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Charlotte: |
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Treasures bring pleasures to Charlotte Masons |
If you wish to see the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence displayed, the only place you can see it is inside the Scottish Rite Valley Temple here.
The same can be said for the professional architectural plans for all four floors of the Hezekiah Alexander house and lodge hall drawn by Jean Surratt, retired chief architect of the Belk department store.
At 4740 Randolph Road, within sight of the city center, is the focus of Scottish Rite activity in this largest NC city. Four carved oak and curved glass cases in its Great Room contain many original Masonic stories, pictures, documents and artifacts. Visitors get a taste of Mecklenburg Masonry from 1774 to today. They get to see heroes like Governor Jim Martin, merchant prince John Belk, Judge David Sentelle, Charlotte founder Hezekiah Alexander, war hero William Polk and movie cowboy Randolph Scott. Original photos of Presidents Jackson and Polk from the Library of Congress are there as well.
The exhibit makes a case for the first Mecklenburg lodge being named Phalanx because it was a hotbed of the revolution. (A phalanx is a military attack formation. It is the only Masonic lodge by that name.) It reveals details of how southern Masons moved to Brazil after the Civil War to found a new Masonic city, Americana, which today has a population of more than 100,000. |
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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