Inside Dan Brown's Washington, D.C.
A New Book Spotlights Masonic Temples of the Nation's Capital
By Elizabeth McNamara | Online Only | Sept. 28, 2009
Dan Brown's new book was published in September 2009.
Robert Langdon, America's favorite symbologist, is at it again. Only this time the fictional character invented by author Dan Brown is code-cracking and puzzle-solving all over Washington, D.C., uncovering the secrets of freemasons. The Lost Symbol isn't the first book to use conspiracy theories involving Washington masons; critics have attacked the group as a cult since Congress held its first session in November 1800. Still, if Brown's best-selling Da Vinci Code is any example, the capital can soon expect throngs of fans trying to turn the city into a minefield of hidden symbols guarding America's lost secrets.
But what Washington-area buildings, if any, hold true Masonic significance? The obelisk-shaped Washington Monument; the pentagram formed by the city's avenues; e pluribus unum? Preservation sat down with Isaiah Akin, a brother at Naval Lodge No. 4 in Southeast Washington, to find out.
Isaiah Akin is the resident historian of Naval Lodge No. 4, but the day I meet him he wears no cape and has no visible square-and-compass tattoo. He has the crew cut of an accountant and carries the key to the temple on the same key chain that unlocks his house and starts his car. We enter a five-story, triangular building at 330 Pennsylvania Avenue, Southeast, near the U.S. Capitol, and walk into a hand-operated elevator smaller than a modern-day kitchen pantry.
"Originally this space was a closet on each floor," Akin says as we creep upwards. "They put in the elevator around 20 years after the building was built." The cage jerks to a halt, Akin unlatches the metal grate, and we walk through a set of doors to the oldest, continuously operated Masonic lodge in Washington.
"You know the phrase, 'Meet me at the level'?" I nod. "Well, this is the level," he says. The walls are painted bright blue and are covered with Masonic symbols. "Everything in here is exactly as it was when it was built in 1895; however, it wasn't painted until the twenties," Akin says, pointing to the Egyptian hieroglyphics bordering the 27-foot-tall ceiling. "Egyptian motif was in style then." The building was designed by architect William J. Palmer (a brother at Naval Lodge), and construction began in 1894. The top floor is at an odd angle from the rest of the building because walls in every lodge room must align with the compass. "It's very apparent from the sky," Akin says. "Google-Map it and look at the satellite image."
At one point more than 500 members crowded into this lodge room, spilling out the front doors and up the stairwell, Akin says. But after World War II, numbers declined. "People growing up in the 1960s weren't into what their parents were into," he says. However, since the release of Brown's A Lost Symbol, the Masonic fraternal order is back in the limelight. "We're seeing a lot of interested young men right now."
Akin and I leave the lodge room and sit down at a round table. One by one, I name a building mentioned in Brown's book, and Akin tells me whether or not the building has any Masonic affiliation.
The Library of Congress and the U.S. Capitol Building
Most architecture in Washington was influenced by the Masons, Akin says. After all, members of the fraternal order, or "speculative masons," were also "operative masons." Like artists signing their work, they often left their mark in the stonework. "A lot of the guys that belonged to Naval Lodge were working to construct the White House, the Capitol building and incorporating Masonic symbols into those buildings," Akin says.
The Washington Monument
Akin thinks the monument's designer was aware that George Washington was our nation's most famous mason. "It's an obelisk," he says, "which is not one of the traditional Masonic symbols. We use the square and compass and trowel and plumb and the level. But people often try to tie us back to Egyptian times, Biblical times." Also, Akin points out, lodges donated marble stones for the monument's construction.
CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va., and the U.S. Botanical Gardens
"These are all modern buildings, and we don't have any affiliation with them," Akin says. "Some of the folks that work there, I'm sure some of them are probably masons."
The Smithsonian Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland and the National Cathedral
"They're too new. But a fact of life with this city is, in almost any large government body you go to, probably somebody who works there is a mason."
The Scottish Rite Center on 16th Street NW
To become an initiated mason, a man must perform three sequential rituals. Each ritual is known as a "degree." (This is where the phrase "Give him the third degree" originates.) The Naval Lodge, Akin explains, is a Blue Lodge, meaning it only initiates members to the third degree. However, the Scottish Rite has degrees that reach as high as 33. "From what I've heard, Dan Brown doesn't really talk about the difference between a Blue Lodge and the Scottish Rite," Akin says. Degrees higher than the third degree are not superior levels to which masons aspire, Akin says; in fact, the 33rd degree is awarded in recognition of work done in the community. Akin says he's happy as a member of the modest Blue Lodge downtown: "We want to make ourselves better people, to help the community, to help the brotherhood and charity ... but I'm not a member [of the larger Scottish Rite], and my wife doesn't want me to join another lodge," he says.
As for the pentagram formed by avenues that theoretically point to the Capitol? Well, Akin points out that Rhode Island Avenue never connects with Connecticut Avenue, and Pierre-Charles L'Enfant—the city's planner—was never a mason. So creating a tour of the nation's capital city based around the landmarks featured in Dan Brown's book is as silly as trying to do a Mary Poppins tour of London. (I guess this comes as no surprise. After all, Brown's book also has the Redskins in the playoffs.)
But if you still want a Masonic tour of Washington, Akin suggests looking up. In Georgetown, look at the top floor of what's now the Abercrombie & Fitch store on Wisconsin Avenue, and you'll see a stained glass window with a Masonic "G" inside a square and compass. Or stop by the National Museum of Women in the Arts on New York Avenue—it was built as a Masonic Temple in 1907. Look to the top of the NMWA and you'll see a band of alternating Masonic crests. The square and compass is featured, and there is also an assortment of eagles, crosses, flames and shields. The cornerstone was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt (a mason) with the same gavel and trowel George Washington used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol in 1793.
Or, to see one of the remaining 38 active lodges in the District, walk by Akin's Naval Lodge No. 4 at Pennsylvania Avenue and 4th Street, SE. For all the recent interest in masonry, the building might not be around and active forever. "We're strapped pretty thin," Akin says. "If just one of our tenants moves out, the bank will own [the building]."
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Comments
Submitted by Jeanie at: October 11, 2009
How come no mention of architecture or photo of George Washington Masonic Tempe in Alexandria, VA???
Submitted by Daniel at: October 4, 2009
"(I guess this comes as no surprise. After all, Brown's book also has the Redskins in the playoffs.)" Zing! Good article!