The New Masonic Temple 80 Year Anniversary Celebration

Brother John W. Ratcliff, Junior Warden of Napthali Lodge #25, giving the educational presentation on the building of the temple.



On this past Thursday, October 19th, an open presentation was given at the New Masonic Temple in the third floor Blue Lodge room where Napthali meets. The presentation was received by about thirty guests.

Much of the text in the presentation is actually in 'future tense' since it was copied directly from Masonic publications before the Temple was completed.

Here is the link to the presentation in HTML where you can browse it online. The bulk of the presentation is in the 'notes' section, since the slides are mostly showing pictures from the temple.

If you don't want to fuss with the online version, we have just uploaded the Powerpoint Slides directly. Read the notes section of the slides to get the spoken text that should go with it.

The oline presentation is here.
The power point slides are here.


Meryl Jannusch, member of the Temple Board Association, showing off the Happy Birthday cake for the celebration.

The 80 Year Anniversary of the New Masonic Temple

Napthali Lodge #25 will be holding a special presentation on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at the New Masonic Temple located at 3681 Lindell Boulevard in Saint Louis. This educational presentation is to mark the 80 year anniversary of the building of this magnificent structure. Napthali lodge was established in 1839; now in its 167th year, and was one of the original tenants in the building. The New Masonic Temple was built by Missouri Masons, through their donations, for a cost of four million dollars. Built to serve the 25,000 Master Masons in the Saint Louis area as well as the Royal Arch, Eastern Star, and Knights Templar it stands today as a monument to the great achievements Masonry made in the past century. It once held the Grand Lodge of Missouri and the personal office of Most Worshipful Grand Master Harry S. Truman.

Next Thursday Brother John W. Ratcliff will be presenting a 30 minute educational lecture about the building of the temple. Using material and photographs from the 1920s the presentation will focus on the great struggle the craft undertook to build this historic monument. Napthali Lodge will open with its regular business meeting promptly at 7pm and try to dispense with essential business briefly. All Master Masons are welcome and invited. Immediately after the business meeting the lodge will be open to guests for the presentation. Spouses, friends, and children are welcome and invited to attend the open presentation and share some light refreshments. Although there will not be a formal tour of the building this is still a great opportunity to see the beautiful lobby and sit in the magnificent blue lodge room where Freemasons have met for 80 years.

It took great dedication and vision to build the temple 80 years ago. Today the temple is a grand monument that has been passed down to us by our fathers and grandfathers. It is worthwhile to honor them and their great achievement simply by continuing to meet in the Blue Lodge room for so long as we can.

If you plan to attend the meeting please send an email to Brother John W. Ratcliff. We would like to have a general idea how many people to expect to be sure to have enough refreshments.

School of Instruction at the New Masonic Temple

Today, on March 11th, 2006, The Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge Of Missouri held a school of instruction at the New Masonic Temple which was hosted by Naphtali Lodge #25; over 85 Master Masons were present for this incredible day.

Master Masons met for followship and donuts at 8:00am. Instruction began at 9am with the second section of the third degree. Afterwards there was a break for a lovely lunch and more fellowship. In the afternoon the entire initiation ceremony was practiced. The School of Instruction was organized by Regional Grand Lecturer Right Worshipful Brother Joe W. Johnson. The refreshments were generously provided and served by Brother Johnson's family; including his wife, daughter, and son-and-law who together made this special day a great pleasure for all who attended.

The day ended with a complete and thorough tour of the entire building. It was a tremendous honor to explore this great architectural treasure which has been handed down to us by our forefathers 80 years ago this October.

Please click on the following link to access a photo-gallery of facility. These photographs were uploaded at full resolution, mostly to showcase the amazing stained glass in the commanderie room.

Finally, remember that on this Thursday, March 16th, Naphtali Lodge will be holding its regular meeting at the New Masonic Temple. Master Masons are always welcome. On March 30th Naphtali will hold a special communication to confer two Entered Apprentice Degrees. Master Masons of Missouri and the surrounding area are welcome and invited to sit in lodge while these ancient ceremonies are conducted in this incredible facility.

Remember, Master Masons of Missouri, this building belongs to you! It was built for you by your fathers, and grandfathers, and they left it as a legacy for you to protect. The fastest, and best way to keep this facility alive is simply to sit in lodge with your brother.

To hear the voices of 85 Master Masons in unison sitting in the single blue lodge room (that can hold180) was a glorious thing. Let us not wait for another major event to fill these seats once again. Please feel weclome to share in followship with Naphtali Lodge #25 on the third Thursday of each month in the hopes that the lodge will humbly reflect that order and beauty which reigns forerver before his throne.