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New Masonic Temple Boston
1867-1895
Joseph Ward
USA: Massachusetts, Boston
Photograph on paper mounted on board
Gift of Jacques Noel Jacobsen, Jr.
2004.031.3

Black and white carte-de-visite photograph mounted on off-white cardboard. Image shows a multi-story light-colored building on a street corner. Black lettering below the photo at center reads, "New Masonic Temple, / Boston." Stamped in black ink on the back is "Joseph Ward, / Looking Glasses / and / Picture Frames / 125 Washington St. / Boston."


On April 6, 1864, fire destroyed the Boston Masonic building, which housed both the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and the Winthrop House hotel. The Grand Lodge almost immediately voted to rebuild on the same site (at the corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets) and laid the cornerstone for the building on this carte-de-visite in October 1864. Massachusetts Masons dedicated this building on June 24, 1867. An estimated 12,000 Freemasons from over 200 lodges participated in a procession from the Boston Common to the Music Hall (now Boston's Orpheum Theater), where they held the official dedication ceremony. A showplace inside and out, this new Boston Masonic building featured ornate lodge rooms. Sadly, this building would also fall victim to fire in September 1895, and subsequently, was torn down.



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