declared his devotion to "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." Those ol' entangling alliances will bite you in the butt every time.