July 18: Speaking at Ohio Masonic Education Event This Saturday

by Christopher Hodapp

I'll be speaking this Saturday, July 18th at Ohio's 6th Masonic District's Pillars of Knowledge event. This Masonic educational gathering will be held at J.B. Covert Lodge No. 437 on the east side of Cincinnati, Ohio, between 8AM and 3PM.

Six speakers will be featured:

• Chris Hodapp (Dummy)
• Dan Hrinko (author of 'The Craft Driven Lodge')
• William Carter III (PGM and Cybersecurity Expert)
• Dirk Hughes (Director of the Michigan Masonic Museum and Library)
• Tim Redick (Associate Dean off the Royal Schofield Society)
• Michael Miller ((Master of the Ohio Lodge of Research)

Registration is $30 and lunch is included.  Visit the website HERE to register. 

(Not enough time to pre-register? Any Master Mason is welcome to attend and registrations will also be held onsite beginning at 8AM)

The lodge is located at 848 Clough Pike, Cincinnati, OH 45245. 

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)

Speaking at Greenville, Ohio Tomorrow Night

by Christopher Hodapp

I'll be speaking at Greenville Lodge 143 in Greenville, Ohio tomorrow night, Friday, February 27th. Dinner begins at 6PM and is $15. This close to the event, you should probably contact the lodge to be sure there's space available. Call 937-621-9320.

Greenville is about 35 miles northwest of Dayton on U.S. 36 and just east of the Indiana border. The lodge is located at 200 Memorial Drive in Greenville.

I'm looking forward to being there!

Speaking at Greenville Lodge 143 in Ohio on 2/27

by Christopher Hodapp

I'll be speaking at Greenville Lodge 143 in Greenville, Ohio on Friday, February 27th. Dinner begins at 6PM and is $15. 

Greenville is about 35 miles northwest of Dayton on U.S. 36 and just east of the Indiana border.

I'm looking forward to being there!

Reward Offered in Failed Arson Attempt at Ohio Lodge

Photo: Mason Lodge 678 in Mason, Ohio

by Christopher Hodapp

A Masonic temple in a Cincinnati, Ohio suburb escaped what might have been a serious arson fire last month when an incendiary device that was thrown through a window failed to ignite. But police and federal authorities are taking the unsuccessful attack dead seriously, and now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect.

Photo:ATF

Shortly after lodge members left Mason Lodge 678 in Mason, Ohio on the night of September 25th, an unknown person was recorded on surveillance cameras approaching the single-story building. The person smashed open the lodge's kitchen window and hurled a glass bottle filled with flammable liquid through the broken glass. The improvised firebomb had a wad of matches attached to the top that failed to ignite the fluid, landing harmlessly on the floor, where it was found the next day.

Photo: Fox 19

Local police and the ATF are investigating the failed attack as a probable hate crime. From the WLWT-9 website:

"Because it was an considered to be an incendiary device, that was considered a weapon of mass destruction, and because we are a Masonic Lodge, it was declared a hate crime," Rob Fite with Mason Temple Lodge 678 said.

Fite says the Masonic Temple is a fraternal organization that is built on service and community. He said he hopes investigators can find whoever is responsible for the attack.

The bureau says that it is a federal crime to maliciously damage or destroy, or attempt to damage or destroy, with a fire or explosive, carrying a minimum sentence of 5 to 20 years in prison.

Anyone with information about the possible suspect is asked to contact the ATF at 1-888-283-8477 or by using their website. Those with information can also contact the Mason, Ohio Police Department at 513-229-8560.

TempleLive Abruptly Closes; Operated Former Masonic Temples in Four Cities

by Christopher Hodapp

A bold vision to try and save historic Masonic temples has tragically failed, apparently. Or at least struck a sizeable reef. News sources in Cleveland, Ohio reported last week that TempleLive, the company operating the Cleveland Masonic Temple and several other landmark Masonic theater venues, seems to have folded. Shows have been canceled, performers have been unable to get responses, and the company isn't answering phone calls. The company website is also down. 

If they really have folded, it's a sad setback for the historic Masonic temples in Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio, along with Wichita in Kansas, and Ft. Smith in Arkansas, all recently renovated by TempleLive to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. But TempleLive wasn't owned or affiliated with the two or three mega-promotion companies that monopolize the concert business in the U.S. Squeezed out of the most lucrative acts in show business, they have fallen into the economic reality of trying to do things independently.

Cleveland Masonic Temple

The company was started several years ago by Lance Beaty's Beaty Capital Group and Rob Thomas, who had two goals for their venture. One was to preserve, renovate and operate theaters, specifically in endangered Masonic halls. Like so many of us, they realized these incredible, one of a kind temples built by our brethren a century or more ago needed to find new life in order to be saved from the wrecking ball. Their secondary notion was to serve smaller towns outside of the usual lineup of big cities for touring music, theater, comedy and other entertainment acts. Their first purchase was the 1928 Fort Smith Masonic Temple, and all of the venues they took over had large stages and auditoriums built originally for fraternal productions. Our forefathers also intended for these beautiful theaters to be used by their communities, not just a couple of annual events for Masons only.

Fort Smith Masonic Temple

An extended story in Crain's Cleveland Business on Monday quoted an Arkansas interview with the company's founder, Lance Beaty, who placed a lot of blame on being in independent concert promotor in a world dominated by a few massive, monopolistic corporations who control the business:

BCG CEO Lance Beaty told Arkansas news outlet Talk Business & Politics (TB&P) over the weekend that TempleLive operations are being shuttered in short order. This follows Beaty previously indicating just a few days prior that owners were looking at ways to keep the concert promoter going.

“We determined it was best to be definitive so the decision was made to pull down the remaining shows,” Beaty told the outlet.
Beaty cast blame on a mix of factors for TempleLive’s apparent struggles, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a ticketing system that can put independent promoters at a disadvantage. 

“We are simply an outsider in an insider’s business,” Beaty told TB&P. “No matter how much money you throw at it or how creative you think you are, if you’re not on the inside, you’re not in.”

The Columbus Athenaeum was built in 1899 as a Masonic temple. 

After an expansion in 1913, it was claimed to be the largest specifically-Masonic building in America (a mantle that was soon surpassed in the fraternal building craze of the 1920s).

Wichita Scottish Rite

The article continued:

According to the 2025 State of Live report from the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), 64% of indie venues did not turn a profit in 2024.
“Their survival is threatened by inflation, monopolistic pressures, and predatory ticket resale practices,” NIVA writes. “Yet their economic footprint is vast, their community impact is undeniable, and their importance to the national economy is backed by hard data.”

A debt collection complaint has been filed against BCG by Arkansas’ Partners Bank for an alleged default on a $1.5 million line of credit, according to Phillips County Circuit Court records. That related promissory note was signed in October 2023 and matured on May 2, 2025.

BCG established its TempleLive subsidiary upon acquiring and renovating a Masonic temple in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 2017. This set a blueprint for TempleLive for purchasing similar Masonic auditoriums in other markets, improving them and opening them as concert and event venues.

As it expanded, TempleLive’s footprint grew to include additional venues in Cleveland and Columbus as well as Peoria, Illinois and Wichita, Kansas.
The Masonic Auditorium at 3669 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland was purchased by TempleLive in March 2017 for $725,000, according to county property records. In the years since, upwards of $14 million has been pumped into renovating the space over at least a couple of phases of redevelopment. Plans at the site also at one time included a vision for a massive adjacent hotel, the project for which was estimated to be around at least $60 million.

Cincinnati Masonic Center Sold, But the Phoenix Rises

(Google Maps)

by Christopher Hodapp

The Scottish Rite Valley of Cincinnati has just sold their 1928 downtown Masonic Center and Taft Theater to real estate development firm Western & Southern. The new owners are currently in the research phase of just how to renovate and develop the historic 30,000 square foot complex and are working with the city to determine their future plans.

But the Valley has amazingly bucked the usual trend of Masonic organizations over the last half century of shucking their magnificent early-20th century temples and moving into generic, bland and un-remarkable buildings.  Instead of fleeing to the suburbs and erecting a metal pole barn, or moving into an abandoned strip mall big box storefront, they purchased another historic downtown Queen City landmark—the Phoenix Event Center at 812 Race Street (photo above).

The Phoenix was bought by the Valley a year ago for $2.2 million and is officially their sixth home since their formation. Originally built as The Phoenix Club in 1893, the building was constructed by the first Jewish businessmen’s organization in this part of the country. In 1911, the place was bought by the Cincinnati Club and converted to a gymnasium and sporting club, with a lap pool and bowling alley in the basement. 

The building became a restaurant and public event center in 1983. Over the years it was a popular venue for weddings, receptions, private business meetings, and more—its long, Italianate, white marble Grand Staircase has popped up in countless wedding photos, and the building is decorated with impressive Tiffany glass, imported from West Germany in the early 1880’s. The 3rd floor Grand Ballroom has a 32-foot ceiling with unique 'Romeo and Juliet" balconies, and there are two other large ballrooms, along with several smaller rooms that were used as dining rooms.

Here are a few images from the Phoenix's former website:

The Valley hasn't officially released plans or architectural renderings of what they have in mind for the Phoenix' remodeling, but they've obviously wrestled with the reality of their membership falling from more than 6,000 ten years ago to just over 2,000 today. But they've contributed to their city's heritage by moving to a home that's as storied as the one they're leaving. 

As the new owners take possession, here's a last look at the beautiful Cincinnati Masonic Center, just shy of its 100 years of service to the fraternity.

Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art at Cincinnati's Taft Museum

by Christopher Hodapp

From now until May 11th, 2025, downtown Cincinnati's Taft Museum of Art is displaying an exhibit of fraternal folk art featuring some 80 pieces from the Freemasons and the Odd Fellows.

From the museum's website description:

Mystery & Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art

Through compelling and cryptic works of art, Mystery & Benevolence brings to light the histories, symbolism, and beliefs of the Freemasons and the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows (IOOF)—two fraternal organizations with deep roots in American history.

 

For decades, members across the country have come together to socialize, help others, and improve themselves and their communities. The exhibition features more than eighty works of art, including items once owned by the Daughters of Rebekah—the first lodge to include women—and the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, founded as the African American counterpart to the IOOF. Sculptures, textiles, regalia, prints, and works of decorative art explore the main principles of the organizations: fellowship, charity, labor, passage, and wisdom. Elaborately stitched costumes, gilded regalia and jewelry, and richly embellished ceremonial objects provide a glimpse into the enigmatic world of these secret societies.

 

Mystery and Benevolence is organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, from the Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.

The Taft Museum is open Wednesdays through Mondays from 10AM to 5PM. Admission is free for Taft members, guests of members with guest pass, military, and youth (17 and under); $15 for adults; $12 for seniors. Includes admission to special exhibitions and the museum’s collection galleries. Sundays and Mondays are free of charge.

The Taft Museum of Art is located at 316 Pike Street, at the east end of Fourth Street, across from historic Lytle Park in downtown Cincinnati.

BREAKING: Indiana's Immediate Past Grand Master Suspended Following Annual Meeting

by Christopher Hodapp

(NOTE: This story has been updated as of Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 5:00AM, adding details of PGM Brinley's Masonic background.)

Less than 24 hours after his installation as the newest grand master of the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana, MW Grand Master David G. Morgan (2024-25) has suspended the Immediate Past Grand Master (2023-24), Gary E. Brinley, from the fraternity in Indiana, effective until the 2025 Annual Communication next May. The suspension is for un-Masonic conduct by Brinley during the discharge of his duties as Grand Master, up to and including during Tuesday's Annual Communication, along with his recent actions behind the scenes regarding candidates for election to the grand line. 

The ink was barely dry on the annual meeting's minutes before the suspension was issued on Wednesday.

Guests unfamiliar with the rules and customs of the Grand Lodge F&AM of Indiana may not have guessed that anything was particularly amiss at Tuesday's meeting at the Indianapolis Scottish Rite Cathedral. But longtime Grand Lodge watchers and insiders were appalled at accusations levelled by Brinley in his widely circulated Grand Master's Address. His written address implied improper conduct on the part of several Masons and the office staff. 

To a wide range of Masons, he made what looked like un-Masonic and unsubstantiated attacks on at least three grand line officers, making allusions to financial improprieties that, for the most part, amounted to little more than minor differences between CPAs over accounting methods, especially office policies about personal credit card use and reimbursement methods. 

Brinley may have violated both written and unwritten (but longstanding) rules and customs of election conduct by altering the agenda to manipulate the election. Several sources characterized it as 'reverse-electioneering' to thwart the election rules and insert his own favored candidates onto the ballot at the last minute. 

(Unlike some grand lodges that allow for open competition for grand officer positions, Indiana's written and unwritten rules and procedures expressly forbid grand officer nominations from the floor, electioneering of any kind, or even mentioning during a meeting that someone is actively seeking a position. These are all the same rules that individual Indiana lodges must follow in their elections. The grand lodge must abide by them, as well. The new Junior Grand Deacon is appointed by each newly elected Grand Master, and he then advances up the line each year.)

The Grand Lodge undergoes a major audit every year by a highly-regarded outside firm, which has not raised red flags over the years over the policies Brinley seemed to zero in on. Brinley is himself a CPA at an Indiana bank that holds many of the accounts of the Grand Lodge. So, armed with the issues he raised, he spent the week before the annual meeting asking numerous past grand masters and others for methods to push his own two favored candidates for Grand Secretary and Grand Treasurer onto the ballot. Right up until he finished reading a strategically edited version of his address in which he left out his allegations, half the members in the audience feared there was going to be a full-blown battle on the floor.

But if there had been any question as to the sentiment of the voting members of the Grand Lodge on Tuesday, when the re-elections of Rick Elman as Grand Secretary and Ken Willis as Grand Treasurer, and especially the election of Randy Seipel as Deputy Grand Master, were announced, the applause was loud and sustained.

Historically, Indiana's Annual Communication meeting has lasted at least two days, practically ever since its formation in 1818. In the aftermath of COVID lockdowns, it was decided to dramatically reduce costs by dropping the meeting to a single day of business. But Tuesday's long session ended with more than half of its 24 pieces of Grand Master recommendations and proposed legislation left unaddressed, forcing them to be bumped to 'Unfinished Business' for May 2025. While that aspect of the meeting likely has little or nothing to do with Brinley's suspension, it certainly left many voting members with a bad taste in their mouths.

Gary Brinley was appointed Junior Grand Deacon by RW Rodney A. Mann, PGM, in 2017 and moved through the progressive Grand Lodge line. He was elected and installed as the 172nd Grand Master of Indiana on May 16, 2024.

The immediate result of Brinley's suspension from the fraternity removes him from the Grand Lodge Trustees line, which supervises the Indianapolis Masonic Temple/Indiana Freemasons Hall, a role traditionally filled by the immediate past grand master. Presumably, a  new GL Trustee will be appointed by GM Morgan.

PGM Gary Brinley's lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and prior to his suspension, was a member of Ellettsville Lodge 245. Originally from Greenville, Ohio (about 20 miles east of Winchester, Indiana), he began his Masonic life in that state, and still holds a dual membership there today. He was raised as a Master Mason in 1985 at Fort Black Lodge 413 in New Madison, Ohio, serving as their Worshipful Master in 1990. (Fort Black Lodge has since merged with Greenville Lodge 143.)

Despite a common misconception, a Mason's suspension or expulsion in ONE grand lodge or appendant body does NOT necessarily mean any or all Masonic grand governing bodies or jurisdictions will automatically follow suit. In other words, suspension from one doesn't necessarily mean suspension or expulsion from ALL bodies. It's unclear for the moment whether or not the Grand Lodge of Ohio will honor GM Morgan's suspension of Brinley in Indiana, and suspend him there as well; or if they will wait until the outcome of any Masonic trial or a decision by Indiana's Grievances & Appeals Committee next May. 

Also unclear is how this might affect his appendant body memberships in the York Rite, the Scottish Rite (NMJ), the Shrine and others. Brinley has served as the Thrice Potent Master (the greatest Masonic officer title, ever!) of the Indianapolis Valley of the Scottish Rite's Northern Jurisdiction, where he has also served as Trustee and Treasurer; he was coroneted a 33° Scottish Rite Mason in 2010. Nationally, he has been serving as Secretary General of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis for several years. 

Ohio's Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 Meeting April 27th

by Christopher Hodapp

Ohio's unique Goose and Gridiron Lodge 1717 will host their next meeting on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at the breathtaking Dayton Masonic Center. Lodge will open at noon and the brethren will retire afterwards downstairs to hold their excellent Festive Board. 

What makes "The Goose" unique, you ask? Unless someone pipes up and corrects my oftimes-fallacious memory, I believe they are the only regular Masonic lodge currently at work in the United States that is permitted by the Grand Lodge of Ohio to use England's Emulation Ritual instead of the typical American Preston-Webb work. 

The lodge will be installing its officers that day using the Emulation ceremony, as well. If you've never had the opportunity to visit an English lodge, or a Canadian one that uses Emulation, Ohio may be a quicker trip for you.

Because of the very special nature of the lodge, they try to travel around the state of Ohio throughout the year so members and guests don't always have to make a 5-hour round-trip drive to attend every time. 

In addition, they try to provide some extras before the meeting day for early arrivals. On Thursday, they will have a long field trip to Detroit, Michigan to visit the Detroit Masonic Center (largest Masonic building in the world); on Friday, there will be a tour of the National US Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB just outside of Dayton. And there will be an informal "meet and greet" dinner for members, guests, spouses and partners on Friday night.

WM Daniel Mossop and a certain "Anonymous" Dummy visitor

I got the opportunity to visit Goose and Gridiron last October. When I spoke at the lodge, the Brethren quite generously made me an Honorary Member, and I was deeply honored. If you've never traveled and seen a different – but perfectly regular – ritual besides your own grand lodge's accepted work, make your way to Dayton that weekend! 

If you intend to attend the meeting and Festive Board, CLICK HERE to register. Registration deadline is April 17th.