The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry and the Architecture of Washington, DC

A Vision Unfolds

36” x 48”

“Upon his arrival in the morning the President met with the three commissioners and then rode out to the survey camp. He reviewed Ellicott’s drawing with the survey and expressed satisfaction with the work” March 28, 1791

Survey of the Federal City, Silvio Badini, Journal of the Columbia Historical Society

Congress designated the location of the new Capitol on January 24, 1791. It was a ten-mile square parcel of land along the Potomac and Eastern Branch Rivers. Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker surveyed the tract of land and produced the base map. Banneker, a self taught African American surveyor and astronomer, plotted the locations of the forty boundary stones one mile apart along the entire perimeter.

Using this base map, Major Pierre L’Enfant, a French engineer and friend of George Washington laid out the plan of the city sympathetic to the topography of the site.

In the painting, a brazier warms the early spring day in a tent filled with surveying instruments and other Masonic artifacts such as a terrestrial and celestial globe.

The Age of Reason made Manifest

36” x 60”

The creative dialogue between Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant resulted in a classically inspired vision and plan for Washington, D.C.

Seen laid out on a desk at Monticello, the working plan embodies Masonic and Classical ideals depicted in the models. Although the vast majority of the design was realized, a few key landmarks were never built. The Supreme Court was to have reigned in the form of a Roman temple at the site of Judiciary Square; the Washington Monument was to have been an equestrian statue of George Washington; a Rostral Column, along the lines of a Roman naval trophy column, was to lie south of it; and a cascade flowing from a pyramid was planned to grace the base of Capitol Hill.

An Auspicious Day

48” x 36”

The United States Capitol building was planned as the anchor of the entire design for the Federal City. L’Enfant placed the Capitol on the west end of Jenkin’s Hill, the most prominent hilltop from which it “might be seen From Twenty mile off.”

Preparing to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol on September 18, 1793, George Washington is shown in full Masonic regalia accompanied by one of his favorite dogs, “Duchess”. After crossing the Potomac from Alexandria, he is likely to have prepared for the ceremony in an upper room of a small dwelling located on New Jersey Avenue, S.E., the present site of the House Office Building. This was the first meeting place for Federal Lodge No. 1, a lodge formed by stonemasons working on the construction of the White House.

A Meeting at the End of the Day

36” x 60”

“The first Stone of the President’s House was laid on the 13th Day of October, 1792, and the 17th Year of Independence of the United States of America.”

The Charleston City Gazette, November 15, 1792

Stonemasons labored for almost 10 years to complete the design by Freemason James Hoban (c.1762-1831) who immigrated to America in 1785.

Abundant work was available for immigrants with such skill, and Scottish Presbyterian and Irish Catholic stonemasons flocked at the opportunity. Shortly after the cornerstone was laid, they took the opportunity to organize into a Masonic Lodge in 1793, a Lodge that was ultimately to become Federal Lodge No. 1, with James Hoban as its charter Master.

The daily construction work was managed from a building that was conveniently located midway between the White House and the current fountain in Lafayette Park. Wearing silver jewels emblematic of their position in the Lodge, the three main officers, James Hoban, Clotworthy Stephenson and Andrew Estave begin an evening meeting with new brothers. Although James Hoban went on to an illustrious architectural career, little is known of Stephenson and Estave, other than they were both stone masons and master carvers and were associated with the construction and decoration of numerous federal buildings.

From These Ashes

30” x 40”

According to tradition, workers of the Washington Navy Yard founded Naval Lodge No. 4 in 1805 in the old sail loft of the Yard. Originally chartered as Lodge #41 of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, Naval Lodge was one of the founding five lodges of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.

Freemason Benjamin Henry Latrobe, often called “The Father of American Architecture,” was summoned by President Thomas Jefferson to work on a federal commission at the newly established Washington Navy Yard. Latrobe transformed a large swampland in one of our nation’s first Navy Yards and designed a number of the original structures including the massive, arched entrance gate.

In August, 1814 the British burned the majority of Federal Buildings in Washington, D.C., but Captain Thomas Tingey in an effort to prevent the capture of armaments burned the Washington Navy Yard. Through the gate can be seen the Tripoli Monument, the oldest military monument in the United States. It was dedicated to six naval officers killed in the war with Tripoli in 1803.

First Light of Morning

28” x 22”

Decatur House is one of the most distinguished homes historically as well as architecturally in Washington, D.C. Freemason Benjamin H. Latrobe, the ”Father of American Architecture”, designed the house. It was built in 1819 on a site of great significance near the President’s House for Freemason Stephen Decatur, one of the most important naval officers in the history of the United States.

Decatur desired the house to be “sturdy as a ship” in construction and of great simplicity of design. The results were an extremely restrained and beautifully proportioned cubic structure of red brick with a hip roof.

Decatur was killed in a duel with a fellow officer on March 22, 1820. Decatur is depicted in the vestibule of his home with President James Monroe on the morning of the duel with another Latrobe masterpiece, St. John’s Church, in the distance. Compared to the façade of Decatur House, the vestibule is far from plain or simple. It is a highly refined combination of a rectangle, square and semicircle in black and white marble that is offset by a barrel vault, shallow dome and semicircle above.

Centerpiece of the New Republic

36” x 36”

The crypt of the United States capitol was designed to hold the body of George Washington. It is also the centerpiece of Washington, D.C., since it is the dividing point for the quadrants of the city. The founding fathers envisioned a far greater role that was never realized. Inset in the center of the crypt is a brass compass rose, the location for the New Republic’s new prime meridian to replace the Greenwich prime meridian. From this point all distances would be measured including a one-mile standard established between the compass rose and a massive column to be constructed exactly one mile east of the Capitol. From it would be surveyed all lines for future states.

The tremendous weight of the rotunda is transferred to the crypt through delicate elliptical vaults onto a double and single circle of unfluted Doric columns.

Laying Down the Working Tools

36” x 24”

The original Potomac Lodge is located along the towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at Jefferson Place in Georgetown. On April 21, 1789, at a meeting in Easton, Maryland, the Grand Lodge of Maryland granted the petition of "a number of respectable brethren from George Town on the Patowmack River,” and issued a charter establishing Lodge No. 9 of Maryland, the first regularly chartered lodge in what is now the District of Columbia.

Tradition has it that the first life size statue of George Washington was displayed in the large niche in the second floor of the façade of the lodge.

The funeral ceremony, in which a brother ceases his labor in the terrestrial lodge and hopes to receive his reward in the celestial lodge is one of the most moving of all Masonic ceremonies. An ordered procession of lodge officers moves from the lodge to the final resting place of a brother.

The Cornerstone of the Nation

50” x 56”

In 1824 an American bald eagle presided over the welcoming parade for French General Lafayette in Alexandria, Virginia. From atop a triumphal arch this same eagle witnessed one of the most auspicious events of the new republic, the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument on July 4, 1848. The largest crowd to date in the capitol city gathered on a bright, clear and promising day to celebrate the seventy-second anniversary of the new nation, and the 30 star American Flag was publicly displayed for the first time.

A Reporter from the Daily Intelligencer, Washington’s leading newspaper, described the crowd in colorful language:

It were long to tell of the many bright-colored country bonnets which bustled and swayed about in the crowd, like poppy-heads shaken in the wind

The greatest parade the city had ever seen processed from the City Hall to the grounds of the monument. Included were every branch of the military in full dress, numerous bands, and countless dignitaries. President James K. Polk, a Freemason, presided over the event. The early years of the republic were represented on the dais by Dolley Madison, in her last public appearance, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, widow of the first Secretary of the Treasury, and George Washington Parke Custis, adopted son of George Washington.

Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House, gave the principal address at the ceremony. He spoke of the nation’s debt to George Washington and said:

One tribute to his memory is left to be rendered…a national monument erected by the citizens of the United States of America…Of such a monument we have come to lay the cornerstone…. The place is appropriate, here on the banks of his beloved and beautiful Potomac.

The subtle transition from operative masonry to speculative Freemasonry is eloquently illustrated in the cornerstone laying ceremony. Freemasons routinely set cornerstones of major public buildings with an ancient ritual emblematic of the higher role of the builder to his creator.

Born in 1800 in Chester, New Hampshire, Benjamin Brown French, Clerk of the House of Representatives and Grand Master of Masons of Washington, D.C., ceremonially laid the 24,500-pound marble cornerstone using the same trowel that George Washington had used when the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol was laid in 1793

French presented Masonic Brother Robert Mills, the architect of the monument, the working tools, remarking

I now present to you, my Brother, the square, level, and plumb, which are the working tools you are to use in the erection of this monument. You, as a Freemason, know to what they morally allude: the plumb admonishes us to walk upright in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the square of virtue, and remembering that we are traveling upon the level of time to the “undiscovered from whose bourne no traveler returns.” Never forget this sublime moral lesson, you are here to use them practically in your profession. Look well to the erection of this National Monument; see that every stone is well squared, and that it is placed in its position both level and plumb, that the noble offering of a nation to commemorate greatness, patriotism, and virtue, may stand until the end of time.

Onto the stone was poured corn, wine and oil, emblematic of health, prosperity and peace. Witnessed by thousands, this ancient ceremony was a validation for the young republic that all was “well formed, true and trusty” and an assurance of our strength and prosperity.

Equality in Initiation

31” x 38”

Vinnie Ream was the most prominent American female sculptor of the 19th century. She received the coveted job of producing a life-size marble statue of Abraham Lincoln in 1866 that stands in the United States Capitol rotunda and the bronze statue of Admiral Farragut in Farragut Square. Albert Pike was a philosopher, jurist, orator, poet, scholar, soldier, author of many of the rituals of Freemasonry and Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite Masons.

They met around 1868 when Pike settled in Washington. Both were ambitious and charismatic. Interestingly, Pike generated a series of freemasonic rituals intended for women and initiated Ream into the Masonic fraternity.

The Lamp of Knowledge

40” x 24”

The Franklin School was completed in 1868 and was designed by Adolph Cluss of Lafayette Lodge No. 19. It is a focal point of McPherson Square. The school was a model of advanced design in its day and the scene of Alexander Graham Bell’s first wireless message. The design of Franklin School won many national and international prizes for its advancement of educational practices. It is filled with plenty of natural light, spacious and well-ventilated rooms, and fine architectural details. The architectural model of the school was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and in Paris, and Vienna, winning similar accolades.

A View to the Future

30” x 68”

Freemason James Smithson, 1765-1829, was an English scientist who conducted research in chemistry, mineralogy and geology. He spent much of his life in Europe, but is most remembered for providing the means to establish the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Under the terms of Smithson's will, his estate was given to the United States to found "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

James Renwick Jr. was the architect of the original Smithsonian Institution Building that was completed in 1855. Often referred to as “The Castle,” it is constructed of Seneca Creek red sandstone in the Norman Revival style, intentionally reminiscent of a medieval center of learning. Decorated with nine towers of various configurations, the central south tower is the largest in plan and provided nineteenth century visitor’s with an ideal though precarious vantage point, to see the rapidly growing city.

In the distance can be seen one of the most auspicious events in the history of Washington, D.C., the public opening of the Washington Monument in the Fall of 1884.

Avenue of Liberation

20” x 30”

Virginia Avenue is a direct link between the City of Washington and the historic Port of Georgetown. The McMillan Commission of 1901 returned it to the grand tree-lined boulevard envisioned by Pierre L’Enfant in his 18th-century design.

Virginia Avenue is also a Hall of Fame of great South and Central American liberators. These include a monumental equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, the “George Washington of South America” and Benito Juarez, the architect of modern Mexican democracy.

Fiat Lux

32” x 80”

Cleverly located at 1733 16th Street, the founding date of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in Charleston, South Carolina, The Temple of the Scottish Rite was the first major commission designed by John Russell Pope in Washington, D.C. It almost instantly became one of the most well respected classical designs in the world. So well received was the design that in 1917, John Russell Pope was awarded the Gold Medal of the Architectural League of New York for it.

The mausoleum of Halikarnassos (353-c.340 B.C.E.) was the inspiration for the Temple. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and its choice as inspiration for the new temple clearly and intentionally linked Freemasonry with the western architectural tradition. A large plaza flanked by sphinxes serves as the entrance to the building that is a huge limestone-clad Ionic Temple capped by a stepped pyramid dome. Masonic iconography adorns the building such as the entrance steps being grouped in runs of 3, 5, 7 and 9 respectively and 33 columns supporting the dome.

Journey into Light

60” x 60”

Grand Commander James D. Richardson contracted with eminent American Classical architect John Russell Pope, a non-mason, in April 1910 to produce designs for the Temple of the Scottish Rite. Commander Richardson desired the new temple to be as magnificent as art and money could make it. Initial designs were finished in June. Construction began October 18, 1911, and the building was completed on October 13, 1915.

The opulent interiors certainly reflect Commander Richardson’s desires. A massive-scale, granite-clad staircase leads up from the entrance atrium to the Supreme Council Chamber following the curve of the rear profile of the building. The grand stair is filled with Masonic iconography and decorated with a variety of classical symbols derived from archaeological sources. For example the torcheres lining the stair are replicas of Pompeian artifacts.

The Good of Masonry Entirely at Heart

30” x 36”

Prince Hall is recognized as the Father of African-American Freemasonry in the United States. Although the details of his birth are sketchy, he was initiated into Freemasonry in March of 1775 in Irish Constitution Lodge No. 441, part of the British Army garrisoned at Castle Williams in Boston Harbor.

In March of 1784, African Lodge No. 1 of Boston was chartered through the Grand Lodge of England and the Lodge was finally organized in May 6, 1787. Prince Hall Freemasonry has been practiced in Washington, D.C. with the chartering of Social Lodge No. 1 from the African Grand Lodge of North America, Pennsylvania. Subsequently, Social Lodge No. 1, Universal Lodge No. 2 and Felix Lodge No. 3 formed the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia in on March 27, 1848.

Albert Cassel, noted African-American architect designed the new grand Lodge headquarters located at U Street, NW.

Nobles of the Mystic Shrine

36” x 24”

Almas Temple was designed in 1929 by Allen H. Potts and is prominently located on the north side of McPherson Square. The building is an unusual example of Middle Eastern architecture rarely seen in the United States. The choice of architectural style, though, is consistent with the exoticism of the Shrine, an associated body of Freemasonry established in 1872 to provide fun and fellowship for its members. For 75 years, the Shrine has operated a network of hospitals that treat children with orthopedic problems, burns and spinal cord injuries, up to their 18th birthday, free of charge.

Known as “the March King,” John Phillip Sousa is one of America’s best-loved musicians as well as a famous Freemason and Shriner. Less well known than “The Stars and Stripes Forever” or the “Washington Post March” are his numerous marches written for the Shriners. They include such titles as “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, The Thunderer, and The Crusader” and are filled with the fun and excitement embodied in the Shriners.

The Light of Reason

30” x 40”

Located on historic Shooter’s Hill and overlooking historic Alexandria, Virginia is a 333 foot tall monument that is a testimony to Masonic unity across the United States of America. Each state’s Grand Lodge is a sovereign body, but because of reverence for Master Mason George Washington, they united and through voluntary contributions erected the monument as an expression of the Masonic fraternity’s faith in the principles of civil and religious liberty and orderly government.

The Memorial is reminiscent both in location and design of one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built around 290 BCE on the island of Pharos, now part of the city of Alexandria, Egypt.

Building the Temple Within

62” x 42”

In The History of English Freemasonry, a publication of the United Grand Lodge of England, Freemasonry is defined as

“one of the world’s oldest secular fraternal organizations, whose members are concerned with moral and spiritual values. They are taught its precepts by a series of ritual dramas, which follow ancient forms and use stonemason’s custom and tools as allegorical guides.”

Elaborate backdrops and props are employed to communicate many of the teachings and moral lessons of Freemasonry.

Within These Walls

36” x 40”

By the end of World War II, it was clear to President and Freemason Harry Truman that the White House was in need of extensive repair. Floor creaked and sagged, plaster was cracked and numerous coats of white paint all but obliterated the delicate carving adorning the exterior. A special committee determined that conditions were far worse than anticipated. The interior of the house was removed completely and the exterior walls were underpinned with stronger and deeper foundations. An independent steel frame was built within the historic shell and the interior completely reconstructed.

While surveying the construction site President Truman noted unusual carvings on stones in the original walls. These were actually chiseled signatures left by the 18th century stonemasons that identified their work. He arranged for many of these stones to be sent to Grand Lodges across the United States.

“I place in your hands a stone taken from The White House…These evidences of the number of members of the Craft who built the President’s official residence so intimately aligns Freemasonry with the formation and the founding of our Government that I believe your Grand Lodge will cherish this link between the Fraternity and the Government of the Nation, of which the White House is a symbol.”

Truman, 1952

The Triumph of Justice

24” x 24”

Freemason, Chief Justice and President of the United States, William H. Taft was instrumental in persuading Congress to construct a permanent home for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Completed in 1935, it was designed by noted architect and Freemason Cass Gilbert in a monumental, classical Corinthian architectural style. The temple façade of a double row of sixteen columns support an architrave into which is carved "Equal Justice Under the Law." Above the architrave is a mammoth sculptural group representing Liberty Enthroned. The triumphal arch and other classical details of the Main Reading Room Law Library are constructed of hand carved oak.