COUDERSPORT — This year’s reunion at the Coudersport Consistory marked the 200th anniversary of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States.
The Coudersport Consistory is the meeting place for several groups of Masonic Lodge members, with approximately 3,000 active members of the local organization currently.
The reunion was held recently with about 250 members in attendance at the event which included performances, meetings and meals and featured a visit from the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, John William McNaughton. The Northern Jurisdiction covers territory in New England, north of the Mason-Dixon line, and as far west as St. Louis, with their headquarters in Lexington, Mass.
The highlight of the event was a performance by the Potter/McKean Players featuring a collage of music from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Consistory is a beautiful building. A view of the exterior hints at the size of the structure, but only a tour through its depths can convey the grandiose magnitude of its interior, which includes an enormous auditorium with balcony-level seating, a cafeteria-sized professional kitchen and large dining area, cathedral-style lounge area and ample other smaller meeting and classroom-size rooms.
“This really is an amazing stage for a town of 2,800 people,” said organization secretary John Wells. “They were really thinking ahead when they built many of these facilities.”
The original building was constructed in 1887 of sturdy brick. The home’s original owner, Isaac Benson, an attorney and lumberman, had the entire home paneled in all-native wood, a different type in each room of the three-story, elegant home. Windows are fitted with louvered shutters that fold up into the trim, and entryways are fitted with solid polished-wood pocket doors. A 20-foot wide porch wraps around the visible sides and floor-to-ceiling windows light front rooms with a warm glow.
Many of the rooms have been repurposed, and now feature photographs of historic events held at the Consistory throughout the years or are used as sitting areas, lounges, meeting areas and offices. On the newel post of the hand-carved staircase, a steel statue of an armored knight stands guard, donated by the Buffalo Consistory in 1936.
Further space was needed, however, once Coudersport’s Lodge of Perfection, originally located in a three-story brick storefront on Main Street across from the Courthouse Square, purchased the structure in 1912.
In 1913, ground was broken for a Cathedral addition in the “Tudor Gothic” style, a 62-by-134-foot hall with massive peaked ceilings, columns, a now-defunct pipe organ and a stage area, the backdrop for many weddings and ceremonies throughout the last century.
In 1929, as the lodge’s membership grew, a large auditorium and adjoining rooms were added. The auditorium seats hundreds of spectators, with a large balcony capable of holding a few hundred more. Tall pillars stand sentry on either side of the stage, reaching toward the ceiling several stories above.
The stage is huge, with a professional lighting system including a blend of traditional and modern stage-lighting options controlled by computers backstage. An elaborate pulley system raises and lowers a series of a dozen curtains and nearly 30 different scenery backdrops that can be swapped out for different shows.
An adjoining dressing room brims with costumes and pictures of actors from traditional performances shown in decades past; cases filled with military uniforms, swords and caps. The wooden closets with glass windows are a newer addition, purchased from the Corsica (N.Y.) Consistory when it closed several years ago.
Many organizations are reporting low numbers lately, especially those dependent upon volunteer labor, and the Consistory is no different. While 3,000 sounds like a solid membership, especially in a town with a population less than that, in decades past the organization boasted participation of 10,000 men from across the region and much of the state.
The Consistory’s uses have gone beyond the Masonic organization and stretched into the wider community for a number of years. Outside performances sometimes use the grandiose auditorium, and a number of weddings, dedications and events have been held in the cathedral, and dinners and fundraisers in the ample dining area and enormous professional kitchen.
Each year for the past five decades, members of the Consistory have staged a public performance of the Passion of Christ the weekend before Palm Sunday, focusing on the span of time between the Last Supper and Resurrection.
“We encourage the public to attend the Passion performance, regardless of their religious affiliation. It’s a timeless story,” said Wells. “We’re not a religious organization; we’re a fraternal organization with moral overtones.”
Members are currently seeking recognition on the National Register of Historic Places, which will help the organization put more funding into preservation of the iconic structure and its continuance as an asset to the community of Coudersport.
