Our History

Culver City Lodge No. 467 was chartered in 1917. Its twenty charter members included Harry Culver.

The lodge worked under dispensation from August 3, 1917, held its first meeting on August 6, and received its charter on October 11, 1917. Its first Worshipful Master was Charles Emmet Shillito. In its earliest days the lodge met at University Lodge in Los Angeles, then moved in 1918 to Arlington and Venice. It held its first meeting in Culver City on June 5, 1923, upstairs in the Cardiff Avenue post office. During the 1919 influenza epidemic, members gave aid to those in need.

The Temple

Our Masonic Temple at 9635 Venice Boulevard was built in 1928. Grand Master Gustav A. Hutaff laid its cornerstone on November 10, 1928. The building draws on neo-classical, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Beaux-Arts styles, with touches from the movie-set designers of early Culver City, and its lodge room has a marble checkerboard floor. The Great Depression forced the sale of much of the lodge’s property, but the Temple endured and remains our home.

James A. Foshay Lodge No. 641

James A. Foshay Lodge No. 641 was instituted under dispensation on June 2, 1926, and was later chartered by the Grand Lodge of California. Many of its founders worked as chefs in downtown Los Angeles, and for decades the lodge was known for its dinners. It was named for Most Worshipful James A. Foshay (1856–1914), Superintendent of the Los Angeles City Schools, who brought kindergartens to the city’s schools and served as Grand Master of Masons in California in 1900.

One Lodge: 1974

In 1973 the two lodges prepared to consolidate, and they agreed to alternate their officer lines. In 1974 they began as Culver City-Foshay Lodge No. 467, with Worshipful Brother Michael A. McReynolds as its first Master.

Today

The lodge met on Tuesdays for most of its history. It moved its Stated Meeting to Wednesday for the 1990 Masonic year and has met on Wednesdays ever since. Today the Stated Meeting is held on the first Wednesday of each month, and visitors are welcome at the Temple every Sunday at Meet the Masters.