Guthrie Scottish Rite Masonic Temple

The Guthrie Scottish Rite Masonic Temple is one of the largest Masonic centres in the world, an enormous neoclassical structure completed in 1919 on East Oklahoma Avenue. The building covers an entire city block, with a 2,500-seat theatre, a ballroom, lodge rooms, and a library spread across four floors of limestone and brick. It was built during the height of Oklahoma's oil boom and reflects the extraordinary ambitions of the Guthrie Masonic lodges at that moment.

Guided tours run regularly and take visitors through the ornate ceremonial rooms, the theatre (which hosted Luciano Pavarotti, Lena Horne, and Henry Mancini), and the underground tunnels connecting the building's various wings. The scale of the interior is genuinely impressive; this is not a minor historic building dressed up for tourism. Architecture enthusiasts will find the craftsmanship in the woodwork and plasterwork alone worth the trip.

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A story
When the Oklahoma territorial legislature was debating where to locate the permanent state capital in 1910, Guthrie's boosters hoped the city's magnificent Masonic Temple — then nearing completion — would demonstrate the town's permanence and sophistication. The legislature moved the capital to Oklahoma City anyway, in what Guthrie still calls the "midnight raid," taking the state seal in the dead of night. The Temple was completed in 1919, a monument to civic pride in a city that had just been demoted.

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