ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On June 5, 1922, ceremonial spades broke ground at Shuter’s Hill in west Alexandria for the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, a project that would rise more than 330 feet above the city and become a defining feature of the Alexandria skyline.
The first dirt was turned by Louis A. Watres, president of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association and past Grand Master of Pennsylvania, and Charles H. Callahan, past master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 and a future Grand Master of Virginia. Callahan’s role in the project went well beyond ceremonial — in 1909, while serving as senior warden of the lodge, he had personally purchased several lots on Shuter’s Hill and donated the land to the lodge as the site for a future fireproof memorial.
The memorial’s origins trace to a 1871 fire at the lodge that destroyed many invaluable Washington artifacts collected over generations. Alexandria-Washington Lodge had a uniquely deep connection to the first president: it was founded in 1783, with Washington elected as its first charter master under the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1788. Washington served as master of the lodge while being inaugurated as the first president of the United States in April 1789. After his death, the lodge changed its name to honor him…