December 15-17: Masons To Celebrate Boston Tea Party's 250th Anniversary in Grand Style!

by Christopher Hodapp

(From the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts Facebook page. As an old ad guy, I have to say I really like their tag line: "Same Men. Different Times." CH)

The Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts has partnered with the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution and the Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. From December 15 through the 17th, Freemasons and their families will be joining us from across the country, and we hope you will also. 

54 Grand Jurisdictions have been invited to join us.

Friday, December 15, 2023
(Open to the public)
A Historic Tavern Tour has been created in collaboration with Revolution 250, which is an organization that the Massachusetts Historical Society created to support the commemorative events leading up to 2026. 

(Open to Freemasons, their families, and invited guests)
If visiting from another jurisdiction, attend St. John's Lodge's annual installation. St. John's Lodge was chartered in 1733 and is the oldest lodge in the Western Hemisphere. 

Saturday, December 16, 2023
(Open to the public free of charge)
We will host a world-class speaker symposium at the Grand Lodge beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m. Through the generosity of our event sponsors, we can provide the events to the public at no cost.

• 8:30-9:10-Dr. Brooke Barbier "Radicalizing John Hancock: The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party."
• 9:15-10:00-RW Walter Hunt "Freemasonry Before the Revolution"
• 10:15-11:20-Boston-Lafayette Lodge of Perfection performing "Treason to the Crown"
• 11:30-12:15-Dr. Jayne Triber "Brother Revere: How Freemasonry Shaped Paul Revere's Revolutionary Role"

12:15 -1:00 Break for Lunch

• 1:30-2:00 -Dr. William Fowler "A Fireside chat with famed author Dr. Fowler."
• 2:00-3:00 -JL Bell "How Bostonians Learned to Talk about the Destruction of the Tea."
• 3:00-4:00 -Dr. James Fichter "Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773–1776."
• 4:00-5:00 -Dr. Ben Carp "Teapot in a Tempest: The Boston Tea Party of 1773."

There will be guided tours of the Grand Lodge from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on a first come, first served basis. The Grand Lodge will also have several rare artifacts on display for you to view. 

(For Freemasons and their families)
There will also be opportunities to attend a group tour of a few local historic locations. The historic sites set prices for tours.

Following the symposium, Freemasons can join a procession with the Grand Master from the Grand Lodge to the Old South Meeting House, then to the Boston Tea Party Museum. Retracing the steps of our forefathers 250 years ago. (Registration will be $10 per Brother and include a commemorative apron for the event).

Sunday, December 17, 2023 

(Open to the public)
The Grand Chaplains will lead a non-denominational ecumenical service at the Grand Lodge at 10:00 a.m.

Following the service, there will be a celebratory brunch with the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution. Tickets will be $50 and limited to 150 people. This will be held in the Grand Master's Banquet Hall. 

To purchase custom swag, please visit this link and order now. Purchases will not be available on the day of the event. The store opens on November 1

straightstitch.myshopify.com/collections/mason-tea-party

The event's registration link is available now at https://massfreemasonry.org/250th/

For all questions and concerns, contact the 250th Committee at 250committee@gmail.com

Prince Hall Inspires New Portrait and Cigars

Portrait of Prince Hall by Ryan Flynn
(In progress - Please do not reproduce)

by Christopher Hodapp

New Hampshire Mason Ryan Flynn is one of the most talented and well-known American Masonic artists working today. On his Facebook page this past week, Brother Flynn announced his latest project — a large portrait depicting Boston's Prince Hall, who is regarded as the 'founding father' of African-American Freemasonry in America. 

The portrait depicts MWB Hall in the 1780s holding the English charter of Boston's African Lodge 459 in one hand, and the lodge's gavel in the other. Outside of the window behind him stands Boston's Faneuil Hall:

“The secret is out.

Many of you have inquired about this “mysterious” project that I have been working on since early September. 

With the unbelievable support of my dear friend and brother RW Oscar Alleyne and L Ken Upchurchcollins I am proud to announce that I am painting a portrait of Prince Hall. 

Earlier this year I had the idea to do this due to the fact that a historically accurate portrait of Wor. Hall has not been attempted in a very, very long time.

It’s a large painting, 4ft x 3ft. I have a long way to go but it was time to finally share this project.

Everything down to the engraving on his gavel will have a symbolic meaning to it. I hope I do him justice.”

The Internet is filled with artistic representations of WB Prince Hall, but most of them have little to do with reality. There are no known contemporaneous drawings or portraits of him. 

RWB Oscar Alleyne, who is the Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge F&AM of New York, explains:

"RWBrother Ryan Flynn reached out to discuss his special portrait project with RWB L Ken Upchurchcollins Grand Historian of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Alabama and myself.

"You see, there is no actual image of Prince Hall. All of the images out there are but artist renditions. Some feature details that aren’t exactly historically accurate given what we know of the African American community in 1700’s Boston (eg. wig wearing, assumptions of his skin color etc)

"Ryan wanted to be a close as possible to the scant descriptions and the time and place of this American Masonic Legend while revealing the watchful eye of leadership, fire, admiration and resilience that Prince Hall championed in life and legacy.

"The portrait captures elements of 1700’s Boston, Prince Hall’s historic abolitionist writings to the Massachusetts Legislature previous to his Masonic initiation, a detailed description of his presiding in the East during a festive board/table lodge setting for African Lodge as well as that infamous charter cementing Lodge 459’s connection to the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1784 and regular Freemasonry worldwide.
Ken and I simply offered advice as our Brother Artist did his thing with love in his heart and fraternalism on his mind."

(NOTE - Kindly do not reproduce the image of the painting at this time. It is still a work in progress, and all rights are reserved by artist Ryan Flynn.)

How Boston Rockers Grew Up and Became Freemasons

There's a terrific article in the Boston Phoenix today about "How the Boston rock scene grew up, got real jobs, and became — Freemasons?" by Eugenia Williamson. Featuring the brethren of Boston's Amicable Lodge, like J. R. Roach, former drummer for Sam Black Church, who toured with KISS, Ted Nugent, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, and Dio.

"I think a lot of people's misconception of the fraternity is that it's a bunch of stodgy old men," says Master Mason J.R. Roach. Roach, 41, is a big dude with black hair and a couple of tattoos that he keeps covered up. . .

Roach is at the vanguard of the Masonic resurgence. Membership — like that of all fraternal orders — declined after the salad days of the 1960s. But something changed in the mid-2000s: young men became interested in the Masons once more. Gen-Xers settled down and needed a night away from the wife and kids, and Gen-Yers rebelled against navel-gazing, Baby Boomer parents.

Or maybe they read Dan Brown's 2003 thriller, The Da Vinci Code, or saw Nicolas Cage's star turn in the 2004 film National Treasure. Both narratives placed Masons at the heart of international conspiracies upon which hinged nothing less than the fate of the world.

Or maybe it was the exposure. Lead by Massachusetts lodges, the Masons began to open the doors of their temples of the public and offer guided tours of their facilities. Whatever the reason, the number of men who joined the Masons began to increase dramatically. And with it, the number of young creatives.

Nick Batzell, a 25-year-old sculptor's apprentice, got interested in Masonry when he saw a picture of Czech printmaker Alphonse Mucha in full Masonic regalia. "I studied Romanesque and Gothic architecture in [art] school," Batzell says. "William Hogarth was a Mason, and Paul Revere — he was the most famous silversmith, ever."

Roach spent 18 years on the road as a musician. "Record labels, promoters, club owners — sometimes you meet the sweetest people in the world and sometimes not so much," he says. "I really wish, with all the traveling I did, that I had been a Mason." Now, as a professional Mason, Roach spends his days in the headquarters of the Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.

Several of these brethren were also featured in a Boston Herald article back in 2008. Nicely done, brothers.

276 Years of Freemasonry in Massachusetts

Today, July 30th (in addition to being my bride's birthday) marks the 276th anniversary of the formation of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts. In 1733, Henry Price (1697-1780) officially brought Freemasonry to America from England. Price was authorized by the Premier Grand Lodge of England to form lodges in the colonies, and formed the Provincial Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts.

On July 30, 1733, a group met at the Bunch Of Grapes Tavern in Boston, and formed what was appropriately named First Lodge No. 126 (now St. John's Lodge—Massachusetts does not number their Masonic lodges). It was, in fact, the first lodge in America that the Grand Lodge had authorized (unlike earlier lodges that existed in Pennsylvania), and Price’s position as "Provincial Grand Master of New England and Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging" gave him the sole right to charter new lodges in the Colonies.

A replica of the sign that hung over the door of the Bunch of Grapes tavern was carved from a block of wood from the U.S.S. Constitution and now hangs in the Grand Lodge building in Boston.

From the National Heritage Museum blog:

London-born Henry Price apprenticed as a tailor. He arrived in Boston in 1723 to pursue this trade and soon met with success, opening multiple shops. He had become a Freemason in England prior to 1723. In 1733, while in England on business, he approached the Grand Lodge of England with a petition signed by 18 Boston men seeking to form a Masonic lodge. This petition was granted. Price returned home to Massachusetts, where he constituted both the Grand Lodge and St. John’s Lodge, the oldest local lodge in the state.

In the early 1760s, Henry Price retired to Townsend, Massachusetts, where he served as representative to the Provincial Legislature in 1764 and 1765. His several-hundred-acre estate, which included farms, mills and mechanical shops, reflected his prosperity. On May 14, 1780, while splitting rails on his estate, Price’s axe slipped, wounding him in the abdomen. He died six days later, at the age of 83.

The National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, which is owned by the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, has a display of Massachusetts Grand Lodge artifacts celebrating the anniversary of the formation of the Grand Lodge through the end of October. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is considered to be the third oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in existence, after the United Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodge of Ireland.