One of the most frustrating things about trying to decode the ritual of Henry P. H. Bromwell's rite of Free and Accepted Architects is that the only source for the ritual at this time is the Collectanea 4.2, published by the Grand College of Rites in 1959 (their website says it was published in 1948, but the rite had not been retired yet, so could not have been publish prior to February 20, 1959, the date of the last and final meeting of King David's Grand Lodge, in which it was decided to retire the rite and pass the ritual onto the Grand College of Rites for preservation). However, it is out of print, and the Grand College of Rites intends to reprint some of these old out-of-print ritual books, but that appears to be a project on the backburner for them.
Firstly, we know there were ritual books. On January 6, 1874 it was voted in Grand Lodge to have one hundred copies the ritual printed and distributed amongst the lodges and members. This was before the creation of the Royal Architect Degree. One would surmise that when the Royal Architect Degree was created, they printed more books, especially since the Grand College of Rites (GCoR) was able to transcribe all three degrees. The rite had grown considerably in membership by this point, so there were probably more than a hundred ritual books printed with the Royal Architect Degree. With all these ritual books floating around between Illinois, Colorado, and Washington D.C., as well as Oklahoma, California, and New York, what happened to all of them?
Likely a number of them were tossed, misplaced, or lost. A number of them likely are sitting in a Masonic library, having been donated to a lodge or Grand Lodge when the Mason passed away. However, I have had immense difficulty tracking a single one down. But I have a few leads.
Collectanea 4.2 states that the ritual book and all the paraphernalia is still stored in the archive of the Grand Lodge of Colorado. I had asked several other people who I know had previously done research on Bromwell, such as Mike Moore, Grand Master, and Kevin Townley, Grand Lecturer and who republished Bromwell's Restorations of Masonic Geometry in 2010. Neither had actually looked at these old records, but they simply stated that to the best of their knowledge, everything was still in the vault. Mike Moore even told me that the jewels (i.e. officer collars with the signet of their office) of the rite were in the museum. However, on Monday, June 7th, 2021, I went down to the Grand Lodge and with the assistance of Julie Doelligen, the chief archivist, we rummaged through the vault for several hours. The most we found were three large scrapbook folios of newspaper clipping by Bromwell's daughter, Henrietta, and a folder in the George B. Clark files with seven sheets of paper and a copy of the Allied Masonic Degree's Miscellanea 5.3 in it. We rummaged through boxes, shelves, folders, filing cabinets, and found nothing. Julie had previously looked around for some material, but no luck. Nor were the jewels found. Based on the descriptions of the jewels and collars from the records of King David's Grand Lodge, I have reconstructed what they looked like, and we found nothing even remotely close to that anywhere in the building. I may go down to the Grand Lodge again later this year for another look, but my hopes are waning.
One thing that gave me hope was that a few years ago the holographic manuscript (i.e. the original handwritten document) of Restorations was found just sitting on a shelf in the library, and no one knew it was there. It is now fully scanned and in an archival box in the vault. My hope then was that a ritual book was probably just sitting around, perhaps even in the library, but sadly, neither I nor Julie have found one. However, I now suspect that any ritual book, or any of the documents and paraphernalia of the rite were never in Colorado Springs.
In 1970-1971 it was decided to move the Grand Lodge of Colorado from Denver down to its current location in Colorado Springs. This means the ritual book, records, and paraphernalia were all at 1614 Welton Street, Denver when the GCoR published Collectanea 4.2. In talking with Julie Doelligen, she informed me that she had heard from various people that when the move occurred, there were disputes on what goes to Colorado Springs and what stays in Denver. Many people wanted the museum to stay in Denver, some wanted it all to go to Colorado Springs, and it appears that the unofficial decision was to split the museum and archives between the two locales.
On March 3, 1984 a tenant on the ground floor of the Welton Street Masonic Temple in Denver set fire to his shop in an attempt of insurance fraud. There were a few Masons in the building at the time the fire started, and when they smelled smoke, they grabbed somethings of high value and carried them out, namely the massive sterling silver punch bowl, ladle, and cups the Colorado Commandery No. 1 Drill Team won at the 1901 Triannual Conclave of the Grand Encampment in Louisville, Kentucky. This is still proudly on display on the fourth floor. Pretty much everything else was completely lost. There were a lot of priceless things in that building. One is what was believed to be the skull of Felipe Espinosa, famed Colorado serial killer, who was captured and executed by a Mason. According to George B. Clark, the skull Colorado Commandery No. 1 used for the Order of the Temple was this very skull. Of course, that can never be confirmed now, but it illustrates the great loss to Colorado Masonic history this fire caused.
Shortly before the fire, perhaps a few weeks, the Building Association had their insurance renewed, and part of the process was they inventoried everything and took photos of almost everything. This had not been previously done before. As one would expect, there are some conspiracy theories surrounding this fact, but ultimately it is shear fortune this was done just before the fire. I am still waiting on Claud Dutro, Past Grand Master, to confirm if photos were taken of the museum, and if any of those photos may show paraphernalia or jewels from Bromwell's rite. If they do, then it will be another bit of evidence to support my current belief that all the records, ritual books, and paraphernalia were lost in the fire.
Update: I have heard back from Claud Dutro, and photos were only taken of the lodge rooms, furniture in the lodge rooms, and a few other spaces. No photos were taken of the library and museum, and certainly not of the items in the museum. However, Dutro has been a Mason since before the Grand Lodge moved, and he tells me that the entire museum moved to Colorado Springs (correspondence on July 26, 2021). Obviously this is a further frustration, as it goes along with the multitude of differing reports of what happened to everything in the museum.
In discussing these things with Julie (correspondence on June 21, 2021), we agree that the likelihood of a copy of a ritual book being in the Grand Lodge of Colorado's archive is very, very small. If there was a copy, it is highly suspected someone borrowed it and never returned it (a big problem in Masonry), or it was in Denver and was lost in the fire.
Now, the ritual book was transcribed, as were the minutes of King David's Grand Lodge by the Grand College of Rites. This means they had a copy of the ritual. In a personal correspondence with Gerald Klein, Grand Secretary of the GCoR, on June 16, 2021, he informed me that all the early records and materials of the GCoR were given by Harold V. B. Voorhis (a member of Bromwell's rite) to William Peacher, and when Peacher passed away, all his Masonic materials went to an undisclosed Blue Lodge in Southern California, and they have not been able to retrieve them. It appears that Arturo de Hoyos is working to retrieve these, but they do not see those documents being recovered anytime in the near the future. So that lead was a bust, though it could yield something in the distant future.
Next, above I mentioned that we found a copy of Miscellanea 5.3 in the file on the rite in the George B. Clark files. Clark was the Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Colorado for many long years, and was the only person to ever hold this title. Clark was a fantastic Masonic historian. He published a number papers, as well as a well-known map of the genealogy of Masonic Grand Lodges from England and throughout the United States. He catalogued and wrote more notes than anything he published, which are kept in a couple of filing cabinets in the Grand Lodge of Colorado archive. Clark was also the last surviving member of King David's Grand Lodge in 1958 when talks began of retiring the rite. The Grand Lodge had been dormant since 1883, and a series of people who held the records of the rite kept dying and passing along the records, until they ended up with Clark. So Clark communicated the secrets of the rite to Harry W. Bundy and charged him to communicate the secrets to a select few others, enough to hold a quorum of the Grand Lodge to retire the rite.
With as much as Clark copied, noted, and catalogued, one would expect the file on Free and Accepted Architects would be larger, especially given he was a member. Sadly, all that is in the folder is a Xerox copy of Bundy's typewritten article on the rite published in Philalethes 12.6 (December 1959), two correspondences between Bundy and William Leon Cummings concerning the meetings to retire the rite, the minutes of the second to last meeting of the rite on December 28, 1958, and the Miscellanea. The Miscellanea (1952) contains a paper written by Cummings, who was selected by Bundy and Clark to be inducted into the rite to organize its retirement. This paper by Cummings is about architect degrees in Masonry, and he discusses briefly Bromwell's rite. He mentions that the Collectanea states the only surviving ritual book is in the Grand Lodge of Colorado vault, but that he himself has a copy, as well as a version that is fully written out (no single letter key, no abbreviations). Cummings was a New York Mason, residing in Albany. He wrote a number a papers and books, including being part of the team of Masons that produced Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia (the best Masonic encyclopedia available, in my opinion). Given his positions and status as a Masonic author, one would expect his library was donated to either his home lodge or the Grand Lodge of New York.
It took some time, but Richard Schulz, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of New York, was able to assist me in figuring out exactly who Cummings was, what lodge he was affiliated with, and where his library went (correspondence on June 16, 2021). He put me in touch with Alexander Vastola, the Director of the Grand Lodge of New York Library (correspondence on June 17, 2021). He was able to find in their catalogue a title called Pentalpha Lodge 5 and King David Grand Lodge Select and Most Excellent Architects: Ancient Free and Accepted Architects (Call #M14.1 B78p). Yay! We found one!
Obviously, I do not intend to bother these gentlemen further, as they were already very helpful and spent a lot of time helping me. I plan to go to New York City at some point in the near future to examine the text (and finally wrap up some research on Douglas Darden). It is likely to be Cummings' copy of the ritual, and likely includes the Royal Architect Degree.
The title says "Select and Most Excellent Architects," but this is due to how dysfunctional the organization was: they were terrible at maintaining records and cleaning up their laws and bylaws. Once the Royal Architect Degree was introduced, the Constitution was never updated, so the Grand Lodge continued to be called "Select and Most Excellent Architects," but unofficially was being called "Free and Accepted Architects" or "Ancient Free and Accepted Architects" (they could not decide on which they wanted). The fact the title contains "Ancient Free and Accepted Architects" indicates this is post-Royal Architect Degree. Whether or not this ritual book is fully written out or is single-letter key/abbreviations is yet to be determined.
Finding a copy of the ritual book is key to my work on decoding the ritual. At this time I am totally reliant on the Collectanea, which I am certain has typographical errors, and is likely why I am having great difficulty in decoding a number of hapax legomena. Some of the supposed typos may be from the original ritual books themselves, or it could be a scribal error in transcribing the books. Either way, being able to view the original ritual book will be most useful in progressing this effort to decode Bromwell's ritual.
Update: the volume in the Grand Lodge of New York's library is not the ritual book. After pestering their director, he clarified the volume is a collection of four manuscripts by Harold V. B. Voorhis, Raphael M. Hosea, George B. Clark, and a chapter from the History of Union American Lodge No. 1. The Grand Lodge of New York does not permit scanning ritual books, but even though this is not a ritual book, it still cannot be scanned (correspondence 12 April 2024). I can only guess that the Grand Lodge has a very broad definition of what counts as a "ritual book." Oh well. One day I will end up back in New York and will hopefully have a chance to view the volume.
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