Tennessee Freemasonry

Tennessee's Masonic history is inseparable from Andrew Jackson. The seventh President of the United States was not only a Tennessee Mason but Grand Master of Masons in Tennessee from 1822 to 1824 — the only American President besides Harry Truman to have served as a sitting Grand Master. Jackson was raised at Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Nashville and became one of the central figures in early Tennessee Freemasonry. The Grand Lodge of Tennessee was established on December 27, 1813 (Saint John's Day, the traditional Masonic holy day) in Knoxville. The nine founding lodges had all been chartered by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, which from 1803 to 1813 had operated under the name "The Grand Lodge of North Carolina and Tennessee" in recognition of the geographic reality that North Carolina's jurisdiction had extended across the mountains into the new state. The formal separation in 1813 gave Tennessee its own sovereign Masonic body.

Tennessee produced three Masonic Presidents of the United States (Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson) a distinction exceeded only by Ohio's four. All three were raised in Tennessee lodges, and all three served during the turbulent decades of the antebellum, war, and Reconstruction periods that defined American national development in the nineteenth century.

The Civil War was a severe disruption for Tennessee Masonry. Tennessee was the last Confederate state to secede and one of the most contested during the war, with major campaigns fought across its territory. Lodge activity was disrupted across the state, but the institutional framework survived and the grand lodge rebuilt steadily through Reconstruction. Two recognized grand lodges operate in Tennessee today: the Grand Lodge of Tennessee and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee, both recognized by UGLE and in fraternal amity.

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PHA Grand Lodge

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee is recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England and is in fraternal amity with the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee.

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee was constituted on December 27, 1813, in Knoxville. Thomas Claiborne (an attorney and member of the Tennessee General Assembly) was unanimously elected the first Grand Master. The founding lodges included Tennessee Lodge No. 2 in Knoxville, whose first Worshipful Master was John Sevier (Tennessee's first governor and one of the heroes of the Battle of Kings Mountain) and Greeneville Lodge No. 3 in Greeneville, where decades later Andrew Johnson would be raised as a Master Mason.

Tennessee has the distinction of having produced three Masonic Presidents of the United States: Andrew Jackson, the seventh President, was raised at Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Nashville and served as Grand Master of Tennessee from 1822 to 1824 — actively presiding over the grand lodge while simultaneously emerging as a national political figure. James K. Polk, the eleventh President, was raised at Columbia Lodge No. 31 in 1820. Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth President, was raised at Greenville Lodge No. 119 in 1851. Few states can claim such a Masonic presidential legacy.

Beyond presidents, Tennessee Masonry's membership across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries included significant figures in the state's political, cultural, and civic life. Roy Acuff, the country music legend known as the King of Country Music, was a Tennessee Mason. Twenty-eight Governors of Tennessee have been members of the fraternity. Nashville's emergence as a cultural center (in music, education, and commerce) was mirrored in the growth of its lodge community.

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee is headquartered at 100 7th Avenue North in Nashville and today serves approximately 300 lodges with more than 33,000 members. It maintains mutual recognition with the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee, with both confirmed as regular Masonic jurisdictions by UGLE. Tennessee's Masonic legacy — three Presidents, Andrew Jackson's Grand Mastership, and a tradition of civic fraternity that has endured through war, Reconstruction, and the transformation of the modern South — makes it one of the most historically rich jurisdictions in American Masonry.

The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee is recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England and is in fraternal amity with the Grand Lodge of Tennessee.

The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee was founded in 1870 (five years after the Civil War's end) and reflects the broader pattern of Prince Hall grand lodge formation across the South during the Reconstruction period. With emancipation, Black Tennesseans were free to organize civic institutions that had been denied to them, and Prince Hall Masonry was among the first such institutions to take formal shape in the state. The grand lodge has been a continuous institutional presence in Tennessee ever since, with its most significant lodge communities in Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga.

Prince Hall Freemasonry traces its lineage to African Lodge No. 459, warranted by the Grand Lodge of England in 1784 after Prince Hall (a free Black Bostonian) and fourteen other free Black men were initiated into Masonry through an Irish military lodge in Boston in 1775. The lodge was erected into the African Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1791, and in 1827 declared independence from England, establishing the autonomous tradition that all Prince Hall grand lodges across the United States trace their authority to today.

Tennessee's Prince Hall Masonry has historically served as both a fraternal and civic organization — providing structure, mutual aid, and fellowship in communities where those resources were scarce during the era of Jim Crow segregation. The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee maintain mutual recognition, and both are confirmed as regular Masonic jurisdictions by UGLE.

The Hermitage — Andrew Jackson's plantation home near Nashville, now operated as a museum by the Ladies' Hermitage Association — is a National Historic Landmark that preserves extensive material on Jackson's life and legacy, including artifacts connected to his Masonic career. Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Nashville, where Jackson was raised and where he was deeply involved during his Grand Master years, continues to meet and is among the most historically significant lodges in the American South.

Greeneville Lodge No. 119 in Greeneville, where Andrew Johnson was raised as a Master Mason in 1851 before his career took him to the Governorship, the Senate, and ultimately the Presidency, continues to meet. Greeneville's historic downtown, which also includes the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (the site of his tailor shop, home, and tomb) gives visitors an unusually comprehensive window into the life of a nineteenth-century Southern Mason who became President.

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee building in Nashville houses archives from the 1813 founding period, including records from the North Carolina parent lodges that preceded the Tennessee grand lodge's organization. Nashville's active lodge community includes several lodges with histories stretching to the early statehood period.

The Tennessee Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home and the Tennessee Masonic Charities Foundation represent the grand lodge's institutional charitable commitments. Visiting Masons should contact the Grand Lodge of Tennessee at grandlodge-tn.org for current lodge directories and meeting information.

Visiting Masons should contact the Grand Lodge of Tennessee at grandlodge-tn.org for current lodge directories. Tennessee's lodges reflect the state's diversity — from the Appalachian communities of East Tennessee to the delta country of West Tennessee and the mid-state cities of Nashville and Franklin, each with its own distinctive Masonic character.

The Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction is active across Tennessee with Valleys in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga (the state's four major cities) providing statewide Scottish Rite coverage for a state whose Masonic tradition produced three US Presidents and one of the oldest grand lodges in the country. The Valley structure reflects Tennessee's distinct regional cultures: Middle Tennessee centered on Nashville, the Mississippi Delta-oriented culture of Memphis, the Appalachian character of East Tennessee, and the industrial history of Chattanooga.

Shriners International serves Tennessee through the Al Menah Shrine in Nashville and active centers in Memphis and other cities, supporting the Shriners Children's hospital network across the state.

York Rite bodies — Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, Councils of Cryptic Masons, and Commanderies of Knights Templar — operate in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and other cities, with bodies whose histories in some cases reach to the early nineteenth century when Tennessee was still the western frontier of American settlement.

The Order of the Eastern Star, DeMolay International, and Job's Daughters International operate across Tennessee, extending Masonic fellowship to family members throughout the state's lodge communities.

United Grand Lodge of England — Recognised Grand Lodges (https://www.ugle.org.uk/discover-freemasonry/recognised-grand-lodges) — recognition status of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee and the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee.

Grand Lodge of Tennessee (http://www.grandlodge-tn.org/) — official site; founding history, lodge directory, and contact information.

Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee (https://mwphgltn.org/) — official site of the Prince Hall grand lodge; founding history and current scope.

Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America / COGMNA (http://www.cogmna.org/) — inter-jurisdictional recognition and amity lists.

The Hermitage — Home of President Andrew Jackson (https://thehermitage.com/) — preservation of Jackson's home and Masonic artifacts near Nashville.

Andrew Johnson National Historic Site (https://www.nps.gov/anjo/) — Greeneville, Tennessee; site connected to Andrew Johnson's Masonic and political career.