This temple was the first Kansas City home for world’s oldest fraternal organization
Freemasonry claims to be the oldest fraternal organization in the world. What began in the Middle Ages as a guild for members of the building trades gradually grew into something much bigger.
Perhaps even (according to some) a secret order that aimed to rule the world.
Remember the “DaVinci Code”?
Scottish Rite Freemasonry, an offshoot of the original organization, arrived in this country in the 1700s. Kansas City, Missouri, got its first chance to form a so-called Lodge of Perfection in 1884.
But things didn’t go perfectly, and the charter was rescinded just a few years later.
The next iteration, The Adinoram Lodge of Perfection #2, fared considerably better—though the group had no permanent home to hold its meetings and ceremonies for nearly 20 years.
In 1904, despite devastating floods the year before, they raised enough funds to open the doors on an impressive brick temple at 15th Street (now Truman Road) and Troost Avenue.
Like many other Scottish Rite facilities built in that era it sported turrets, towers and stained glass windows. Inside, 1,500 people could gather in its ballroom for meetings and ceremonies.
But only twenty five years later, the lodge moved on to a new and grander location on Linwood Boulevard.
The Friendship Baptist Church acquired the building in 1940, followed in the 1960s by the Evangelical Center Church. It managed to survive the freeway construction that razed much of the neighborhood, but finally succumbed to a fire in 2016.
A time capsule from the temple’s cornerstone was discovered in the ashes, and opened at a ceremony a few months later. But the 1903 stash held no dramatic insights into freemasonry—just old newspapers, Scottish Rite publications and $500 of Confederate currency.
Having trouble viewing the video? Watch it here.
Looking for more Kansas City history?
It’s the Trolley Trail now, but streetcars like the Country Club Line were vitally important to KC’s growth
How three Wyandot sisters took dramatic action to save tribal burial grounds in KCK more than one hundred years ago
How Joseph Smith and his band of Mormons played a significant role in the earliest days of Jackson County