Dallas Missed Masons and Interesting Oddfellows

While doing my occasional search for things masonic, I found that Domy Books had a show called
"As Above So Below: The Art of The Secret Society" at the Webb Gallery.  The exhibition and Domy are now long gone.

An upcoming Dallas trip to might have me stopping by old Masonic Temple on Hardwood. I'll see what the current owners did to it after they bought it from the Masons.

As Above So Below: The Art of The Secret Society, originally uploaded by Domy Books.

As Above So Below: The Art of The Secret Society, originally uploaded by Domy Books.

As Above So Below: The Art of The Secret Society, originally uploaded by Domy Books.

This Weekend in Photos: Townhouses, Airports and Masons... Oh, My

I'm looking forward to cooler days, this weekend was scorching. But the heat didn't stop us from a little in-town sightseeing.

Pan Am Fan, The 1940 Air Terminal Museum - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

1940 Airline Terminal Museum - Houston, TX 2010 - a set on Flickr

Abandoned Shriners Arabia Temple - Houston TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Townhouse Manor - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

New Pix & New 29-95.com Post: The Masons!

I managed to parley my fondness of things Masonic into an article for 29-95.com. My most recent contribution?...

Masonic Texas pride and the Houston Heights Oddfellows Museum - "What you don't know (and might never know) about Texas history."

I wish I had come up with the tagline. I also wished I could have included a snarky comment about Dan Brown, but I couldn't shoehorn anything worth saying in. And I wish I knew some Houston Masons to get some feedback from. Guess, I have more work to do.

Lastly, while trying to find Gallery 619 (too late to see the 1-day show, "Roadside Distractions" - YouTube Video), I instead found 620 W. 9th St. And liked what I saw, (what ever it was)...

620 W. 9th St - Houston, TX 1, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

620 W. 9th St - Houston, TX 2, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

620 W. 9th St - Houston, TX 3, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

620 W. 9th St - Houston, TX 4, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

620 W. 9th St - Houston, TX 5, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Wednesday Night Photo Post: Men in Aprons... Powerful, Evil Aprons!

Sam Houston, originally uploaded by Flagman00.

Anson Jones, originally uploaded by Flagman00.

Shriners and Masons and Oddfellows, Oh My

Brother and sisterhoods in Vegas.

Vegas Shriners - Las Vegas, NV, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekahs - Las Vegas, NV, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Masonic Temple - Las Vegas, NV, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Masonic Texas: Hiding in Plain Sight

IMG_2011, originally uploaded by old.curmudgeon.

Freemasons.  You know, the sneaky, conspiratorial architects of doom secretly plotting secret plots to take over the world the day after tomorrow.  So sneaky, they have websites, public tours of lodges and extremely large memorials to previous brothers.  How insidious.

Since the Masons started as a guild of skilled labor, many of their lodges are architecturally striking.  I had been working on a map of such places in the US when some productive Googling over the holiday led to this discovery...

View Larger Map

... a map of Masonics lodge in Texas.  Complied by a brother Mason, this is a gold mine for me.  With 1,400 locations listed, I don't have a need to visit every small town lodge in rural Texas.  However, it may lead me to some new intriguing places to visit, in hopes for finding some architectural treasure I would have been unaware of otherwise.

My wife walked up behind me as I was looking at the Texas Masonic map, and knowing my love of road trips and strange attractions, started hitting me on the head and saying, "No! No! Bad! Bad!"  I reassured her that we wouldn't have to visit every lodge in Texas.  Just some of the more interesting ones, I thought silently. 

Brazos Union Lodge #129, A.F. & A.M., originally uploaded by Si1very.

 

Masonic Lodge Georgetown, TX2, originally uploaded by Seth Gaines.

Plano Texas Masonic Lodge, originally uploaded by Coyote2012.

Masonic Temple Waco, TX, originally uploaded by Seth Gaines.

Punks + Freemasonry = ????!!!!

Punk rockers join the Masons!

I'd like to see the tattoos.

Wednesday Night Photo Post: Dublin Freemason's Lodge - Egyptian Room

Dublin Freemason's Lodge - Egyptian Room 4, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Photography Playday and the Holland Lodge #1

Houston City Hall, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

A couple weeks ago, I got my photo groove back on. After finishing a work-related trip downtown, I wandered the area. I visited the Art Deco city hall building and spent some time at the Houston Heritage Society Museum. After that, I drove down Montrose Ave. to get some pictures of the Masonic Temple.

Holland Lodge #1, Houston Masonic Lodge 1, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Holland Lodge #1 is a beauty of a modernist building. It consists of two perpendicular intersecting rectangles; a brick, ground floor base and an upper, cantilevered, pale concrete one. The concrete one extends above the rear parking lot and houses the main hall. I'm not thrilled with the pictures, mainly due to a lack of sun and partially because I can't capture the specific architectural aspects that I like with a single picture. While wandering around the back, I chanced upon a guy bringing a ladder into the building. Being a handyman, I guessed he didn't have any authority in the building, and asked if there was someone there who could give me permission to take some interior photos. Moments later, out came a Brother Mason who said I could take all the pictures outside that I wanted, as they'd spent over 2 million on the streetside facade.

After asking if I was a mason (I'm not; my mom's dad was) he proceeded to start a history lesson on Masons in America. I had my afternoon free so I was happy to be schooled on John Paul Jones, George Washington and others. When he saw I was still interested/not fleeing, he asked if I wanted to know a bit more about Texas and Masons. I said sure, he said "No pictures," and we went inside.

The building dates from the 1950s and has a combination of clean modern lines with more decorative elements referencing the early European heritage of Freemasonry.

In one of the side rooms, there is a collection of famous Texan Masons, including but not limited to:

• Sam Houston (1793-1863) - President of the Republic Texas, Founding Member of, Holland Lodge
• Anson Jones (1798-1858) - President of the Republic Texas, Founding Member of Holland Lodge
• M. B. Lamar (1798-1859) - President of the Republic Texas, Freemason, Member of Harmony Lodge No. 6 Galveston
• Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) - Father of Texas, Freemason
• James Bowie (1796-1836) - Hero of the Alamo, Freemason
• William B. Travis (1809-1836) - Freemason
• Juan N. Seguin (1806-1890) - Member of Holland Lodge
• James W. Fannin, Jr. (1804-1836) - Member of Holland Lodge
• David 'Davey' Crockett (1786-1836) - Hero of the Alamo, Freemason

In the main hall, the modern, reserved design was most evident. Unlike the many Philadelphia lodge rooms (Flickr picture), this room was free of extraneous decoration; instead the wall were broad expanses of wood, with indirect lighting on the ceiling. It was a clean, modernist interpretation of a ceremonial lodge room. As I exited the room, I saw overhead two old slide projectors, and in the library there was a glass slide of a masonic image. It reminded me that many secret societies were influenced by theatrical design and some groups had members of various stage professions.

In the library, I was looking at a wall of black and white portraits. The Brother Mason said they had pictures of every master mason who had served, even the ones they kicked out. That piqued my curiosity and I asked what someone had to do to get the boot. Brother Mason paused a moment, then replied, "You know what a libertine is?" Having attended college, I said yes, and clarified, "So, it's behavior unbecoming a mason? "Yes," he said, and proceeded to detail and detailed the life of Jesse H. Jones, Secretary of Commerce and director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation during the years following the Great Depression. Under attack by those who would take over his position of power, my host cited Jones' adherence to Masonic ideology as protection against accusations of corruption and embezzlement. Fellow masons in the Congress helped Jones draw attention to these attacks in public hearings and prevented his ouster from his positions of authority.

That pretty much ended my Freemasonry 101 class for the day, as I had to find something to eat. I had spent at least an hour at the lodge and I was getting hungry.

So the two lessons of the day were (in reverse order);

• Freemasonry, good for Houston, good for Texas, and the country in general
• Always take an opportunity to talk to someone going through a door - you never know how far inside you might be able to follow them.

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My Flickr pictures:
Houston City Hall
Houston Heritage Society Museum
Holland Lodge #1

For detailed biographies of all the Masons mentioned, as well as anything else Texan - Texas State Historical Association - The Handbook of Texas Online

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Technorati Tags: Houston (Texas), My Flickr Pictures, masonic imagery/the masons/freemasons

A Personal Monument: Adventures in Stone

The future prospect of having a long-term house has me thinking about a long-term project. A kind of monument to personal things, travel and life. I got the idea from a 70 year-old monument in the Smokey Mountains.


The Great Smoky Mountains Masonic Monument was built in 1937. The main idea of it was expressed this way, "...we conceive the idea of a Masonic Marker as a true symbol of the universality of Masonry, and therefore have requested Masons of all countries and states to contribute stones to go therein. Interesting stones have come from five continents, the isles of the seven seas, and from historic spots of nearly every state in the Union."

A downloadable PDF of the Masonic Shrine Catalogue of Stones in Marker has drawings of each side of the marker with entries of every stone that was added to the memorial.

Many of the included stones have simple description, but some have long, involved stories. This is but a short part of one of the stones' entries, "275 Stone picked up at Sira Mountain, extinct volcano near Aden, Arabia, where according to Major H. Wilburforce Bell in his 'Romances of Aden,' the Queen of Sheba conferred with Solomon..." It goes on, but that bit is some pretty good stuff.

Since we travel a bit, I like the idea of some sort of marker somewhere in a yard with stones added and embedded in it. A physical scrapbook, a collection of places visited with something from each location brought back and incorporated into it. Now, I doubt it would look like the monument the Masons built so long ago. It could take just about any shape.

My only concern would be having to move it if we moved. But I already have an idea for that...

More Mapping: Google Maps Addiction

I continue to add place to my Roadside Attractions, Museums, Etc. google map. As I cruised the net amassing more weird and unique places to visit, my wife looked over my shoulder and said something to the effect, "This used to overwhelm me, I thought we were going to have to visit every one of these places last summer." While in a dream-world, cruising the U.S. (before tackling the rest of the world) would be a wonderful way to spend time, I like being married more.

Back to my latest find. Margaret's Grocery and Market is an almost perfect intersection of my interest in folk art and masonic tourism.

Margaret's Grocery 2005, Vicksburg MS, originally uploaded by Deep Fried Kudzu.

This fantastic place was built by Reverend H.D. Dennis and named for his wife.

From Lucky Mojo's entry on Margaret's Grocery and Market

"...what will be apparent to any Freemason viewing this illustration, is that the Double Headed Eagle atop the signage is not just any eagle: it is that of the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite. Furthermore, the two pillars flanking the door of the store are marked with the golden letters B and J, initials familiar to all Masons."

This place look fantastic, and so worth a visit. Must drive more!

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Roadside Art Online: Margaret's Grocery environment
Flickr: Search for "Margaret's Grocery"

Quinta da Regaleira: A Place From "Pan's Labrinth"?

I was searching Flickr for masonic imagery when the Quinta da Regaleira turned up.


(Photo from WaveCult)

This spiral well looks much like a place in the center of the maze in Pan's Labyrinth. The Quinta da Regaleira is a UNESCO Heritage site in Sintra, Portugal. Its nearby proximity to Spain would make it not unlikely that film maker Guillermo del Toro would be aware of this place.

And now it's one of the places added to the many I want to visit. A brief reading of some sites has the place linked to masonic and Rosicrucian ceremony.


Photo from sylphoria




Photos from saolin

Holiday Fun in Philadelphia: The Masons and The Mutter Museum

Before getting back to Atlanta for the New Year, we spent a few days in Phily for a work-related event. While my sweetie was working on bringing home the bacon, I had a fun play day out in the city of brotherly lurve.

First on my list of things to do was get a much needed haircut. A search on Google found me Harry's Barber Shop. It was nearby, sounded like a solid place to get my hair's trimmed, and unlike "Cut" which had me thinking a salon with fewer words = higher price. So, off I walked in search of my barber. 1324 Locust St. should have been easy to find, but all I saw was The Arts Condominium, a swank new condo complex being made in a sweet art deco building. There were tenants, but the foyer was still getting carpeted. I almost left when I looked down at a sidewalk level window.





I got buzzed in and walked down into the basement level warren of hallways and doors below the foyer. Harry's was a complete time warp, and one that hadn't aged well. In a perfect world Harry's would have had all the vintage accouterments in perfect order. Here though, the couch was ripped up, the tile walls were cracking and the Formica counters were showing their age. But the barber chair's were vintage and so were the barbers. The younger may have been in his 50's and Harry looked like he was in his 70's. He was nice, social, and a little hard of hearing. His dad started cutting hair across the street in 1922 and Harry had been in his location since 1974, when the building was the Hotel Sylvania. I got just the cut I thought I would get, a straight razor cleanup and even my eybrows trimmed.



Next on my list, the Mason's! How could I not, with our hotel right next to The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. I was hoping they allowed photography and they did. The tour was great, the building beautiful, and the pictures turned out nicely.











* Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania - a photoset on Flickr

After that it was a trip the Mutter Museum. The items on display include:

* The plaster cast of the torso of world-famous Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers
* Joseph Hyrtl's collection of skulls
* Preserved body of the "Soap Lady"
* Collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people's throats
* Cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland
* Tallest skeleton on display in North America

Unfortunately, no pictures allowed. The place is both intriguing and nauseating, and makes one just happy to live in time of advanced medicine.

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Other pictures taken while on the road.

Technorati Tags: masonic imagery/the masons/freemasons, Philadelphia

Post-Christmas Trip: Philadelphia

I'm in the cradle of American democracy tonight, accompanying my wife on a business trip. When our trips revolve around her work, we have concluded that for me the attractions usually breakdown to 'Things Made to Look like Big Things" and "Anything Masonic".

The "big thing" in the trip was supposed to be the recreation of Noah's Ark on the I-68 in Maryland. But all that we saw was a bare framework of metal I-beams. I had thought about documenting the place for fans for such things, but at such an incomplete state it wasn't worth getting off the highway. Pastor Richard Greene had a vision in 1974 of the Rebuilding Of Noah's Ark. He hasn't much to show for it Fortunately, someone else took the picture for me.


Someone With WAY Too Much Time On Their Hands
Originally uploaded by jocieposse.

As for "Anything Masonic", our huge corner hotel room on Penn Square overlooks The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. Not even a half-block away. And there are public tour! Yes.

Plus, there is the Mutter Museum in Philly.

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When we drove through Lexington, KY in the afternoon, we passed the lovely sign for the Parkette Drive-In. By day it looks promising, and at night its a true thing of beauty. Gotta love the carhop on top. We also saw another great sign, that will keep until next post.


The Lexington, Kentucky Parkette Drive In
Originally uploaded by kthread.

Parkette Drive-In, Lexington KY
Originally uploaded by baikinange.

The Masons & The Atlanta Museum of Design's New Show

Two completely unrelated things in one place!





Prince Hall Masonic Temple on Auburn and Hillard St., Atlanta, GA (Google Map). A few blocks away from the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site

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The Museum of Design opened its latest show, "Design Made in Africa." The gallery shown above is the second floor gallery. It's a good looking show and admission is free.

285 Peachtree Center Ave, Atlanta, - Google Maps

Masonic Tattoos

These guys just can't keep a secret. The tattoo are nice, though.







The Master's Jewel - Masonic Ink - Tattoo Page