Masons Build On the Past

Between 2004 and 2007, Washingtonians sometimes encountered bright lights and strange scenes that turned out to be sets for the movies "National Treasure" and its sequel, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," action films about the search for treasures hidden by Founding Fathers who were also Freemasons.

Today, the city will get a taste of the real thing when a conference -- billed as the largest international gathering of Freemasons in the District since the U.S. Capitol cornerstone was laid in 1793 -- launches its formal program at a Mount Vernon Square hotel.

The ninth World Conference of Masonic Grand Lodges, which opened last night, has drawn more than 750 Freemasons from 150 countries. There will be a Friday-afternoon program with aprons and collars, and, on Saturday, a trip to the White House and Capitol, and a banquet featuring Washington National Opera singers and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.).

Though the conference is for an international crowd, the strength of the Masonic spirit here is strong.

"Here in D.C. we're in the middle of what you could say is a renaissance," says Matt Keller, spokesman for the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons Washington, D.C.

Newcomers "see the history of Freemasonry in the city," in building cornerstones and in the monuments to the Founding Fathers, and "so they take a special interest in it." The new Freemasons then take their beliefs with them, making the city "a center for spreading Freemasonry," Keller says.

-- Garance Franke-Ruta