About

Freemasonry is the world’s first and largest fraternal organization. It is guided by the enduring belief that everyone has a responsibility to make the world a better place.  For 300 years, Freemasonry has enhanced and strengthened the character of individual men by providing opportunities for fellowship, charity, and the search for truth – within ourselves and the larger world.  Through Freemasonry, we make true friends, improve ourselves, and have a positive impact on our communities.

Freemasonry (or Masonry, for short) is one of the world’s most historic membership organizations, a 300-year-old worldwide fraternity of like-minded people committed to bettering themselves and their communities. Masonry encompasses a series of moral teachings based on allegory and the symbolism of ancient stonemasonry. But we’re so much more than our history. We’re a way to find friendship, purpose, and connection.

At its core, Freemasonry is about:

True Friendship

Many members meet their best friends through Freemasonry. That’s because Masonry offers a combination that’s hard to find anywhere else: shared traditions, shared purpose, and a shared commitment to fostering lifelong relationships.

Personal Development

Ancient Freemasons focused on building structures. Today’s Masons focus on building character. We believe in strong values, and we embody them through our actions, our relationships, and our service to others.

Community Service

Masons take an obligation to support those around them. Masons give back in a multitude of ways, from local charity drives to statewide efforts through the Masonic foundations.

There is a persistent, if unfounded, myth that San Francisco’s street grid is based on Masonic symbology, with its two great diagonals (Columbus and Market) forming a triangle with Van Ness Avenue. For innumerable reasons, that seems deeply unlikely. But to anyone familiar with the history of San Francisco Masonry, you can see the appeal of such a crackpot theory.

Because while Masons almost certainly can’t claim credit for the city’s streetscape, what’s true is that Masonry has played a crucial role in almost every other facet of San Francisco’s development—from its earliest days as a remote Mexican settlement through the Gold Rush era, the 1906 earthquake, and its growth into a cultural, political, technological mecca. Practically every one of the boldface names associated with the founding and growth of city was a Mason. So too were many of its great builders, along with its financial tycoons and political leaders. Consider: By the time the city elected its first democratic mayor, John W. Geary (a founding secretary of California No 1), Masons had already held their first Annual Communication in the state. Before San Francisco had a proper City Hall, it had 14 Masonic lodges—including one working in French. By 1860, just a decade after the Gold Rush began, there were nearly 1,000 Masons working under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of California in the “instant city.” In that way, Masonry has had a massive influence on San Francisco, from its attitudes to its laws to—sure, in a sense—its physical layout.

Fast-forward 170-something years, and in many ways San Francisco remains the center of California Masonry. While it’s no longer the fraternity’s population center (in sheer numbers, Los Angeles is; per capita, it’s San Diego), the city is still home to the Grand Lodge headquarters, and it’s here that Masons gather each fall for the Annual Communication. This is the city where the echoes of Masonic history ring loudest.

So, triangular street grid or no, it’s safe to say San Francisco is a town that has been profoundly shaped by Masonry—and one that continues, to this day, to shape the fraternity that calls it home.