List of Masonic buildings in the United States identifies notable Masonic buildings in the United States. These have served as meeting halls by

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

Grand Lodge A Grand Lodge (or Grand Orient or other similar title) is the overarching governing body of a fraternal or other similarly organized group in a given area, usually a city, state, or country. In Freemasonry A Grand Lodge or Grand Orient is the us ...

s or other

Masonic bodies There are many organisations and orders which form part of the widespread fraternity of Freemasonry, each having its own structure and terminology. Collectively these may be referred to as Masonic bodies, Masonic orders or appendant bodies (or ...

. Many of the buildings were built to house Masonic meetings and ritual activities in their upper floors, and to provide commercial space below. Many of the buildings listed have received

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

status, either by being listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(NRHP) or listed by various State or City preservation agencies. In 2021, more than 400 Masonic buildings are listed here. KEY

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Masons in California grew from 258 members in 1850 to over 63,000 in 1918, declining to 46,000 in 2019.

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

has been the site of several significant Masonic buildings.Henry Leonard Stillson and William James Hughan, editors (1906),
History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons
'. Boston and New York: The Fraternity Publishing Company. Pages 248-250. * In 1830, the

Grand Lodge of Massachusetts The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, commonly referred to as the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and abbreviated GLMA, is the main governing body of Freemasonry within Massachusetts ...

bought land on

Tremont Street Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts. Tremont Street begins at Government Center in Boston's city center as a continuation of Cambridge Street, and forms the eastern edge of Boston Common. Continuing in a roughly so ...

to build a Masonic Temple. A building was constructed on the site and dedicated in 1832, but initially could not be owned by the Grand Lodge because of legal limitations on the value of

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

that the Grand Lodge could hold. Masons used the Masonic Temple for meetings until 1858, when the building was sold to the

U.S. government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

for use as a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

. The building lent its name to the Temple School, established by

Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and av ...

, which was housed in the building during the 1830s. The 1832 Masonic Temple, located at the corner of a street named Temple Place, also held a concert hall and was the site of many public lectures by

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, including his reading of ''

The Transcendentalist ''The Transcendentalist'' is a lecture and essay by American writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is one of the essays he wrote while establishing the doctrine of American Transcendentalism. The lecture was read at the Masonic Temple in Bo ...

'' in 1842. Following its sale to the government, it housed a courthouse until 1885.A Boston Courthouse: Reminiscences of the Anti-Masonic Campaign Revived
''The New York Times'', May 19, 1885. (From the ''Boston Traveller'', May 16, 1885.) * Beginning in 1859, Boston's Masons occupied a building at the corner of Tremont and

Boylston Street Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay, and e ...

s that was known as Winthrop House, and that was rededicated as "Freemason's Hall" in December 1859. That building was destroyed by fire in April 1864. A grand new Masonic Temple building, designed by

Merrill G. Wheelock Merrill Greene Wheelock (1822–1866) was an artist and architect in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century. He served in the Massachusetts infantry in the American Civil War. Biography Wheelock exhibited at the Boston Art Club (1857) an ...

, was built in its place on the same site and dedicated in 1867. The second temple was also destroyed by fire in 1895 and replaced at the same location with a building designed by George F. Loring and Sanford Phipps, dedicated on December 27, 1899. Also in Massachusetts:

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Puerto Rico

List of masonic buildings in Puerto Rico, an

insular area In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sov ...

of the United States, include:

References

{{Lists of clubhouse buildings Mississippi

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

Masonic buildings Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...