2-day celebration planned for historic Scottish Rite

Jul. 14—The 100th anniversary of Joplin's historic Scottish Rite Cathedral will be marked with a once-in-a-century celebration.

Members of the Scottish Rite Valley of Joplin and related Freemasonry organizations will celebrate the anniversary of the building's 1923 dedication with events next Friday and Saturday.

Members and dignitaries from local and regional fraternal organizations along with community and political leaders also will participate in the ceremonies. All of the activities are open to the public.

Events schedule

Nick Breedlove, master of the Fellowship Masonic Lodge, said the events will open at 4 p.m. Friday with a vintage clothing display in the cathedral's tea room.

There will be live models for some of the fashions, which will include items from Bonnie and Clyde and the flapper era. The vintage garments and accessories will be from the collections of the Joplin History & Mineral Museum and the Joplin Historical Society, said Paula Callihan, a member of the historical society and of the historic Murphysburg Historic District, which the cathedral adjoins.

At 6 p.m. Friday a dinner banquet will served. The $25 per person meal will serve as a fundraiser for the cathedral's maintenance fund. There will be a cash bar.

After that, visitors can go to the second floor auditorium to view the "Traitor Episode," a morality play about Benedict Arnold performed by a cast of Scottish Rite members.

Morality plays reflect the degrees earned by members of the fraternal organizations.

Events that mirror those held at the 1923 dedication also will be part of the celebration.

A procession will start at 9 a.m. Saturday featuring members of the Freemason organizations and dignitaries and antique and classic vehicles around the Scottish Rite neighborhood where some of its early members and supporters lived. The public also may walk in the parade.

It will leave the north parking lot of the cathedral at 505 S. Byers Ave. and proceed west on Fifth Street to Sergeant Avenue, south to Sixth Street, east to Byers Avenue, and north on Byers back to the cathedral parking lots.

Mayor Doug Lawson will be part of that parade. "We are aware of the fun things they do in parades and the charity work they do. They have been an important part of the community for over 100 years," the mayor said.

Honoring benefactors

The parade is in honor of three major benefactors of the Scottish Rite, Breedlove said. Those three are early Joplin Mayor F. Taylor Snapp, industrialist O.H Picher and entrepreneur Charles Schifferdecker.

Judge O.H. (Oliver Hazard) Picher, who then lived at 204 S. Moffet Ave., and his brother, William Picher, of 421 S. Sergeant Ave., had organized the Picher Lead and Zinc Co. here and in 1887 acquired the Lone Elm Mining and Smelting Company. O.H. Picher's son, Oliver Shepard Picher, succeeded his father as president of the company in 1909. The company merged with Eagle Lead in 1916 and became the Eagle-Picher Co.

Fletcher Taylor Snapp, who formerly lived at 501 Sergeant Ave., was a member of the first graduating class of Joplin High School in 1887. He attended business college in St. Louis and then joined Cunningham Bank of Joplin. In 1901, he became a principal investor in the Snapp-Warren Mining Company. Through money made in zinc mining, he opened Citizens' State Bank of Joplin. He was mayor of Joplin when the cathedral was dedicated.

Charles Schifferdecker established brewing businesses in the Joplin area and made his fortune in mining and banking. A 32nd degree Mason, Schifferdecker spent a large share of his money on philanthropy and paid $10,000 to buy the land where the Scottish Rite Cathedral was built and later donated $350,000 for its construction.

Schifferdecker's house, with the castlelike tower at 422 S. Sergeant Ave., has been under renovation to become a house museum.

Though construction of the cathedral was planned in the early 1900s, it was delayed for a number of reasons, most notably World War I. Schifferdecker never saw the finished building; he died before it was complete.

More events

After the parade, there will be a rededication ceremony at 10 a.m. in the cathedral's auditorium featuring remarks by Tim Ritter of the Grand York Rite of Missouri. A Cornerstone Ceremony will be conducted by the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Missouri

Then a 30-minute video about the cathedral will be shown.

Also after the parade, the vintage automobiles will be assembled in the north parking lot for a car show, and they will be on display until 4 p.m.

At noon, a fried chicken banquet will be served like the one in 1923. Tickets for it can be purchased at the same price as then, $2, Breedlove said.

Tours of the building will be offered from 2 to 4 p.m. The temple is a beaux-arts style building noted for, among other things, its second-story theater and stage furnished with more than 100 hand-painted and original backdrops and curtains, and a pipe organ with 21,000 pipes.

Most of the building is original. In 1966, metal sash windows were replaced with glass blocks.

In 2016, the billiards room was restored and decorative wall finishes were replicated by local artist Brenda Sageng.

Neal Construction Group of Joplin did the restoration work.

"The challenge of maintaining this 1920s showcase in the state in which the Scottish Rite has is a real tribute to the Scottish Rite members," said contractor Jeff Neal at that time. He described the cathedral as one of Joplin's architectural jewels.

"Those are elements of understanding that we are not just a small Midwestern town of 50,000," Neal said. "There was a time when we were the mining capital of the world and an extremely affluent area with a population that was larger than Springfield's. This is a living museum to allow people to understand who and what they are, and where they come from."

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

There are about 1,450 members currently in the Scottish Rite Valley of Joplin, said member Dan Stenhly.

The Fellowship Lodge regards the cathedral as "undoubtably a masterwork of masonic craftsmanship that has long been the pride of the Valley of Joplin."

Stenhly said there is no exact count of members over time but he estimated it could be 10,000. The Valley of Joplin, which is the membership area assigned the Joplin lodge, takes in 12 counties roughly stretching from Nevada and Lake of the Ozarks south to northern Arkansas. New members are inducted during what are called reunions, which bring an average of about 100 new members into the organization a year.

Purpose of Masons

Breedlove said the public may attend all the activities as an opportunity to see what the Masonic organizations are about. He said the Freemasons are based on patriotism, not religion, although members must profess belief in a supreme being.

Many Founding Fathers and patriots involved in the establishment of the United States were Freemasons and "our country was founded on patriotic principles," Breedlove said.

"The purpose of the Scottish Rite and Freemasons in general is to make good men better," said Stenhly. "It's not a religion. When we say morals, it's just principles that make good men better."