CELEBRATING THE CENT
I
t is often said that architecture is the The operative masons knew this. Withnoblest of the arts. After all, it uses all of out this unifying principle, Freemasonry them. Like the gothic cathedrals, whose devolves to frivolity. spandrels and fan-vaults, flying buttresses Thus, in its heyday, the speculative and clerestories, seem to approximate heaven, Craft built remarkable edifices, purposed a building should enliven its inhabitants with to inspire all who entered (pun intended). a sense of its purpose. Form follows function, The Philadelphia Masonic Temple (1868as Louis Sullivan famously quipped, indeed, 73), the House of the Temple (1911-15), or but a building’s function must be more than the George Washington National Memorial mere integrity. It should elevate man. Raise (1922-32) are salient examples of this period him up, inspire him with the shape of the when, remarkably, the fraternity had approxicosmos. mately the same number of members as today. All the arts and sciences should converge Think about that. We talk about the there. great membership decline: We fret and wring
20
december 2022