Masonic Temple, Philadelphia

The Masonic Temple of Philadelphia is located at 1 North Broad Street, across the Philadelphia City Hall, and serves as the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. The Temple holds the Masonic Library and Museum of Philadelphia. The Temple welcomes thousands of visitors every year. In its seven lodge rooms, the Philadelphia lodges and the Grand Lodge conduct their meetings.

The Masonic Temple was designed in the medieval Norman building style by architect James H. Windrim. The enormous 10-ton granite cornerstone was laid in June 1868. Grand Master Richard Vaux used the same gavel that day used by George Washington to level the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793.

The interior, which took 15 years to finish, was mainly designed by the decorative painter George Herzog. The stylistic elements of the Middle Ages meld into a fantasy of Renaissance and Neo-classicism in the halls and a 19th-century "eclectic revivalism" in the lodge rooms.

On the first floor are the Oriental Hall and the Library and Museum, the Grand Banquet Hall, the Grand Master's Suite, and offices. Norman, Egyptian, Ionic, Corinthian, and Renaissance Halls share the second floor. On the third floor is Gothic Hall. Ornate corridors and stairways connect every room.