A spate of new Masonic lodges have gone up across the state in recent years. What they are building is reshaping the landscape of California Masonry.
Prince Hall Grand Master David San Juan and G. Sean Metroka of the Grand Lodge of California on deepening an important Masonic partnership.
Largely overlooked by historians, Prince Hall remains a towering figure of both Masonic history—and American history writ large.
At La France No. 885, a longstanding legacy of French Freemasonry in California is being carried into the future.
Across the state, California Masons are reaching out across lodge lines.
Founded in the 1850s and still active today, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California is building on a proud history.
At Gat Rizal No. 882 in Menifee, California, a Masonic lodge takes its name—and inspiration—from a national hero of the Philippines.
At Oakland No. 61, two historic East Bay groups dating from the 1800s are teaming up to form a new kind of Masonic lodge.
At Logos No. 861 in San Francisco, handmade, lovingly crafted material culture is part of the very fabric of the lodge.
The political fights of daily life are conspicuously absent from the Masonic lodge. Can those lessons be practiced in the outside world?
When a monument to his grandfather came under newfound scrutiny, Julius Kahn used the opportunity to shine a light on a lesser-known familial legacy: Florence Prag Kahn.
Politics, religion, and money: An expert on “manliness” explains how to discuss these tricky topics.
The Masonic Homes of California evolved from a 19th century widows and orphans home into an innovative apparatus of care and relief.
For new CEO Terry Quigley, there’s a solid foundation—and amazing potential—at the Masonic Homes of California.
For generations, the world’s greatest magicians have found a second home in Masonry. Why have Masonry and magic shared such a close connection?
For 200 years, magician Richard Potter—once the most famous performer in America, and a Prince Hall Mason—has kept the public guessing.
Meet the experts of two crafts: Exploring the hallowed roster of famous master Mason-magicians, from Harry Houdini to Lee Grabel.
The story of Freemasonry is one of death and rebirth. As recent events show, when it comes to California Masonry, what’s old is new again.
From Ferndale to Big Bear, California’s small-town Masonic lodges have their own unique character—and offer a model for community involvement.
For 64 years, the California Masonic Memorial Temple in San Francisco has been the home of the Masons of California. But it’s so much more.
Artist Emile Norman never became a household name. But his massive artwork remains a treasure of California Freemasonry in San Francisco.
At Freemasons’ Hall, inside the Grand Lodge of California temple in San Francisco, the past and future of Masonic lodge rooms collide.
A skateboarding Mason and installation artist at Yucca Valley No. 802 is shredding perceptions about Freemasonry.
A history-spanning, forward-looking celebration of the fraternal and cultural connections between California and Mexican Freemasonry.
For members of California’s two official Spanish-speaking Masonic lodges, the sense of brotherhood is twice as strong.
In the revolutionary movements of Latin America, Central America, and South America, Freemasons were front and center.
In the past two decades, the number of Freemasons in Brazil has practically exploded. Inside a cultural and fraternal phenomenon.
In 1909, a special delegation of California Masons set for Mexico City to deliver a world-famous Masonic traveling “Unity” trowel.
A road trip through Cuba reveals a thriving—and colorful—Masonic community full of eye-catching Masonic lodges.
Meet a group of California Masons who also belong to Masonic lodges in their home countries in Latin America.
From Mexico to Argentina, Latin American countries embody a wide range of Masonic rituals, from the familiar to the highly esoteric.
Freemasonry offers a framework to living a better life. That’s why it holds so many lessons for confronting death—and whatever comes next.
In rural Tuolumne County, a new effort to bring a pair of Gold Rush era Masonic cemeteries back to life.
Buried among the rocks and rubble of San Francisco’s Aquatic Park breakwater, a reminder of a long-lost Masonic graveyard.
It takes a special temperament to succeed as a mortician—and one, it turns out, that Freemasons are well suited to.
Meet three Masons with an intimate familiarity with death—and the other side.
