The Scottish Rite Club makes its home in the historic Scottish Rite building, built in 1895. Constructed by the Tuckett family of the Tuckett Tobacco Company, it was also used as Officers’ Quarters for the Third Canadian Contingent in 1915. In 1916, it was used for the Canadian Red Cross effort.
The licensed Club has fine dining, meeting and banquet facilities. The original woodwork has been carefully preserved over the decades to maintain the elegant atmosphere and heritage. Local craftsmen carefully designed the interior woodwork and furniture that includes oak, bird’s eye maple, birch and cherry.
Scottish Rite leaders bought the property in 1920 as a future location for the Scottish Rite in Hamilton. The Cathedral, considered to be one of the best of its type in North America, was opened and dedicated on the 7th of May 1923. Since then it has undergone significant modernization including new seating as well as sound, lighting and staging systems. The Cathedral is also home to a magnificent 3000 pipe Casavant Frères organ dating from 1923 and carrying Opus No. 972.
When designed, the architecture of the building seemed to dictate it being called “The Towers”. Appropriately, the Scottish Rite complex is owned by Towers Inc. which is controlled by the three Scottish Rite bodies.
The Cathedral, Ballroom and unique Round Room are available to the general public and provide an elegant setting for weddings, business meetings and special events.
The grounds are well landscaped and surrounded by a Buckingham Palace style iron fence which was erected in 1904.
The Scottish Rite Masonic Story
The Scottish Rite is a world wide Masonic Fraternity with over 15,000 members in Canada. Its goals are designed to build on the moral and philosophical teachings found in the degree work studied in the Craft Lodge – the foundation of all Masonic work.
Operative Masonry dates back to the stone masons who built the Temple of King Solomon. Over the hundreds of years of development, speculative Masons have retained their roots by passing along their heritage portrayed in Craft Lodges around the world. The Lodge work culminates with the third degree when a candidate becomes a Master Mason. Universal concepts are based on Charity, Truth, Benevolence, Wisdom and Strength.
The Scottish Rite was born in France around 1740. This followed the organization of the Grand Lodge of England, established in 1717. Freemasonry spread rapidly and hundreds of Masonic degrees were created to enhance the teachings learned in the Craft Lodge.
In 1786 the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was brought into being in an effort to bring organization and structure to the chaotic condition of degrees in Europe. Supplementary degrees were established to strengthen and build on the teachings of the first three degrees conferred by the Craft Lodge. Scottish Rite degree lessons are taught through ritual, drama and allegory. They are communicated by skilled degree teams using period costume.
No degree of the Scottish Rite has its origins in Scotland. Two of the degrees are thought to have been created by Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay, a learned Scotsman, who was exiled in France. The term Scottish is a translation of the French “Eccossais” in the titles of some of the degrees of the Rite of Perfection.
In North America, the Scottish Rite began in 1763 in New Orleans, Louisiana and later in Hamilton, Ontario in 1868.
Today, the Scottish Rite in Hamilton is comprised of three Bodies: Murton Lodge of Perfection, conferring the 4th to the 14th degrees, Hamilton Sovereign Chapter of Rose Croix, conferring the 15th to the 18th degrees and Moore Sovereign Consistory conferring the 19th to the 32nd degrees inclusive. The 33rd degree is an honorary degree granted to deserving Scottish Rite Masons by the governing body of the Scottish Rite for all of Canada known as Supreme Council.
The Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation of Canada, established in 1964, funds medical research projects into “the puzzles of the mind” involving conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Dyslexia. For more information on the important work please visit the Foundation’s website at www.srcf.ca.
