Remembering the Fraternity Club, San Francisco’s Masonic Private Club
From 1916 to 1961, the Fraternity Club of San Francisco, headquartered at the Palace Hotel, was the social center of California Masonry.
Masonic Assistance
The Center of It All
East San Diego № 561 has made service to others paramount. For that, it is the 2025 Joe Jackson Award Recipient
By Brian Robin
For more than a century, the members of East San Diego № 561 have given their blood, sweat, and tears to support the people around them. Especially their blood.
Having held semiannual blood drives for many years, the lodge has contributed several thousand units to local blood banks. According to the American Red Cross, a single pint of blood can save up to three lives.
That’s vital stuff—and just one of many ways the lodge has worked to help the world around it.
This fall, East San Diego № 561 was recognized with the prestigious Joe Jackson Award, issued annually by the Masonic Homes of California to the lodge that best embodies the spirit of Jackson, the late San Diego-area Mason who helped launch Masonic Outreach Services and who was a tireless advocate for Masonic relief. Robert Voss, the current master of East San Diego, called the award an honor—particularly as he knew Jackson—but insisted the group didn’t expect any special recognition for its philanthropic work. “We were just doing what we do,” he says.
What we do covers a lot of ground at East San Diego. For one, the lodge runs an annual “Widows Wellness Program,” through which volunteers visit the surviving spouses of lodge members to deliver a personalized card and box of candy. The visits double as wellness checks that often reveal health problems or problematic living arrangements. If warranted, lodge secretary James Rualo connects those families with support offered by Masonic Outreach Services, which can help provide funds, case management, and connections to local services. Even in cases in which that kind of assistance isn’t called for, a visit from a friendly face is always welcome, Rualo says. “At that age, life is lonely when you don’t have family around you,” he says. “It’s good to fill that gap and let them know they are remembered by the brothers.”
For new members of the lodge, the effort is a tangible reminder that service to others is a core tenet of Masonry. And getting to hear stories about the lodge’s old days from those families helps members new and old build a deep connection to the group.
Above: Members of East San Diego № 561 at several lodge events, including the Annual Ed Denton Memorial BBQ and twice-yearly blood drives.
That’s typically in evidence each year at the lodge’s annual Ed Denton Memorial BBQ, which
brings current members, their families, and lodge widows together for a fundraiser that helps support its charitable programs. Members make sure to provide rides to the event to all widows and elderly members. Says Voss, “That’s what Masonry is all about: helping our widows and distressed worthy brothers. That’s my mantra and I’m hoping future masters will follow in those footsteps.”
The lodge hall plays a big role in the story of East San Diego № 561. With such a large meeting hall and such ample parking, the San Diego Masonic Center is an apt name for what’s become a center of fraternal activity in the area.
In recent years, several other local lodges, including MW Manuel Luis Quezon № 874, have used the hall for their own meetings, usually for a nominal rental fee. “Members will come up to me and say, ‘Can we make our lodge available to the Red Cross of Constantine?’ Or another lodge starts up and asks if they can hold their meetings there. And I say, ‘Absolutely,’” Voss explains. “The more things that happen in our lodge, the better I like it. I want to keep that place buzzing.”
Buzzy is a good word for one of the lodge’s most recent charitable projects: supporting a youth robotics competition. Last year, the lodge joined MW Manuel Luis Quezon № 874 in donating money and computers to nearby Dailard Elementary School and Patrick Henry High School for their robotics teams, as well as to the Garage Engineers, a youth team made up of members from other local middle schools. This year, the Dailard team qualified for a regional competition in Texas, which the lodge’s funds helped cover the travel expenses for.
Programs like those are an inspiration, says Sol Silverman, director of Masonic Assistance and Outreach, and show that lodges can make a profound impact on both the community around them and on families within the fraternity.
“Their efforts show they’re a real leadership lodge,” Silverman says. “They’re doing everything, checking all the boxes.”
Photography by:
James Rualo
more from the archives:
The Massive, Invisible Impact of Everyday Masonic Charity
A celebration of the pancake breakfasts, the blood drives, the Teacher of the Year dinners—and the million other ways Masons give back.
At the International Conference on Freemasonry, a Masonic Fact Check
The International Conference explores Masonry in film, politics, and propaganda.