Richmond's Mason's Hall

From The History of Mason's Hall, 1887

“The Masonic Hall deserves to be mentioned among the “ancient and honorable” edifices, though of comparatively of modern date. Its proportions are creditable to the architect, as its good preservation is to the brethren.”                                          Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in Bygone Days, 1856, 35

Richmond's Masonic Hall can be seen as the town's first assembly hall. Although built by a private organization with a membership that tracked closely with the city's business and political leadership, the hall, as the building changed over time, provided the city with a place for staging plays and shows and holding meetings. The masonic ritual was kept separate from the public use, mostly by restricting the public use to the ground floor. Masonic Hall, in spite of  its complex early building history and later alterations, clearly joins Philadelphia's Carpenter's Hall and New York's Federal Hall as an exemplar of the eighteenth-century tradition of the urban hall.  

What is a "hall"?

The traditional architectural descriptor of a “hall” in the eighteenth century United States can refer to a private or government-owned civic building characterized by a single large room which is used for purposes of assembly. Sub-categories include town or city halls, market halls, assembly halls, and craft halls. Descended from the great hall of the Middle Ages, and adapted as a courtroom, meeting room, or council chamber, these buildings, funded by public or private civic bodies, served multiple purposes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American cities. Examples of privately funded civic halls include Carpenters’ Hall (1775) and Philosophical Hall (1789) in Philadelphia, Masons’ Hall (c 1775) in Williamsburg, the Custom House or Exchange (1771) in Charleston, and Hamilton Hall, a two-story brick assembly room in Salem Massachusetts, (1805).




Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, 1774



Old City Hall, Philadelphia, 1791.

 

Federal Hall, New York, New York, 1788 

 

Charleston County Courthouse (1790-92)

 

Ripon Town Hall, Yorkshire, England, 1799.

Carpenter’s Hall, an elaborate two-story brick building completed for the primary use of a craft guild in 1775, contained a large room that doubled as an important meeting place during the formative years of the government of the United States. It was chosen to house the First Continental Congress. Halls were usually built for a specific purpose, but in order to fund their construction and maintenance, the owner often made them available for rental. It is also likely that the need for places to accommodate gatherings of citizens, whether political, religious, benevolent, or social in purpose, actually encouraged organizations, like the Masons, which included many community leaders, to erect a hall.   

In cases where the economic success of the community permitted, the hall was a built as a masonry building, signifying permanence and stability. The leaders of Richmond’s Masonic lodge, who were in many cases also the members of city commissions and the governing council, are thought to have intended a brick building, but were forced by circumstances to alter their designs to erect a frame structure clad in weatherboard.

In many cases the halls proclaimed their civic role by inclusion of a central pedimented pavilion crowned by a carefully proportioned bell-tower, that spoke (rather literally) of the regulatory oversight of the civic authorities.  This was the case at the Masonic Hall. Throughout the 1790s, there was no other building in Richmond with an appropriate tower from which a bell could be sounded to signal important events or emergencies. In 1793, the Governor loaned a bell belonging to the Capitol to be hung in the cupola of the Masonic Hall for the public purpose of calling alarms and signaling the opening and closing of the market.

Masons’ Hall, completed in 1787, must have been an impressive structure that dominated the nearby Market Square during the last years of the eighteenth century. According to one source, Masons’ Hall was “the most popular place in the city.” In Richmond during the 1780s, and until the brick Market Hall was completed in 1794, there was no place for public and private gatherings other than the church, the courthouse, and the temporary statehouse. According to one history, the large room on the ground floor was in frequent use as a place of amusement, for public and political meetings, and for religious worship. The delegates from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention are said to have met in Masons’ Hall before travelling to Philadelphia in 1787. "Here the Hustings Court of the city was held when the General Court was sitting in the courthouse, and John Marshall as recorder was having his first judicial experience" [Historical Sketch]. 

"Three times a week “Monsieur Capers” instructed the ‘youth of both sexes in the most approved court dances, and the latest and most popular figures and steps;’ here the citizens assembled to instruct their delegates to the convention on the absorbing topic of the adoption of rejection of the Federal Constitution; here grand balls were given on the 4^th of July and also on ‘the 22^nd of February, the anniversary of the birth of the illustrious General George Washington, whose exertions, under the smile of heaven, have been productive of freedom, happiness, and glory to a grateful people;’ here the Hustings Court of the city  was held when the General Court was sitting in the courthouse, and John Marshall, as recorder, was having his first judicial experience; and here, on Sunday afternoon, ‘dissenting ministers’ proclaimed the new era of religious freedom, and preached the gospel of Christ“ [“Ancient Lodge Celebrates Anniversary in Old Hall.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 30 October, 1906, 3].

Williamsburg Masonic Lodge, (c 1775) photographed in the early 20th century,

 

Masonic Lodges

Masonic lodges typically began by meeting in the public rooms of taverns and coffee houses. When they were ready to build a hall, Masonic lodges frequently chose to partner with a tenant or tenants to help pay for and maintain the building. The Williamsburg Lodge No. 6 appears to have occupied its own building by 1775. The small, T-shaped frame structure measured 16 by 32 feet. It held a lodge room on the second floor and rental apartment on the first [Paul Buchanan and Catherine Savedge, "Masonic Lodge Block 11 Building 3 (Not Owned) Colonial Lot #13", 1971].

In 1817, Alexandria’s Masonic lodge was incorporated into the new brick structure that also combined the uses of a city hall and a market hall. In much the same manner, the public-spirited citizens who belonged to Richmond's Randolph Lodge No. 19 appear to have designed the ground floor of their new building as a public assembly room. It was used for balls, plays, schools, and religious services. Its place was later augmented when a large room was opened above the new City Market in 1794 to house the city's governing council, had formerly met in the Henrico Courthouse. The Market Hall was available for use for assemblies (balls), meetings, school classes, theatrical presentations, and other activities.

Building Mason's Hall

Richmond Lodge No. 13 (later 10) was founded in Williamsburg’s Raleigh Tavern in 1784 and purchased a Richmond lot on 12 August 1785 from Gabriel Galt. The committee in charge consisted of George Anderson, Alexander Nelson, Foster Webb, Jr., Alexander McRobert, Patrick Wright, Samuel Scherer, and John Groves. According to a comprehensive history published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1906, the lodge laid a cornerstone on 29 October of the same year. A lottery, authorized by the state was advertised in March of 1786 to raise 1,500 pounds “for erecting Mason’s Hall” under the direction of the Common Hall of the city [Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, 30 March 1786].

With confidence in the lottery, building was commenced on what as to have been a substantial brick structure similar to contemporary civic halls in other American cities.  The hall was to house a meeting room available for use by the public Contractor William Booker was responsible for the construction effort. The lottery, however, languished for several years without the expected success and the popularity of the lodge suffered. As a result of the reduction of the lottery scheme, the lodge was forced to cut back its plans and change the design. According to the lodge history, building had to temporarily halted when only the brick basement story had been completed. A roof was installed over the completed ground-floor room, which enabled it to be used temporarily. The lodge went ahead with completion of the current building in framed wood instead of brick. It was completed in December of 1787, but the lodge had failed to raise sufficient funds to pay the builder.

One confirmation that the upper floors were added to an existing foundation is the exterior projection of the brick basement wall proud of the weatherboard above, resulting in a substantial ledge covered with a sloping wood water table. The completed building employs an architectural compositional device, invisible on the interior, of a slightly projecting pavilion containing the three bays and not closely corresponding to the entrance hall inside. The pavilion projects to align with the face of the brick basement, which displays no projection. This suggests a possibility that the pavilion was not part of the original design, but was added on top of the ledge when the building was completed in wood. 

With encouragement from lawyer and political leader John Marshall, a new lodge (Richmond Randolph Lodge No. 19) was chartered, the lottery reconstituted, and 400 pounds successfully raised toward the cost of the building. The lottery drawing was made in the building on 10 June 1788. Contractor Booker sued for his remaining 247 pounds in 1791. The contractor was finally paid by a loan from a wealthy member and its trustees installed about 1794, after a suit to clear the lodge's title to the property.

 

Mason's Hall (Virginia Department of Historic Resources). The lighting rod attached to the cupola shows up in early photographs.

Architectural Form

It appears that the hall was altered very little in first 80 or more years after its construction. The hipped roof, cupola, and weathervane are clearly depicted in the panoramic photograph taken in 1865 from the nearby top of Church Hill (above). It is clear that today's cupola and cornice are the same as those shown on the Virginia Mutual Fire Assurance Society policy sketch from 1802.

The principal façade shown on this drawing incorporated five window bays. The windows appear to have been filled with eight over twelve-light sashes (referred to as the "old 8 by 10 lights" in 1906). The basement still is lit by early six-over-nine-light sashes.

Mason's Hall from Virginia Mutual Assurance Society Policy, 1802. The basement story is not shown at all. The dentil cornice and cupola are the same today.

The central three openings were grouped closely together and incorporated within a projecting central pavilion. A double-leaf door at the center was headed by an arched fanlight. The central window on the second floor was also arched. The two arched openings were filled with "Gothic" fanlights. The pavilion that embraced the central three window bays was headed by a pediment with a central bull's eye window. There was no porch at the entrance.

Today, the building has larger four-over-four sash windows, a door with sidelights, and a porch added in 1872, but the dentil cornice, pediment, cupola, and many other original features remain.  The interior layout has been unchanged, although many of the furnishings and architectural fittings, including wainscots and ceiling decoration, have changed.

North Elevation, Mason's Hall, Historic American Building Survey, 1934.

 Interior Layout

Mason's Hall was the home of the Richmond lodges No. 10 and No. 19, as well as the Grand Lodge of Virginia until 1878. The two lodges shared the lodge room on the top floor of the building for nearly 100 years. In 1791, the two lodges shared the cost of the furnishings of the lodge room (including a new master's chair purchased in England) with the Grand Lodge [Josiah Staunton Moore, History and By-laws of Richmond Royal Arch Chapter No. 3, A.F. & A.M, 1911].

 

 

Lodge Room on the second floor.

The hall on the first floor of the building has, for most of the history of the building, been occupied by the chapter room of the Richmond Royal Arch Chapter, No. 3, although it is possible that this room was used for public assembly purposes during the building's first several decades. The chapter, organized around an advanced degree of Masonry, was founded in 1792 and originally met two times a year to confer degrees, although the records for the first decades are very incomplete and meetings did not occur at al in 1808 or 1809. According to the 1887 history of Lodge No. 19, all the business of the lodge was then transacted in a Lodge on the First Degree of Masonry, and a Lodge on the Fourth Degree was opened whenever it became necessary. . ." [Historical Sketch]. Today the chapter meets once a month.

It seems possible that the chapter originally met in the lodge room on the second floor, but that, as the York Rite ritual and organizational structure developed in the nineteenth century, it required a specially furnished chapter room, which is today located on the first floor. That would mean that the first-floor might have been originally intended to be the assembly hall used by members of the public. The chapter was meeting in its own room well before September of 1853, when it was recorded as "cordially tendering. . . the use of their room" to the La Fayette Chapter, No. 43, the latter "being deprived of its room by fire" [Moore 1911].

The basement or ground floor was often referred to as the refreshment room or the dining room, a purpose it still serves.

Basement, Mason's Hall, Richmond VA, Historic American Building Survey, 1934.

First Floor, Mason's Hall, Richmond VA, Historic American Building Survey, 1934. The exterior ledge on top of the basemen wall can be seen, as well as the projecting pavilion.

Second Floor, Mason's Richmond VA, Historic American Building Survey, 1934.

Among the many prominent citizens who belonged to the lodge, merchant and banker, Jacob I. Cohen “built up a reputation for stern integrity and was honored by his fellow citizens in many ways. At the August term of the County Court of Henrico, 1794, his name appears in a decree, together with that of John Marshall and others, who were to receive as trustees the Masonic Hall [Herbert Tobias Ezekiel, The History of the Jews of Richmond from 1769 to 1917, 19].

Another prominent Jewish merchant of the city, Joseph Darmstadt was elected Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1794, the same year in which the hall was received by its trustees.  At that time “a considerable sum was due on the Masonic Hall and the contractor had filed a lien. Darmstadt, with exceptional liberality, assumed the burden and soon after advanced the money to meet the debt” [Herbert Tobias Ezekiel, The History of the Jews of Richmond from 1769 to 1917, 27-28].   
In the early years the hall was in regular use. Since there was no Presbyterian Church in the city before 1812, the Rev. John Rice preached to the members if that denomination regularly in the Masonic Hall [Thomas P. Atkinson; “Richmond and Her People as they were in 1810, 11, and 12,” Richmond Whig 47:66 (18 August 1868) 1].  In 1808, Captain Price’s Artillery Company celebrated the Fourth of July and “partook of a soldier’s dinner at the Mason’s Hall, at which the utmost hilarity prevailed, [many] TOASTS were drunk with much enthusiasm, music, and the discharge of cannon” [(Richmond) Enquirer, 8 July 1808, 3]. 

The use of Mason’s Hall for meetings, religious services, exhibitions, and other events appears to have tapered off in the nineteenth century as other, larger venues became available. By the 1850s there were several such venues, including Metropolitan Hall, a former church, which advertised itself as a “FIRST CLASS PUBLIC HALL, on much lower terms than any other Hall of the same capacity. . . for Operas, Concerts, Lectures, or Public Meetings” [Richmond Whig, 36:11 (8 February 1859) 3].

Benjamin West, Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, exhibited in Mason's Hall in 1845. The monumental 10' by 15' painting must have been shown in one of the upper lodge rooms, due to its size and the difficulty of fitting it in the basement room. 

 Non-masonic use is, however, attested to in the newspapers of the antebellum period. One such event was an exhibition of the painting by Benjamin West called Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, painted in 1817 for the Pennsylvania Hospital [(Richmond) Enquirer, 17 December 1845, 3]. The large painting had been wildly popular and was viewed by 30,000 visitors in its first years of display in its own dedicated “picture house.”  Tickets were $.25 [Richmond Whig, 23 December 1845, 2].  

 In 1848, the Masonic brethren invited Generals James Shields and John A. Quitman, heroes of the Mexican War, to Richmond, where they gave addresses to the masons in the lodge rooms. “The Lodge rooms were then thrown open and the guests taken to the lower room, where from 3 until 4 o’clock Generals Quitman and Shields received the visits of a great concourse of ladies and gentlemen, during which time many tunes were played by a fine band under the direction of Signor George [(Richmond) Enquirer 1 Feb 1848, 4].   

 

Detail from the 1865 panorama of the city of Richmond looking west from Church Hill [Library of Congress]. The cupola of Mason's Hall is center left. The market and its bell tower is seen behind it.

 

Contemporary Photograph of Mason's Hall from 1906 article concerning the fire in the adjacent building [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 Dec. 1906, 14].



Mason's Hall Postcard, c. 1910





Detail from 1886 Sanborn Map, showing Mason’s Hall at upper left. This is the earliest detailed map.







Reconstruction of original appearance of Mason's Hall from Josiah Staunton Moore, History and By-laws of Richmond Royal Arch Chapter No. 3, A.F. & A.M, published in 1911. The drawing above appears to date from the 1887 pamphlet and may be a close approximation of its appearance before the renovations of 1872, although it varies somewhat from the 1802 sketch.

The Lodge decided to update the building in 1872. The windows were enlarged and given cornices. A new door with sidelights and transom was added was added at the main entry. The doorway was sheltered by a new, shallow, three-bay, Greek Revival porch with two fluted Doric columns flanked by antae and surmounted by a an Ionic entablature and a shallow pediment. The basement windows do not appear to have been altered. On the interior, the railing on the staircase was replaced, wainscot added, flooring renewed, and a central heating plant installed to replace the stoves used previously.   

This work was detailed in an article dated November 5, 1872 in the Richmond Whig. According to a later article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the reason for the repairs in that year was a fire in a neighboring building [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 18 December 1906, 14].

 

Old Mason’s Hall Repaired: Richmond Lodge, No. 10, and Richmond Randolph Lodge, No. 19, of Free Masons, in conjunction with Richmond Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, have completed their repairs to the old Mason’s Hall, on Franklin Street, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth, and the first meeting in the building since the repairs will be held this evening by Richmond Lodge, No. 10.

This is one of the oldest buildings in the city, having been erected previous to 1790, and has been ever since used for Masonic purposes.  The associations which cluster around it are, therefore, peculiarly sacred to the brethren of the “Mystic Tie,” and it has been recently remodeled and renovated, inside and out, with a view to its preservation. The windows, which were heretofore old-fashioned and small, have been removed and enlarged, and large lights substituted for the old eight by ten lights. The old handrail and balusters have been removed and elegant new ones of walnut and oak put in their place. New floors have been laid in the refreshment and reception rooms, and the former, with the lodge room, has been wainscoted. The refreshment hall has had its accommodations much enlarged. The building has been recently painted and carpeted and supplied with new gas-fixtures. The stoves have been removed, and a hot air furnace heats the whole building be means of pipes.

In addition to this, the entire building has been repaired throughout and a fine porch erected on the front or Franklin entrance, giving it an elegant modern appearance.  Many conveniences have been introduced and changes made, which render this one of the best buildings for the purposes for which it was designed to be found in the entire South.

 

Richmond Lodge, No. 10, meets there tonight and invites all brethren to unite in celebrating her return to the old home after an absence of several months.       

An adjacent building again caused damage to Mason’s Hall in 1906. On 12 December of that year, the stable next to Mason’s Hall burned and the fire nearly destroyed the structure. According to a newspaper article, “the damage done by the McDonough fire is not serious, and repairs will be made in a short while” [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 30 Oct. 1906]. A history written in 1927 reproduces material from the 1906 newspaper article, itself condensed from The History of the Mason’s Hall: The First House Erected for and Dedicated to Masonic Use in America (1785), Written by Worshipful Charles P. Rady, Historian of the Lodge, 1887.

Today the Hall remains in use as a Masonic Hall, owned and operated by Richmond Randolph Lodge No. 19, chartered in 1787. According to the Lodge's website, "Masons’ Hall is noted as the oldest continuously operating Masonic building built for Masonic purposes in the Western Hemisphere." The lodge request contributions for its preservation:

Masons Hall should be saved.  It is in dire need of repair and restoration.  Preliminary estimates exceed $2.0 million.  It should be restored and made available to the public so future generations may visit this exciting and important structure and learn about those who served freedom and tolerance during times this nation was born and strived to survive.  Masons Hall 1785, a Charitable Foundation, was established as a tax-exempt foundation by Richmond Circuit Court Judge James B. Wilkinson to preserve Masons Hall.  For additional information, visit the links on the side of this page.  To make a tax-deductible contribution and help us Save Masons’ Hall, please click here.  All donations go directly to preserving this historic structure.