Qualla: Asheville Masonic Temple

Asheville Masonic Temple: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Teemu08, CC BY-SA 3.0. Zebulon Vance was twenty-three years old on February 4, 1853, when he signed his name into the petition book of Mount Hermon Lodge No. 118 in Asheville. He would become governor of North Carolina twice, a Confederate war leader, and a U.S. senator. On June 20 of that year, four months and sixteen days after his petition, he received both the Second and Third Degrees - completing his journey to Master Mason in a single evening. The Asheville Masonic Temple where his ledger entry survives was not the building you see now. The current Temple, designed by British-American architect Richard Sharp Smith, opened on April 29, 1915, on Broadway in downtown Asheville. The ledgers came with it.

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Image: Teemu08 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville Masonic Temple: Richard Sharp Smith

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Biltmore_Estate_14.jpg: Doug Coldwell derivative work: Entheta (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Smith arrived in Asheville in 1889 as the supervising architect for the Biltmore Estate - George Washington Vanderbilt II's 250-room chateau, then under construction in the country south of town. When the main work on Biltmore wound down, Smith opened his own practice in Ashevill...

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Image: Biltmore_Estate_14.jpg: Doug Coldwell derivative work: Entheta (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville Masonic Temple: The Building

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0. Four stories of pressed brick, trimmed with limestone and grey brick on a granite foundation, topped with a red-tile hipped roof. The Broadway facade carries a two-story portico fronted by paired Ionic columns, an unusual classical flourish on what is otherwise a restrained Edwar...

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Image: Farragutful | CC BY-SA 3.0

Asheville Masonic Temple: Mount Hermon Lodge

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Thomas, Public domain. Mount Hermon No. 118 chartered before the Civil War and has met continuously since. Vance was its most famous initiate, but he was hardly alone. Robert Brank Vance - Zebulon's older brother - served as Master of Mount Hermon in 1866, 1867, and 1873, and as Grand Master of Masons ...

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Image: Ken Thomas | Public domain

Asheville Masonic Temple: Continuity

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0. Norburn Creighton Hyatt was Master of Mount Hermon No. 118 in 1969 and became Grand Master of Masons of North Carolina in 1985 - a century and a third after Vance's petition. The Lodge's continuity through that span is unusual. Many American Masonic lodges declined sharply after ...

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Image: Peter Fitzgerald | CC BY-SA 4.0

Asheville Masonic Temple: On Broadway

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AbeEzekowitz, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Temple stands on Broadway in downtown Asheville, two blocks north of Pack Square, in a stretch of buildings that range from Smith's commercial work to Douglas Ellington's Art Deco churches and city hall. The Broadway facade with its Ionic portico catches morning light. Most v...

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Image: AbeEzekowitz | CC BY-SA 3.0