Roof of the World Lodge
February 07, 2017
The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library owns hundreds of photographs of Masonic and fraternal organizations from around the world and uses HistoryPin to map these photographs by place and time. Visitors to our HistoryPin site can browse through our photo collection, comment on photographs and videos, and contribute any stories or information they may have about a particular image. This 1914 photograph shows members from Roof of the World Lodge No. 1094 at the summit of Mt. Meigs in Peru and is featured on our HistoryPin page.
The Grand Lodge of Scotland chartered Roof of the World Lodge No. 1094 in Cerro de Pasco, Peru in 1911. Considered the highest Masonic lodge in the world, the group met at an altitude of 14,208 feet above sea level. American executives and engineers employed by the various mines and construction camps in Peru made up most of the membership. In 1914 the lodge requested a special dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Scotland permitting them to hold a regular lodge meeting at the summit of Mt. Meiggs in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 17,575 feet. The dispensation was granted and on August 29, 1914, twenty-six Master Masons held according to some the highest regular meeting of its kind in the history of Freemasonry. This photograph commemorates that 1914 meeting. Dorothy Krueger donated the photograph to the Museum & Library in 1999.
The photograph was passed down in the family by the Krueger’s grandfather George King Phillips III (1869-1939) of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Phillips became a Master Mason in 1902, and among other accolades, received the Supreme Council 33°in 1920. He served as Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Michigan in 1926. The photograph hung at his office with a typed caption and a 1916 newspaper article from the American Tyler-Keystone, a Masonic publication active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The article reported a contribution of $137.25 to the Masonic War Relief Association of the United States by Roof of the World Lodge No. 1094 in 1916. It also quoted a note from the lodge secretary about the monumental meeting at Mt. Meiggs. According to the 1914-1915 Grand Lodge of Scotland proceedings there were five active lodges under its jurisdiction in Peru in 1914. The Roof of the World lodge last met in the early 1990s, in San Isidro, Lima, Peru.
To find this photograph and more on the map, visit our HistoryPin page at https://www.historypin.org/en/person/64613.