Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge Jr.
b. 1872 · d. 1933
30th President of the United States (1923–1929) and a Freemason. On November 1, 1923, before a crowd of roughly 14,000, Coolidge laid the cornerstone of the 101 Callahan Drive 101 Callahan Drive A 333-foot granite tower atop Shuter's Hill, completed 1932 by Freemasons across the United States to honor as Charter Master of . Conceived after an 1871 fire at the lodge's Old … on Shuter’s Hill using the same Alexandria-made silver trowel George Washington George Washington b. 1732 · d. 1799 Planter, military commander, and first President of the United States. Master of Mount Vernon from 1761 until his death in 1799, and a regular presence in Alexandria, which he … had used in 1793 to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. — born July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont — became the 30th President of the United States on August 3, 1923, on the death of Warren G. Harding. He was elected to a full term in his own right in 1924 and chose not to run again in 1928. He died January 5, 1933, at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Cornerstone of the GW Masonic Memorial, November 1, 1923
Less than three months into his presidency, Coolidge traveled to Alexandria to lay the cornerstone of the 101 Callahan Drive 101 Callahan Drive A 333-foot granite tower atop Shuter's Hill, completed 1932 by Freemasons across the United States to honor as Charter Master of . Conceived after an 1871 fire at the lodge's Old … on November 1, 1923. The ceremony, attended by roughly 14,000 people, brought together the Grand Masters of every U.S. Masonic grand lodge under William Howard Taft William Howard Taft b. 1857 · d. 1930 27th President of the United States (1909–1913) and 10th Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930) — the only person to have held both offices — and a Freemason raised in … (then Chief Justice of the United States) and used the same Alexandria-made silver trowel that George Washington George Washington b. 1732 · d. 1799 Planter, military commander, and first President of the United States. Master of Mount Vernon from 1761 until his death in 1799, and a regular presence in Alexandria, which he … had used in 1793 to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol — a trowel preserved across the intervening 130 years by Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 founded 1783 Alexandria's senior Masonic lodge, chartered in 1788 under the Grand Lodge of Virginia with as its first Worshipful Master. Custodian of the largest private collection of … [1] Scottish Rite Journal — "100th Anniversary of the GWMNM Cornerstone Laying" Website .
Coolidge had been raised a Master Mason on December 11, 1923 — five weeks after the Alexandria ceremony — at St. John’s Lodge No. 1 in New York; his 1923 participation at the Memorial cornerstone was therefore as President rather than as a member of the fraternity.
Sources
- 1.
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, S.J., U.S.A., "The 100th Anniversary of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Cornerstone Laying and the Scottish Rite," accessed 2026. Centennial-retrospective article on the November 1, 1923 cornerstone ceremony, including the reuse of the Alexandria-made silver trowel Washington had used to lay the U.S. Capitol cornerstone in 1793.
Website https://scottishrite.org/blog/article/100th-anniversary-gwmnm-cornerstone-laying/ →
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