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Iowa Masonic Library and Museum
Building on March 28, 2011
Location	813 First Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Built	1955
Location of Iowa Masonic Library and Museum in Iowa

The Iowa Masonic Library, Museum and Administration Building or Grand Lodge of Iowa building or Iowa Masonic Library and Museum, located at 813 First Ave. SE, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, is a building whose dedication was asserted to be the most important event in Iowa masonry during the 20th century. It serves as a home to a library, several museum collections, and is a public building.

Library

According to the Grand Lodge of Iowa, "The Iowa Masonic Library is reputed to be the largest in the world, and is at least one of the top five, with over 100,000 volumes. Both Masonic and general books are included in the collections and the library is open to anyone, whether Masons or not."

It was the location in 2008 of the Masonic Library and Museum Association (MLMA) annual meeting, 80 years after a similar meeting in Cedar Rapids at the original Masonic Library.

The extensiveness and public access of the Masonic library is valuable at times. For example, it is noted by a University of Florida historian that Joseph A. Walkes Jr., longterm editor of the Prince Hall research journal Phylaxis, frequently laments, in its pages, the absence of comprehensive state-by-state records. More than once in my efforts to gain access to a lodge, I was told that the lodge building and whatever records were there were not available to me because they were "secret." Nevertheless, a fairly large, though hardly comprehensive, public collection of Prince Hall materials can be found at the Iowa Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa." Likewise a University of Wisconsin-Madison historian notes "Substantial collections of published black Masonic proceedings (which appear in significant numbers only from the 1870s on), pamphlets, and other publications are available at Masonic libraries, including the National Heritage Museum (Lexington, Mass.), the Livingston Library (New York, N.Y.), and the Iowa Masonic Library (Cedar Falls). African American grand lodges, including the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, may make their collections available to scholars....."

Museum

It includes three museum collections and is open to the public. The museum collections are extensive and include a Masonic collection on the first floor and a Non-Masonic collection on the 2nd floor, consisting of thousands of items. Also there is the Charles H. Swab Memorial collection, donated by deed in 1958.

One of the more interesting artifacts is a Civil War flag, which served as standard for the Iowa regiment in the Battle of Champion Hill, where 97 Iowans were casualties.

In 2008, the Masonic Library became the temporary location of the African American Museum of Iowa, whose building at 55 12th Ave., SE, was flooded in the Iowa flood of 2008.

Building

The building was built in 1955. It cost over a million dollars: "The new building cost a little over $1,000,000. it is constructed of Vermont Marble, with grey marble from Carthage, Missouri, lining the interior halls. Metal work in the windows, doors and stair rails is of bronze. The main portion of the building is over 245 feet long and 50 feet wide, while the library wing at the west end is 113 feet deep."

The front facade includes an inscription: "Behold the Lord upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand."

The history of the fundraising and planning for the building is extensive.

It is a contributing building in the Grant Wood Cultural District, certified in 2010 by the Iowa State Historical Society.

1884 Masonic Library

The 1955 building replaced an 1884 building which was notable as the only Masonic library in its own building. T.S. Parvin, who was a pioneer and served as secretary to the territorial governor of Iowa, "founded and built the first Iowa Masonic Library, occupying the only Masonic library building in the world."

Theodore S. Parvin was "far and away the state's most persistent library advocate for more than fifty years. Parvin's interest in Iowa libraries dated back to the late 1830s, when he was employed as private secretary to Iowa territorial governor Robert Lucas. He was perhaps the key figure in obtaining congressional funding for a territorial library. Over the succeeding decades, he served variously as territorial librarian, the first state librarian, librarian at the state university, and, most importantly, from 1870 on as the founder of and librarian for the Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids....In addition to his formal positions, Parvin sought every opportunity to develop Iowa libraries."

Related buildings

Another Cedar Rapids building, the Masonic Lodge at 210 E. 6th Street, formerly the Scottish Rite Temple, was celebrated by the Grand Lodge of Iowa at a 100th anniversary event in 2010. As a functioning current meeting building this one is not open to the public except on rare events.

See also

• National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, a similar nearby cultural institution
• National Heritage Museum (Lexington, MA, USA)
• The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons' Hall, London

References

1. ^ "The present Building: Library, Museums, and Grand Lodge Offices". Grand Lodge of Iowa, AF&AM.
2. ^ "Welcome to the Iowa Masonic Library, Museum and Administration Building". Grand Lodge of Iowa, AF&AM.
3. "Iowa Masonic Library and Museum – Cedar Rapids, Iowa". Iowa Tourism. Retrieved March 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
4. Jeff Croteau (September 7, 2010). "People Who Love Masonic Libraries & Museums: Cedar Rapids in 1928 & 2008". National Heritage Museum (founded and supported by the Scottish Rite Freemasons in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States).
5. Hackett, David G. (Dec 2000). "The Prince Hall Masons and the African American Church: The labors of Grand Master and Bishop James Walker Hood, 1831-1918". Church History. pp. 770–802. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
6. Kantrowitz, Stephen (March 2010 pages=1001-1026). ""Intended for the Better Government of Man": The Political History of African American Freemasonry in the Era of Emancipation". The Journal of American History. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Missing pipe in: |date= (help)
7. "Civil War Flag". Grand Lodge of Iowa, AF&FM.
8. William R. Kreuger, Assistant Librarian (June 4, 2005). "Civil War Flag History".
9. Erika Binegar (September 14, 2008). "FRESH START: Making plans for temporary exhibits, permanent changes". The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa).
10. It's in the photo, if you zoom in.
11. "A Brief History of the Iowa Masonic Library, Museum and Administration Building". Grand Lodge of Iowa, AF&AM.
12. Dave Dewitte (June 12, 2010). "Historical Society certifies C.R. cultural district". The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA). {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
13. "Masonic Secretary Parvin Dead". New York Times. June 28, 1901.
14. Goldstein, Daniel (Summer 2003). "The Spirit of an Age: Iowa Public Libraries and Professional Librarians as Solutions to Society's Problems, 1890-1940". Libraries & the Cultural Record. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
15. Molly Rossiter (September 25, 2010). "A peek inside the Lodge". The Gazette (Cedar Rapids).

External links

• Postcard
• Photograph of front of building

• 1955 architecture
• History museums in Iowa
• Libraries in Iowa
• Masonic buildings in Iowa
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa