Seeing George Washington

It was a perfect fall day today so I changed my original plan of an art exhibit downtown and decided to walk to the other side of Old Town to visit the George Washington Masonic Temple. As you can see above, it is quite a beautiful building. I arrived just as a tour was starting so I joined in. I know very little about the freemasons and I kept thinking that my dad and brother would have gotten a lot more out of this tour than I did. The building was built as a memorial to George Washington who was very prominent in the Alexandria chapter of the freemasons. GW is really big in Alexandria, well in DC too - go figure. There are chairs he sat on, mugs he used, papers he wrote, all over the place.

I asked the very young tour guide (who himself was a mason) if there really were aliens in the basement. This is why Hollywood is filled with Canadian comedians. Americans have no sense of humour. My talents were wasted.

We didn't get to see any of the building that they actually use, but still it was quite a grand structure. I did find it funny that the guide kept stressing how the freemasons were not the same as the knights templar and that was all just pop culture mumbo jumbo, meanwhile, he referred to some rituals and practices that the masons follow that were directly taken from the knights templar. There was also a painting of some important person from the original knights who had sacrificed himself for his beliefs that was in their chapel. But no, the two groups aren't related at all. If he says so...

I asked about women in the masons and he said oh yes, yes they can join. Not the actual group of course but their own one run by women and called something else - and then only if they have a relative (male) who is a mason. Now I'm not saying that women should have to be allowed to join the masons, but if they aren't, just be honest about it.

We did get to go up to the observation level at the top of the tower. The temple sits on top of a hill and so has a wonderful view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately the fall here is not like at home so the colours are quite muted and not the golden yellows and brilliant reds of autumn in Ontario....