First Masonic Hall

The Masonic cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1818, but work dragged on: the building was first occupied in 1823 and finished in 1825. It was a two-story brick building with a large hall on the first floor and lodge and Royal Arch chapter rooms above. The Tennessee General Assembly met there from 1824 until 1853, when it moved into the new State Capitol. After the 1856 fire it was rebuilt as a five-story building, with construction delayed, especially during the Civil War. The Grand Lodge's later buildings stand on Seventh Avenue North.

What the plaque says

First Masonic Hall Across the alley stood the first Masonic Hall in the state, designed by architect Hugh Roland in 1818. Marquis de la Fayette was entertained there in 1825 by Past Grand Master Andrew Jackson. The 17th General Assembly of Tennessee met there in 1827. The structure, much used as a civic center, burned in 1856. The rebuilt hall was used as a hospital supply store by Federal troops during the Civil War.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — steps away
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• Ryman Auditorium — steps away
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• National Museum of African American Music — 0.2 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 0.3 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.

More markers nearby

• Maxwell House Hotel — steps away
• Downtown Presbyterian Church — steps away
• Birth of Bluegrass — steps away
• The Nashville Slave Market — 0.2 mi