Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-24
SHR|NERS LAY
CORNER STONE OF
NEW TE N PIE
ThreeHundred March
in Procession
Appeal ls Made for More Money to
Complete Magnificent Structure.
Make Big Theater
Parties


Southern California points visited Los
Angeles yesterday at the laying of the
corner stone of the new temple of AL
Maiakah, being built at Jefferson and
Royal streets. The day was crowded
with entertainment for the visiting
shrIners, the festivities being arranged
as a preliminary to the big conclave
Of next May, when 100000 persons are
expected to attend the "Fiesta de las
Flores"
The days observances began with
the gathering of the different shrines
at the Masonic temple for the parade
through the downtown streets of the
city, preparatory to the march to the
site of the new temple. Several eoun-
try delegations were late In arriving,
delaying the starting of the parade
several hours. The arrangements were
in charge of the Bedouln patrol, and
when every man had been properly
decorated with his red fez the process
sion swung into the street, headed by
a detail of police. Visitors from dif-
ferent towns, recognizing old friends,
fell into line at random, and there was
no regular order of march. The Off.
cials of AL Maliakah shrine followed
the band and police in the following
order:
order OF PARADE
NJ. H. Flint, potent te; w. p. JEFF
fries, chief rabban; Leo V. Young
worth. assistant rabban; George H.
Stewart, high priest and prophet; l..
j. C. Spruance, oriental guide; w. c.
Durkin, treasurer; d. Il. Barclay,
recorder.
The band led the way through tho
downtown business streets and at Fifth
and Main streets special cars were in
waiting to take the Shriners to the
scene of their new temple. The news
of the corner stone laying had attracted
large crowd, which already had sur
rounded the building when the special
- cars arrived, men, women and children
sitting on the half-raised walls and
filing the auditorium space. An open
ing was cleared for the entrance of
the Shriners, and the procession, after
q progress around the edge of the in
ner auditorium space, arranged itself
in semicrcle to listen to the prelim-
mary announcements to be made by
Potentate Flint and Architect Edwards
before the laying of the stone.
Appeals to Shriners
After a brief description of the plans
of the temple Potentate Flint launched
into an appeal for the united support
OF the Shriners for the new enterprise
and pointed out the necessity for every
money yet to be raised to pay for the
building He was followed by j. w.
Edwards, who made a similar appeal,
concluding with a detailed description
of the building as it will be when it
is finished.
The auditorium will h e larger
seating capacity than any building
west of Kansas City. BY utilizing all
available space it will be possible to
seat 5000 persons in the building. 1t
fronts $50 feet on Jefferson street and
154 OH Royal, with a depth of 2S5 feet.
On account of the rapid appreciation
of property values in this section Of
the city 1t is built on the back of the
lot. The steel, spans of the roof will!
be $50 feet long, the width of two city
lots. There will be clear space on
the floor of 100 by $50 feet with the
seats sloping upward all around. This
vacant space will hold $500 chairs.
"This enterprise is of great interest
not to Shriners alone, but to every
resident of Los Angeles" said Mr. Ed
wards "In the past we have been
unable TO invite national organizations
to the city on account of not having
a sufficiently large auditorium, but
from now on we will not be limited in
that way. The temple is only twenty
minutes out from the heart of the city
and will be available for large gather
ings of all kinds. In addition to the
club house annex it will include
banquet hall which will seat 1700 per-
sons and 1t will not be necessary for
us to apologize for a limited seating
capacity as we have had to do for
the banquet tonight. We planned to
build this building for 100000, but we
find that we will be unable to do so,
and it is up to every Shriner to do
his part to help raise the money, es-
pecially those who as yet have done
I,,t xUb W
been done"
At the conclusion of Mr.. Edwards
address Potentate Flint announced that
the procession would march around the
building to the southwest corner, whore
the corner stone was to be laid. Again
the band led the way, with an outOurst
that almost shook down the newly built
walls The crowd had been increasing
since the arrival of the procession, and
when Potentate Flint ascended the
platform where the stone was to be
placed fully 500 persons had assembled.
lining the walls of the building and
clinging to girders and rafters.
The ceremonies began with an elo-
quent invocation by Rev. Baker p. Lee
of Christs Episcopal church. Mr.. Ed
wards announced that no corner stone
had been prepared but instead a tablet
would be placed temporarily near the
main entrance until some later date
when a corner stone would be put In
place. He handed a trowel full of NOR
tar to Potentate Flint, who dropped 1t
behind the tablet, Mr.. Edwards an
nounced when he handed Mr.. Flint the
mortar that they had mixture of
special brew inside much more calcu-
lated to cement friendship than mortar,
and the crowd was invited to enter and
partake. The tablet was forgotten in
the sudden ingress to the tabernacle.
where the tired Shriners found an ample
reward for their long march.
Give 6arnum Loving Cup
Before the procession disbanded at
the temple Potentate Flint announced
that the committee In charge had pur-
chased the entire seating capacity of
the Orpheum and Belasco theaters for
the entertainment of the Shriners for