4 minute read
1974 Cornerstone Laying of Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library
by Jeffrey Croteau, Director , Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives
Thisyear marks the 50th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library in Lexington, Massachusetts. The cornerstone ceremony took place just a little more than a year before the museum opened to the public in April 1975. Much to our delight, there is a 16mm film of the March 10, 1974, cornerstone laying event that is a part of our Library & Archives collection. The Museum & Library recently digitized it and made the entire 15-minute film available on our YouTube channel.
To see this historic video, scan this code or visit https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NDUU8YBaHO8
The 1974 Proceedings of the Supreme Council, 33°, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, included a description of the ceremony:
A little more than a year after the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Museum and Library complex occurred, the gray granite cornerstone, gift of the Scottish Rite Masons of New Hampshire, was placed officially with ancient ceremonies conducted by the officers of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, with Grand Master Donald W. Vose presiding. Some 400 participants and spectators were on hand on a clear but blustery Sunday afternoon for these traditional cornerstone exercises. Active and Emeriti Members of the Supreme Council, who had been in Boston on the preceding days for the Mid-winter Executive Session, served as hosts for the occasion…
In addition to Masonic dignitaries, the ceremony also included representatives of the Town of Lexington, as well as Hugh Shepley from the architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, and Walter Creelman from Turner Construction Company, the two firms responsible for the design and construction of the museum.
Preceding the outside cornerstone laying event, Donald W. Vose, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, gave remarks in the museum’s unfinished lobby. Forty-six “distinguished Masonic guests,” as well as many representatives of the Supreme Council, all placed “selected items to be preserved for posterity in the cornerstone box. A wide selection of historical documents and Masonic memorabilia and artifacts were sealed inside the cornerstone…” A list of the contents of the box was printed in the 1974 Proceedings of the Supreme Council. Among the items placed in the box were an American flag, a copy of the local Lexington newspaper for that day, and a medal from the Lexington Bicentennial Committee.
Following the outdoor cornerstone laying ceremony, the guests reassembled in the lobby, where Sovereign Grand Commander George A. Newbury, 33°, the visionary and driving force behind the museum’s founding, presented remarks. Newbury’s speech echoed one he delivered at the 1972 Annual Session of the Supreme Council, where he spoke of his vision for the museum: Our objective is to set up at Lexington a museum and a library devoted
primarily to the visual and auditory presentation of facets of American History which will stimulate a lively interest in it and an appreciation of the tremendous achievements of those who founded our Country, established her form of government, developed her institutions and economy, and performed the miracle of bringing her from a scattered group of weak and struggling colonies to a place of World leadership in the phenomenally short period of two hundred years.
...We plan to tell a thrilling story— the story of America.
Were you at the cornerstone laying event or otherwise involved with the founding of the Scottish Rite Museum & Library? Were you at the opening of the museum in 1975? If so, we’d love to hear from you – email or call us
Have questions? Drop us a line at library@srmml.org or give us a call at 781-457-4109. ?
The Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives is located in Lexington, Massachusetts, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library and is open to the public.
