The Masons of California at 175: State of Evolution
For 175 Years, the Grand Lodge of California has left its mark on the state.
Birth of a Brotherhood: 175 Years of Masonic History
Since its founding in 1850, California Masonry has had a profound influence on the state we call home.
By Jeanette Yu
1850-1874:
Birth of a Brotherhood
In an era of new beginnings and endless possibilities, California Masons left an indelible mark on their nascent state, helping to build vital civic infrastructure. At the same time, they faced innumerable challenges. The unrest of the Civil War complicated relationships between members carrying a polyphony of perspectives. Communities strained under the pressure of the vast influx of new arrivals and a dearth of facilities. Despite all that, California Masons made good on their historic pledge to band together in difficult times and work for the common good. As a result, this period saw a meteoric rise in membership and heightened Masonic influence. Masonry found its place in California, and the rest was history.
APRIL 10, 1850 | The Grand Lodge of California officially opens in Sacramento, bringing together members for the first time from three charter lodges. Jonathan Drake Stevenson is elected as grand master.
OCTOBER 11, 1850 | A massive cholera outbreak begins, during which a group of just 69 Sacramento Masons raise a staggering $32,000 (equivalent to $1.2 million today) to open a hospital at Sutter’s Fort, one of the first in the state—and the first mass Masonic charity effort in California.
OCTOBER 14, 1850 | The Benicia Masonic Temple opens, the first purpose-built lodge in California.
AUGUST 1, 1851 | A dispensation is issued to San Diego № 35, the first Southern California lodge. The second, Los Angeles № 42, will open in 1853.
1851 | Membership more than doubles to 500.
1852 | B.D. Hyam, a founding member of Benicia № 5, becomes the third grand master and the first Jewish one. A controversial figure, he is the first and only grand master to be brought up on charges of unmasonic conduct.
AUGUST 27, 1853 | A short-lived California dispensation is issued for Pacific Lodge № 1 in Valparaiso, Chile.
JUNE 19, 1855 | Three charter lodges join to form the first Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California.
1857 | The San Francisco Masonic Board of Relief is established to pool charitable donations for indigent members. Similar boards are later founded in Sacramento, Oakland, Stockton, Los Angeles, and San Diego. In its first decade, the board distributes the equivalent of $1 million in relief.
JUNE 24, 1860 | Masons lay the cornerstone for a new Grand Lodge temple in San Francisco. The temple is later destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
MAY 15, 1861 | California Masons including Gov. John G. Downey lay the cornerstone for the new state capitol in Sacramento.
1863 | Abolitionist Thomas Starr King, a Unitarian minister and a member of Oriental № 144, one of the fiercest defenders of the Union during the Civil War, serves as grand orator. In 1864, at age 39, he dies of diphtheria.
MAY 10, 1869 | Golden Gate № 1, the first local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, opens in San Francisco.
OCTOBER 8, 1871 | The Great Fire of Chicago ravages that city; in response, California Masons raise more than $13,000 to provide relief.
FEBRUARY 22, 1872 | Grand Master Leonidas Pratt lays the cornerstone for the new San Francisco City Hall building.
1875 | By the end of its first quarter century, the Grand Lodge of California has chartered nearly 200 lodges and membership stands at 11,000.
Above: School kids at Riverbank K-8 school in West Sacramento check out new Farsi and English books.
1875-1899:
Expansion
By the late 19th century, Masonry in California was on a definite upward trajectory. The fraternity continued chartering new lodges, particularly in the fast-growing Southland, alongside its various appendant and concordant bodies, including the largest, the Scottish Rite. Masons also organized important ancillary operations, including the Employment Board of San Francisco and, by the turn of the century, the Widows and Orphans Home. Relief during this period remained a defining characteristic: California Masons offered support to brothers worldwide, including troops embroiled in the rising conflict of the Spanish-American War. These years underscored the unwavering solidarity of California Masons, both at home and abroad.
1878–79 | A yellow fever outbreak devastates the Mississippi Valley, during which California Masons donate $113,000 (equivalent to $3.12 million in today’s dollars). Over the next five years, they also support brothers in Florida, Michigan, and Ohio following natural disasters.
AUGUST 21, 1883 | The Triennial Conclave of the Knights Templar is held in San Francisco, featuring a parade down Market Street that draws tens of thousands of spectators.
1885 | The first meeting is held of the Scottish Rite bodies in Los Angeles: King Solomon Lodge of Perfection № 14, Robert Bruce Chapter of Rose Croix № 6, and Hugues Despaynes Council of Kadosh № 3.
1886 | The San Francisco Board of Relief opens an employment bureau for out-of-work Masons, helping 70 applicants find employment in its first year. By 1892, the board’s total charitable giving exceeded $300,000 (equivalent to $10.4 million today).
DECEMBER 19, 1891 | Following nearly 40 years of debate around the best method to provide relief, Grand Master William Johnson approves a plan for the organization of a Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, establishing a nine-member board of trustees headed by Grand Master Edward Myers Preston. In the 12 months following its founding, the board receives pledges of more than $45,000 from California Masons.
1895 | The Scottish Rite continues to expand in Southern California: Temple Lodge of Perfection № 7 is constituted in Pasadena, followed by the Rose Croix and Temple Council of Kadosh bodies in subsequent years.
MAY 9, 1898 | A Masonic Fair is held in San Francisco to raise money to complete construction of the Masonic Home. In total, members raise $40,000, allowing the building to be completed later that year.
MAY 29, 1898 | Masons send aid to troops assembled at Camp Merritt in San Francisco in preparation of their deployment to Manila during the Spanish- American War; the same year, Grand Master Thomas Flint orders the erection of a Masonic clubhouse there.
OCTOBER 12, 1898 | The Masonic Home for Widows and Orphans is formally dedicated in a massive ceremony. The total cost of the project is more than $103,000. Nearly a decade in the making, the facility in 1899 welcomes its first cohort of 16 men, five women, 10 boys, and six girls. A gift of $12,600 from the estate of Jacob Hart Neff, former lieutenant governor of California, establishes a permanent endowment fund.
1900-1924:
Ruin and Relief
The turn of the century brought colossal uplift and upheaval. It began in grand fashion with the centennial of George Washington’s death, the most important event of the Masonic year. Meanwhile, California Masons continued supporting disaster recovery around the world—a grim foreshadowing of the 1906 earthquake and fire of San Francisco, which killed 3,000 and displaced half the city’s 400,000 residents. In just five months following the fire, Masons mobilized the equivalent of more than $11 million in aid for victims both Masonic and not. Relief remained a central theme of fraternal life throughout World War I. Despite the relentless tribulations, Masons maintained their focus on California’s future by bolstering public infrastructure, supporting the nascent Masonic youth orders, ordering the first Public Schools Week, and erecting the Shriners’ first hospital in California. During this watershed era, astonishing turmoil was met with astonishing benevolence.
OCTOBER 10, 1901 | Manila Lodge № 342 is constituted, the first of three lodges in the Philippines organized under the Grand Lodge of California, until the formation of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines in 1912.
APRIL 22, 1903 | California Masons lay the cornerstone for the Siminoff Temple at the Widows and Orphans Home. Morris Siminoff, a Russian immigrant, successful textile manufacturer, and member of Fidelity № 120, presents a $30,000 gift to fund its construction.
MAY 1903 | The Southern California Masonic Home Association purchases the San Gabriel Hotel to establish a Masonic Home for Children there; it is opened to Masonic orphans in 1916.
NOVEMBER 5, 1906 | The Masonic Relief Board of Los Angeles opens its own employment bureau; in the first 10 months, it fields 588 applications from Masons and their families.
APRIL 18, 1906 | The San Francisco earthquake and fire, one of the worst disasters in state history, levels the city and destroys the Grand Lodge temple at Montgomery and Post Street. Grand Master Motley Hewes Flint and Grand Orator Oscar Lawler set out from Los Angeles for Oakland, spending the next two weeks volunteering and raising money for the displaced. By September 1, Masons from around the country had raised $315,000 (equivalent to more than $11 million). “I little thought when I assumed the position of grand master that such a responsibility would be forced upon my shoulders,” Flint later wrote.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1908 | A special Masonic unity trowel passed around the world reaches Oakland № 188. In all, the trowel is carried more than 7,000 miles by California Masons, before a special envoy delivers it by rail to Mexico City.
1910 | Construction of a hospital at the Masonic Home begins, a gift from Grand Treasurer Edward Coleman.
OCTOBER 12–13, 1911 | A massive parade of Masons led by Grand Master Dana Reid Weller proceeds down Sutter Street in San Francisco to lay the cornerstone for a new grand lodge temple. The following day, in front of one of the largest crowds ever gathered in Oakland, they lay the cornerstone for a new City Hall building there; U.S. President William H. Taft, a fellow Mason, delivers the keynote address.
MAY 12, 1912 | A dispensation is granted to Al Malaikah Temple in Los Angeles, the first meeting of the Shrine in California.
1914 | The Midnight Mission is founded in Los Angeles, dedicated to feeding the homeless. Ever since, its board has been made up primarily or entirely of California Masons.
AUGUST 4, 1917 | The Masonic Ambulance Corps leaves San Francisco to begin training, eventually reaching the frontlines in France. During WWI, California lodges raise nearly $70,000 (equivalent to $1.5 million today) for a new War Fund.
1919 | The Order of DeMolay is founded, followed in 1920 and 1921 by other Masonic youth orders: Rainbow Assembly and Job’s Daughters.
SEPTEMBER 7, 1920 | Grand Master Charles Adams proclaims the first statewide Masonic Public Schools Week (now Public Schools Month).
1922–23 | Shriners Hospital for Children opens in San Francisco.
AUGUST 12, 1924 | Paradise Park Masonic Club, a village of cottages in the Santa Cruz Mountains owned by California Masons, is incorporated.
1925-1949:
Growth & Promise
California Masons ended their first century as they began it, in service to their brothers and as beacons of betterment for all. Coming out of the Great Depression, World War II was a catalyst for membership, as applications for degrees spiked during and immediately after the war. For those besieged by the global bloodshed and economic hardship, societal solidarity proved more important than ever. By 1949, as the fraternity approached its centennial, membership had swelled to nearly 200,000. At the conclusion of the war and dawn of the boom years, the fraternity—led by one of their own in Gov. Earl Warren—stood as a testament to charity, brotherhood, and service.
JUNE 29, 1925 | A magnitude-6.3 earthquake strikes Santa Barbara, leveling much of its new downtown. The Grand Lodge helps finance restoration of the Santa Barbara Masonic Temple, which had been completed just weeks earlier.
MARCH 13, 1926 | The cornerstone is laid for the new Long Beach Scottish Rite Cathedral. At the time, Long Beach included eight Masonic lodges serving a population of approximately 50,000. In 1933, when the city experienced a massive earthquake, 19 Masonic lodges in the area suffered property damage.
1927–28 | California Masons send relief totaling $22,000 to those affected by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. A message from Florida Masons states that “California was the first state to offer assistance to our brethren in their time of need, and it will be long remembered by the Grand Lodge of Florida.”
1931 | The Masonic Monument at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale is dedicated. It is funded by 84 local lodges in Los Angeles in memory of their departed brothers.
1933 | The Masonic Homes Endowment Fund is established. In its first year, the fund receives more than $60,000 in donations from more than 16,000 California Masons.
OCTOBER 16, 1935 | Earl Warren, a past master of Sequoia № 349 and then–district attorney of Alameda County, is installed as grand master of California. Warren would go on to serve as state attorney general (1939–43), governor (1943–53), and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1953–69). As chief justice, he penned several of the most consequential court decisions of the century.
1940 | At the suggestion of Grand Master William B. Ogden, the Grand Lodge launches Constitutional Observance Month. During its first year, one Southern California lodge reports having more than 4,000 attendees visit to hear its special speaker.
1940 | California Masons send $2,000 in aid to the Grand Lodge Alpina of Switzerland, the only freely functioning grand Masonic body in continental Europe during WWII. Under Nazi rule, Masonic lodges were relentlessly purged; estimates peg the number of German Masons killed during the war at between 70,000 and 200,000.
FEBRUARY 14, 1942 | The Masonic War Relief Fund is established. In its first year, members of 531 California lodges contribute more than $127,000 to the fund. By 1946, the Grand Lodge of California had issued more than 12,000 war certificates to California members in the armed service.
MARCH 27, 1943 | A special dispensation is made to Fortitude Lodge, U.D., in Chongqing, China. Formed by Masons of various nationalities, it functioned from 1943 to 1946.
1946 | Total membership reaches 150,000, spurred by record-high initiations in 1944, 1945, and 1946.
1948–49 | Centennial celebrations are held for California № 1 and Western Star № 2.
1950-1974:
The Second Century
The year 1950 marked the centennials of the state and its Masonic fraternity—and both had much to celebrate. Masons continued to demonstrate great interest in ballasting California’s growing public education and health care systems while continuing to flex their own civic muscle. The newly formed California Masonic Foundation would begin issuing scholarships to students, while the 1958 opening of the gleaming California Masonic Memorial Temple atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill was testament to a fraternity at the height of its fame. However, changes were soon coming: Membership would peak in 1964, beginning a now 61-year run of losses. As California Masons crossed the threshold of their first century, they were able to look back with pride and toward the future with profound optimism.
AUGUST 11, 1951 | The North Hollywood Masonic Temple, designed in Mayan Revival and Art Moderne styles by Robert Stacy-Judd, is dedicated. Among the members of North Hollywood № 542 were the actors Clark Gable, John Wayne, and Audie Murphy.
MARCH 9, 1953 | Grants are issued to Tehachapi № 313 and Maricopa № 434 to rebuild their lodges following an earthquake the previous year. California Masons will respond to several calls for aid in the coming years, including from as far away as the Netherlands (North Sea Flood, 1953), Mexico (Hurricane Hilda, 1955), and Peru (Ancash Earthquake, 1970).
1954 | The Grand Lodge’s first official publication, California Freemason, is launched under Newcomb Condee, its first editor. Ralph Head would take over as its second editor in chief, serving from 1974 until his retirement in 2002.
1956 | A record 1.1 million people attend Public Schools Week events in California, organized by local Masonic lodges.
OCTOBER 27, 1955 | More than 2,500 Masons gather for a groundbreaking ceremony at the new California Masonic Memorial Temple. Its construction was financed through a subscription drive known as “one day’s wages”—a suggested member gift of $9. In total, 123,890 Masons and 457 lodges joined the “honor roll” of donors, totaling more than $2.7 million toward its construction.
AUGUST 23, 1960 | The first patients are admitted to a newly built 131-bed hospital at the Masonic Homes.
APRIL 29, 1961 | The cornerstone is laid for the new Millard Sheets–designed Scottish Rite Temple in Los Angeles, described by one art historian as “one of the most beautiful Scottish Rite temples that ever existed.”
OCTOBER 14, 1964 | Completion of the Charles Albert Adams Hall at the Decoto home, a new 90-person dormitory designed specifically to accommodate married couples.
1965 | The California Masonic Memorial Temple hosts the San Francisco International Film Festival, which featured a tribute to Walt Disney, who made a rare appearance in person at the festival.
1965 | Peak of membership: 244,586.
MARCH 5, 1969 | The California Masonic Foundation is incorporated. The new foundation’s endowment is seeded through the sale of the Masonic clubhouse at UC Berkeley in 1968 and the later sale of the UCLA clubhouse in 1973, and begins organizing a series of college scholarships— including one for young women funded by a $218,000 gift from the Order of the Amaranth. Today, the foundation also focuses on senior care and childhood literacy.
AUGUST 18, 1973 | The Masonic Home for Children in Covina is rededicated following a three-year renovation by architect A. Quincy Jones that saw the construction of 10 new cottages and a community center. “With no fear of contradiction, the Covina Home for Children now stands as the finest facility of its kind in the country,” reports board president Myron Smith.
1975-1999:
Diversification
As membership continued to shrink, California Masonry began to look inward. This started with member-recognition programs, including the statewide Mason of the Year Award and the Hiram Award, the latter being the highest honor a Master Mason can receive. Masons also launched the first Conference of the Three Californias, an important annual event to strengthen fraternal ties across the southern border; and in 1995 made fraternal history by entering mutual Masonic recognition with the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California. At the same time, the fraternity saw other firsts by turning outward, including its first sponsored float at the Rose Bowl Parade and its first major public-awareness campaign. As Y2K approached, the fraternity was much changed from its midcentury peak—and taking on new public face.
FEBRUARY 26, 1977 | The first Hiram Award is given at Galt Lodge № 267 to past master Glen W. Ingram. The program catches on quickly: By 1980, nearly every lodge is issuing Hiram Awards.
MAY 15, 1978 | Alongside Gov. Jerry Brown, Grand Master Donald B. McCaw presides over the rededication of the newly renovated state capitol in Sacramento.
MAY 25, 1978 | In front of a sold-out crowd, Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin is honored as the first California Mason of the Year. Magnin, a longtime member of West Gate № 335, is leader of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and one of the country’s best-known Jewish spiritual figures.
FEBRUARY 4, 1979 | The first annual International Congress of Three Californias is held in Tijuana.
FEBRUARY 1982 | A special newspaper insert is developed by the Grand Lodge of California commemorating the 250th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, reaching an estimated 4 million homes in California and Hawaii.
MARCH 5, 1986 | Several major developments are approved at the Masonic Homes: First, the construction in Union City of new 120-bed skilled nursing facility and the rebuilding of the Siminoff Masonic Temple. Meanwhile, in Covina, a new apartment complex is erected in 1989 to house 224 senior residents, who move onto the campus for the first time.
JANUARY 1, 1987 | For the first time, the Grand Lodge enters a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. The Grand Lodge sponsors Masonic floats annually until 2001.
1989 | The California Masonic Foundation raises more than $450,000 to fund a school program for the prevention of of drug and alcohol abuse. In subsequent years, the Foundation also launches the School Box Program and the Masonic Student Assistance Program, and funds the state Teacher of the Year Awards.
OCTOBER 17, 1989 | The magnitude-8.7 Loma Prieta Earthquake rattles the Bay Area. More than $87,000 in donations pour in from California Masons for relief.
1993 | The Grand Master’s Special Project Fund is established, with an initial $10,000 given to sponsor non-Masonic children at the Covina home.
FEBRUARY 1, 1996 | The Grand Lodge of California and the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California enter mutual Masonic recognition, ending a longstanding jurisdictional impasse. “I find it gratifying that the walls which once totally separated us are, like the Berlin Wall, beginning to crumble,” said Deputy Grand Master Charles Alexander in 1995.
1997 | The Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum of Freemasonry is founded. The library also sponsors the Institute for Masonic Studies, which underwrites a fellowship program for Masonic research.
OCTOBER 10, 1998 | Grand Master Anthony Wordlow joins hundreds of Masons to celebrate the centennial of the Masonic Homes of California.
1998 | At the suggestion of Allen Winter of Washington № 20, the California Masonic Foundation launches the KidsID program to assist law enforcement in missing-children cases. By the time the program winds down in 2010, it has identified 400,000 kids.
1999 | With membership continuing to decline, a three-year public relations campaign is launched, including taking out ads in 26 major newspapers, radio stations, and news magazines with the theme “Something so simple isn’t so secret.”
2000-Present:
Future Focused
California Freemasons entered the 21st century armed with a new digital toolkit to address membership, public awareness, and lodge administration. A professionalized Grand Lodge began providing support on lodge leadership, finances, and real estate. And new programs aimed at Masonic education and research position the state organization as a leader within the worldwide fraternity. Meanwhile, its many entities, including the California Masonic Foundation and the Masonic Homes of California, became integral providers of community support, responsible for a wide range of programs aimed both within and outside the fraternity. In recognizing 175 years of history, the Masons of California stand on a long history of charity, character, and camaraderie—an extraordinary endorsement of lives well lived by all Masons across time.
APRIL 13, 2000 | Grand Master Alvin Weiss and Prince Hall Grand Master Ronald Robinson are received on the floor of the state senate in recognition of the 150th anniversary of California Masonry.
2001–02 | California Masons raise $100,000 for New York relief following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
OCTOBER 15, 2002 | The minimum age of membership is lowered from 21 to 18; California is the last western state to make this change.
2005 | A total of $850,000 in scholarships are awarded by the California Masonic Foundation. That leads to the formation in 2011 of the Investment in Success scholarship fund. All time, it has provided $6.7 million to nearly 1,000 students.
DECEMBER 15, 2005 | Panamericana № 849 (now № 513) becomes California’s first Spanish-speaking lodge. Meanwhile, Ararat № 848 opens as its first Armenian lodge.
SEPTEMBER 2009 | Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol is released—still one of the most significant Masonic pop-cultural phenomena ever.
JULY 31, 2009 | The children’s program at the Masonic Homes in Covina is formally closed, eventually reforming in 2011 as the Masonic Center for Youth and Families, offering a wide spectrum of therapy, educational assessments, and emotional support for children and Masons of all ages.
AUGUST 2009 | In response to the Great Recession, Masonic Family Outreach Services is developed to provide emergency funds to Masons under 60.
2009 | Masons4Mitts launches with a bang. The fundraising effort, which provides free leather baseball mitts to kids playing in youth leagues associated with the San Francisco Giants, eventually expands to include the community foundations of the L.A. Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and L.A. Angels. Masons have since donated more than $2 million to the program.
MARCH 14, 2010 | The ribbon is cut at the Acacia Creek Retirement Community in Union City. Faced with a slow economy, the board makes the bold decision to open admission to non-Masons.
2011 | The Foundation partners with Raising a Reader, the national literacy nonprofit, raising $500,000 in the first year for its family reading program.
DECEMBER 3, 2011 | Together with UCLA, the Grand Lodge hosts the inaugural International Conference on Freemasonry.
NOVEMBER 18, 2015 | The World Conference of Grand Masters is hosted for the first time in San Francisco, drawing more than 1,000 Masons from 55 countries. Grand masters from the Grand Lodge of California, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California, and the Grand Lodge of Iran in Exile share the stage as cohosts.
2017 | The Let’s Write the Future giving campaign launches to fund facility improvements at the Masonic Homes and bring Raising a Reader’s family literacy program to 500 low-performing classrooms.
MARCH 2020 | In response to the pandemic, the Distressed Worthy Brother Relief Fund is launched to provide aid to Masons and their families facing job losses or other hardship. In its first six months, it raises more than $575,000 and distributes nearly a quarter-million dollars to Masons in need.
SEPTEMBER 2021 | The Pavilion at the Masonic Homes in Union City opens, dedicated to skilled nursing and advanced memory care. In Covina, the Citrus Heights Health Center opens in 2024 to provide similar services.
JULY 10, 2024 | More than 15 years after launching Masons4Mitts, the Masons of California are named the Giants’ official “mitt champion” as the Foundation pledges a three-year gift worth $650,000.
Collage art by:
Chen Design Associates
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