New York Masons

Today the New York Times had an article (registration may be required) discussing efforts of Masons to open up a little in order to encourage membership. The article had this accompanying picture:

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What there is, inside the [New York] grand lodge headquarters, are a dozen ornate rooms where some 60 lodges still hold meetings regularly.

Those dozen rooms have no windows. Leading the way into one of them, the Grand Master, or leader of all Masons in New York State, Neal I. Bidnick [seated], said the layout was no different from any other lodge room in the world, with an altar and candles in the center. At the one end are two pieces of stone, each about the size of a cinder block--one uncut, the other finished.

"We take a good man and polish the rough edges,"” Mr. Bidnick said. (The Masons do not admit women.)

Aside from anything else, the architecture reminded me of this.