The North Carolina Mason

Page 14 The North Carolina Mason March/April 2019 Masons in History McMillen crafted big designs for temples By Ludwik Wodka Grand Historian Prior to 1898, most Masonic Temples in North Carolina were fairly small buildings, at most only slightly larger than a residential structure. When an architect from Duluth, Minn., won the contract to design the new temple for the Wilmington Masonic bodies, a new kind of urban temple appeared in the state for the first time. Early in 1898, the Blue Lodges and York Rite bodies purchased the First National Bank building on Front Street, which was to be demolished and replaced with the new temple. e project was put out to bid, but the winner was Charles McMillen, an Irish-born architect based in Duluth. By the time he came to Wilmington in 1898, he had designed 14 Masonic Temples across the country and was regarded as an expert on the subject. e new building, estimated to cost $50,000, was expected to "stand as a lasting monument to the enterprise and loyalty of the Masons of Wilmington." e four-story building, which still stands on Front Street, was praised in the press upon completion in 1899. As a result, he was hired for numerous other projects in and around the city, becoming one of the leading architects in the Wilm- ington area. In Wilmington, he designed the new Oddfellows Temple, the Cape Fear Club, and the Murchison National Bank, along with numerous private residences. Outside of the Wilmington area, McMillen designed the Lee County Courthouse in Sanford and the Opera House in Fayetteville. In 1906, while the Grand Lodge of North Carolina was in the midst of planning a new temple in Raleigh, the architect engaged resigned to move to Richmond. e committee then elected to have Charles McMillen take charge of the work. McMillen carried out the plan- ning and supervision of what would become one of the state's first two steel-reinforced tall buildings (along with William Lee Stoddart's Inde- pendence Building in Charlotte). e location chosen was in the heart of the city, only two blocks from Capitol Square on a corner plot along Fayetteville Street, the city's prime commercial thoroughfare, where it still stands. Hailed by e Raleigh Times as the "handsomest building in North Carolina," the new temple was seven stories tall, plus a basement. is was one of the first buildings in North Carolina to employ fireproof construction techniques. Around the same time, the Winston-Salem Masonic Temple Company was planning to erect a building on the corner lot at Fourth and Trade streets, a space formerly occupied by the Piedmont Tobacco Warehouse. e Masonic bodies would occupy the top floor, but would rent out the lower floors. Of particular interest was that the contract for the design of the lodge room was awarded to Charles McMillan. e walls of the lodge room on the sixth story were to be 19 feet high, and "all the rooms devoted to lodge purposes will exceed in beauty and conveniece any lodge rooms in the state." Shortly after the completion of the Masonic Temple in Raleigh in 1907, Charles McMillen moved to Oklahoma. He died a few years later in 1911 at the age of 57, and was buried with Masonic honors. Postcards of the Raleigh Temple (above) and the Wilmington Temple, both designed by Charles McMillen. From the North Carolina Collec- tion Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill A friendly reminder about taking photographs in the lodge Most of us have a camera in our pocket. And we love to use it. We encourage Masons to shoot photo- graphs of lodge activities for their social media pages and share them with the NC Mason and the Grand Lodge for our pages. We love to see photos of installations, fundraisers, work days, dinners, degree teams – everything you do. Well, almost everything. We're seeing more photos from degree conferrals. As a friendly reminder, photos from degree conferrals carry the same potential penalty as writing out our ritual. The Board of Custodians offers this reminder for those who may not be familiar with Reg. 86-2.9 in our Code. It's easy to get excited seeing a friend receive his degrees. But photographing the presentation of aprons and working tools and the delivery of lectures and charges is prohibited. A good rule of thumb is to keep the camera in your pocket from the time the degree begins until the lodge is closed. Photos of candidates may be taken after meetings. Acceptable photos during lodge meetings or at the Grand Master's district meetings include special presentations both east and west of the altar for service awards, charitable donations to our homes/ foundation and any other special recogni- tions. Of course, photos during open instal- lations and public ceremonies are fine. Finally: Be careful when shooting brothers shaking hands. You can put a hand over the clasped hands to keep things out of the public eye or simply shake hands behind an award of certificate. We get many shots like this and try hard to crop them discretely. Just use common sense and don't photograph anything that you or your lodge wouldn't be doing in public.

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