Category: Holidays

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

I have visited in many Scottish Rite theatres that had additional sets of painted scenery non-Masonic productions. Usually, they were produced in the 1940s of 1950s.  It was an early form of community outreach raising the awareness of Freemasonry. If you are educated about a Masonic group or have entered a Masonic building and met the members, there is less of a tendency to fear and hate them.

I have repeatedly encountered a series of painted winter scenes, many for “Christmas Carol” productions. The first time was when I acquired my own Masonic scenery collection from the Valley of Peoria, Illinois in 2010. The most recent set of winter scenes that I documented were in Quincy, Illinois.

They were painted on the BACK of existing Masonic scenes produced by Toomey and Volland Studios (St. Louis).

Enjoy these particular images as they were VERY difficult to photograph on site. Please remember that they would have been flipped to face the audience during the winter season! We will celebrate the next twelve days of Christmas with “winter scenes” from Masonic theaters!

 

Exotic stage scenes depicting the Middle East are often found on Scottish Rite stages across the United States.

Attached are some painted details from the Quincy Scottish Rite.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve!

 

As it is the Thanksgiving holiday, I have decided to share some scenery from the Blue Lodge design depicting a ship. Typically, the Masonic rocky shore scene includes either a painted ship or a cut-out ship that hooks onto the backdrop. In one Valley, they replaced the original ship with an obvious Thanksgiving decoration (the Mayflower). It is one of those “in-house” alterations that just makes me smile.

and the alternate for the same Scottish Rite Valley…

I have also included a few other original examples for context.