Ill. Charles E. Rosenbaum, 33˚, S.G.I.G. was responsible for the purchase of the old Jewish Synagogue on Center Street in Little Rock, which he remodeled for the Scottish Rite Bodies. This was the first building ever purchased to be used exclusively by the Scottish Rite. It soon proved to be inadequate so in 1902 Bro. Rosenbaum erected what was to be the first Scottish Rite Temple in the world! This new building at Eighth and Scott Streets was known as “The Gem of the Southern Jurisdiction.” Among his other accomplishments, Bro. Rosenbaum served as Chairman of the building committee, which planned and erected the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C., which is the home of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction. It was dedicated in 1915 and the Camp Guard of the Little Rock Consistory served as the proud Honor Guard of the occasion. Bro. Rosenbaum achieved another first when he organized the first of all Camp Guards and used it in the conferral of the Scottish Rite degrees. Here are the words of our Illustrious Brother given at the three-day Fall Reunion of November 1925:
“As we have said, it was a long road from our little beginning to our present beautiful Albert Pike Memorial Temple, and while we look back upon the struggles of our earlier days, it is indeed a comfort and delight to know that our present building, our Scottish Rite Home, is in all its appointments, and in every way, complete for the purposes of Scottish Rite Masonry. Your Sovereign Grand Inspector General desires to place himself on record in acknowledging the great obligation he is under to the Brethren of these bodies, who so generously, so promptly and so affectionately tendered every assistance and encouragement from the very start until the final completion of our Great Albert Pike Memorial Temple. It is doubtful if such loyalty and devotion was ever before exhibited in any body of men and it is doubtful if it ever could be again, because the faith shown and the confidence manifested at all times was such as to compel the admiration, not only of members of the fraternity, but all other classes of men throughout the State and the business world where it was known. We now leave in the hand of these Bodies the future history the Rite in this State, feeling assured that the same careful, thoughtful and loyal consideration on the part of the Brethren will prevail in the future as it has in the past and that we may go on living as one great, happy, peaceful and contented family, ever remembering that this, of all other institutions, should truly be “The Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God,” and that we may well take for our text, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity.”
This article was published in the September 2014 edition of the Voice of the Orient.
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