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 (pictured above) is elected as grand master.
A Timeline of 175 Years of California Freemasonry.
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. —Timelines by Jeanette Yu
The Grand Lodge of California officially opens in Sacramento, bringing together members for the first time from three charter lodges. Jonathan Drake Stevenson (pictured above) is elected as grand master.
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.
The Benicia Masonic Temple opens (seen above), the first purpose-built lodge in California.
A dispensation is issued to San Diego № 35, the first Southern California lodge. The second, Los Angeles № 42, opens in 1853.
Membership more than doubles to 500.
B.D. Hyam, a founding member of Benicia № 3, 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.
A short-lived California dispensation is issued for Pacific Lodge № 1 in Valparaiso, Chile.
Three charter lodges join to form the first Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California, the historically Black fraternity.
The San Francisco Masonic Board of Relief (seen above) 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.
Masons lay the cornerstone for a new Grand Lodge temple in San Francisco (seen above, in background). The temple is later destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
California Masons including Gov. John G. Downey (above) lay the cornerstone for the new state capitol in Sacramento.
Abolitionist Thomas Starr King (above), a Unitarian minister and a member of San Francisco’s 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.
Golden Gate № 1, the first local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, opens in San Francisco.
The Great Fire of Chicago ravages that city; in response, California Masons raise more than $13,000 to provide relief.
Grand Master Leonidas Pratt lays the cornerstone for the new San Francisco City Hall building.
By the end of its first quarter-century, the Grand Lodge of California has chartered nearly 200 lodges and membership stands at 11,000.
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.
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.
The Triennial Conclave of the Knights Templar (above) is held in San Francisco, featuring a parade down Market Street that draws tens of thousands of spectators.
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.
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).
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 (seen above), 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.
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.
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.
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.
The Masonic Home for Widows and Orphans (above) 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.
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.
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.
California Masons lay the cornerstone for the Siminoff Temple at the Widows and Orphans Home (above). Morris Siminoff, a Russian immigrant, successful textile manufacturer, and member of Fidelity № 120, presents a $30,000 gift to fund its construction.
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. It is today the Covina campus of the Masonic Homes of California.
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.
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 (above). 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.
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.
Construction of a new hospital at the Masonic Home begins, a gift from Grand Treasurer Edward Coleman.
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 (above). 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.
A dispensation is granted to Al Malaikah Temple in Los Angeles, the first meeting of the Shrine in California.
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.
The Masonic Ambulance Corps leaves San Francisco to begin training, eventually reaching the frontlines in France. (Logo seen above.) During WWI, California lodges raise nearly $70,000 (equivalent to $1.5 million today) for a new War Fund.
The Order of DeMolay is founded, followed in 1920 and 1921 by other Masonic youth orders: Rainbow Assembly and Job’s Daughters.
Grand Master Charles Adams proclaims the first statewide Masonic Public Schools Week (now Public Schools Month).
Shriners Hospital for Children opens in San Francisco.
Paradise Park Masonic Club, a village of cottages in the Santa Cruz Mountains owned by California Masons, is incorporated.
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.
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.
The cornerstone is laid for the new Long Beach Scottish Rite Cathedral (above). 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.
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.”
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.
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.
Earl Warren (above), a past master of Sequoia № 349 in Oakland 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Total membership reaches 150,000, spurred by record-high initiations in 1944, 1945, and 1946.
Centennial celebrations are held for California № 1 in San Francisco and Western Star № 2 in Shasta.
The year 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.
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 (above, cutting cake) were the actors Clark Gable, John Wayne, and Audie Murphy.
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).
The Grand Lodge’s first official publication, California Freemason Magazine, 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.
A record 1.1 million people attend Public Schools Week events in California, organized by local Masonic lodges.
More than 2,500 Masons gather for a groundbreaking ceremony at the new California Masonic Memorial Temple (above). 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.
The first patients are admitted to a newly built 131-bed hospital at the Masonic Homes.
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.”
Completion of the Charles Albert Adams Hall at the Decoto Home, a new 90-person dormitory designed specifically to accommodate married couples.
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.
Peak of membership: 244,586.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alongside Gov. Jerry Brown, Grand Master Donald B. McCaw presides over the rededication of the newly renovated state capitol in Sacramento (seen above).
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
The first annual International Congress of Three Californias is held in Tijuana. The conference, which has continued to meet, brings together Masonic leaders from California and Mexico.
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. (Groundbreaking ceremony seen above.)
For the first time, the Grand Lodge enters a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade (above). The Grand Lodge sponsors Masonic floats annually until 2001.
The magnitude-8.7 Loma Prieta Earthquake rattles the Bay Area. More than $87,000 in donations pour in from California Masons for relief.
The Grand Master’s Special Project Fund is established, with an initial $10,000 given to sponsor non-Masonic children at the Covina home.
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. Pictured above, the first delegation of Prince Hall Masons to be received at the Grand Lodge of California's Annual Communication.
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.
Grand Master Anthony Wordlow joins hundreds of Masons to celebrate the centennial of the Masonic Homes of California.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
California Masons raise $100,000 for New York relief following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The minimum age of membership is lowered from 21 to 18; California is the last western state to make this change.
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.
Panamericana № 849 (now № 513, above) becomes California’s first Spanish-speaking lodge. Meanwhile, Ararat № 848 opens as its first Armenian lodge.
Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol is released—still one of the most significant Masonic popcultural phenomena ever.
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 (opening ceremony pictured above), offering a wide spectrum of therapy, educational assessments, and emotional support for children and Masons of all ages.
In response to the Great Recession, Masonic Family Outreach Services is developed to provide emergency funds to Masons under 60.
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.
The ribbon is cut at the Acacia Creek Retirement Community in Union City (right). Faced with a slow economy, the board makes the bold decision to open admission to non-Masons.
The Foundation partners with Raising a Reader, the national literacy nonprofit, raising $500,000 in the first year for its family reading program.
Together with UCLA, the Grand Lodge hosts the inaugural International Conference on Freemasonry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (seen above).