Monument Cornerstone Centennial

Monday 20th August 2007

With Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts,

M. W. Jeffery Black Hodgdon GM

and his suite of officers to commemorated the

The Grand Master wearing a Centennial pin (lapel)

The children of Provincetown greet the GM

Centennial of the Laying of the

Cornerstone of the Pilgrim Monument

on Monday

August 20^th, 2007

The Masonic cornerstone laying ceremony symbolizes giving the fruit of an individual or community’s labor to the greater good. Operative stonemasons hewed, squared and laid stones that formed the noble structures of antiquity and the soaring cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Their creations were more than mere piles of bricks and granite; they were symbols of man’s persistent desire to establish order and harmony in the building of communities.

The working tools for this Centennial celebration were the square, level and plumb officer’s jewels made by Paul Revere for King Hiram’s Lodge in 1796. The original trowel used by Grand Master John A. Blake, Governor Curtis Guild and President Roosevelt to lay the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Monument 100 years ago will spread the allegorical cement of Brotherly Love.

In a Masonic Laying of the Cornerstone ritual, the ancient working tools of the stonemason are applied to the stone. With each application, the officers attest to the fact that the craftsmen have done their work correctly and with skill. This ceremonial testing of the cornerstone by the square, level and plumb alludes to the testing of each Mason’s virtues during his lifetime in preparation for that House, “eternal in the heavens, not made with hands”

As we celebrate this centennial of an historic event, we record ourselves in the continuing history of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum

On the Pier welcoming the Grandmaster: