Masonic labor is purely a labor of love. He who seeks to draw Masonic wages in gold and silver will be disappointed. The wages of a Mason are in the dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason”

—Benjamin Franklin 

Scottish Rite Masonic Temple 

Designed by Hyman Whitcover in 1913, the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple located on Bull Street is perhaps the most strikingly beautiful building in all Savannah. 

And I say this with a great deal of surprise, having not noticed this building for how remarkable it truly is until I painted it en plein air for the first time here.  

Savannah is a place that offers many surprising delights; and this artist will certainly be back to spend more oil and brush time on this beautiful building! 

Hyman Whitcover spent his architectural career in Savannah and also designed Savannah’s City Hall, Sacred Heart Catholic Church and the Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob synagogue, among others.  

He later became a top official in the Freemasons and went on to design several Masonic Temples in cities throughout the American South. 

While construction on the Scottish Rite Temple began in 1913, funding problems slowed its completion until the early 1920s. The building was purchased recently by the Savannah College of Art & Design. 

Tea is vitality to every Russian, so I’m a frequent lunch-time visitor to the Gryphon Tea Room located in the corner of this building, directly across the street from the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory. 

For this painting, I am standing in a dark shadow of Madison Square. To my eye, the entrance side of the building is fully illuminated, as if it were a lightbulb itself, while the oval-like corner is hidden slightly in the shadows; reflecting a blue-haze directly above the tea room’s corner entrance. 

When you have a chance to visit the Whitcover’s building, Masonic themes are easy to find throughout its exterior features, including a compass and a shield, among other interesting symbols. 

I captured three curved street lamps in this painting; a random choice, certainly, but so beautiful in their placement, they couldn’t be ignored. And I could only share a small part of the second section of Whitcover’s facinating tripartite neoclassical design, with its three large columns symbolically upholding the Masonic emphasis on wisdom, power and harmony, or perhaps the ‘Three Degrees of Masonry.’ 

In front of me sits one of two cannons which mark the beginning point of Georgia’s Colonial Highway. 

Behind me stands a monument to Sgt. William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero who was mortally wounded attempting to retrieve his unit’s flag during the 1779 Battle of Savannah.  

They say fifteen Freemasons served as President of the United States. Named for James Madison — our fourth President, although not considered among those fifteen, but one who arguably ‘might’ have been a Mason — Madison Square has so much to offer the curious painter. Frankly, I could camp out in this square every day for a month, never painting the same scene twice and never becoming bored.