In May 1938, on the eve of war, Winston Churchill urged Britons to do their part for Anglo-American relations. ‘It is in the homes, not the hotels, of a nation,’ he declared, ‘that we can learn the truth about our people.’ He addressed British businessmen in particular, imploring them to go beyond mere business contact with visiting Americans but instead ‘ask them to your homes and your clubs, so that they may see something of the real England.’ Though no longer an active Freemason, Churchill may have had lodge meetings in mind. Indeed, there were already masonic lodges in England specifically dedicated to encouraging stronger ties between the United Kingdom and the United States, their origins stretching back to a time when Anglo-American rapprochement was only a dream and brotherly love between the two nations was in short supply.
    The period immediately after the American Civil War was one of strain and mistrust between the two countries. Latent Anglophobia in the United States was fuelled by disputes like that over the CSS Alabama, the Confederate raiding ship built clandestinely in Liverpool that would go on to inflict heavy losses to U.S. shipping. English commentators of the day viewed the United States not only as a threat to trade but Americans themselves as greedy and materialistic, jingoistic and ill-mannered. American pundits labelled the English as haughty and superior and saw the nation as debased by its perpetuation of monarchy and aristocracy.
    But world events were also pushing the two nations closer. The rise of Germany meant Britain was becoming isolated within Europe. Alliance with America appeared an increasingly attractive option to Britain, and the period between 1875 and 1895 saw moves to help overcome past differences. The ranks of diplomatic and governmental officials from the U.S. in London swelled. Expansion of American overseas investment meant American businessmen were relocating to England in greater numbers than ever before. A new ‘American Colony’ was taking root in London and it would not be long before English Freemasonry would feel the effect.
    Early in 1887, a petition was set forward proposing a new lodge that would see American and English Freemasons meeting together under the English Constitution. According to the By-Laws, this new lodge would be formed ‘with a view to drawing closer together the bonds of Masonic union existing between the two countries.’ It would cater both to Americans already resident in London as well as an increasing number of visitors from the United States and Canada. Indeed, the Founding Master would be Brackstone Baker, a Canadian mason and Past Junior Grand Deacon who served on the Colonial Board.
    The petition was granted despite the Grand Master’s injunction against new London lodges at the time, and on 24 March 1887, the Anglo-American Lodge, No. 2191, was consecrated. Several Americans numbered amongst the Founders, including Thomas Waller, the U.S. Consul General in London.
    In his oration on that day, Consecrating Chaplain, the Rev. J. S. Brownrigg struck a theme that permeated not only the formation of the Anglo-American Lodge but the burgeoning entente between Great Britain and the United States as well. Welcoming the move to draw American and English brethren together, Brownrigg observed that both were part of what he called ‘the great Anglo-Saxon family’. No other race of people, he declared, not even ‘the old Greek or Roman race[s]’, had accomplished so much or produced so many great names in all areas of human endeavour.
    Brownrigg was certainly not alone in his call for Anglo-Saxon unity. Statesmen and policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic employed this ideology as a way of rationalising the geo-political necessity of an Anglo-American alliance. Though naïve and bigoted in equal measure, the cause of Anglo-Saxon unity was underpinned by high ideals, including an end to war and the establishment of lasting peace and democracy, albeit by Anglo-American fiat.
    In London, the Anglo-American Lodge was finding itself a victim of its own success. The year of its foundation saw the American Exhibition, introducing Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and bringing more Americans to the capital. By 1891, the Grand Secretary was warned that ‘the immense number of American Brethren visiting England every year has strained to the utmost the resources of the Anglo-American Lodge, which has been compelled to hold a large number of emergency meetings, in order to fitly entertain the distinguished brethren whom it has been our delight to honour.’ It was proposed that a second American lodge be formed.
    Columbia Lodge, No. 2397, came into being on 19 March 1891. Once again, the U.S. Consul General, John C. New, was a Founder along with his deputy, Major Francis W. Frigout. Another Founder was the American pharmaceutical magnate Henry S. Wellcome. Wellcome was introduced to Freemasonry by his business manager Robert Clay Sudlow, himself a prominent mason and ritualist, and was initiated in the Lodge of Fidelity, No. 3, in 1885. A lifelong champion of Anglo-American accord, Wellcome donated a full-length portrait of George Washington to Grand Lodge in 1902 as a reminder of ‘the tie of blood, as well as the tie of Masonic brotherhood which binds together the peoples of America and the Motherland.’
    In 1900, Columbia Lodge inaugurated the practice of extending honorary membership to Masonic Presidents of the United States when William McKinley, having recently been re-elected, was so honoured. After McKinley’s assassination the following year, the Lodge sent a memorial certificate to the former First Lady and soon after made his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, an Honorary Member; his vice president, Charles Fairbanks, would follow in 1906. In a meeting in February 1909, President-elect William Howard Taft was proposed as an Honorary Member, having only weeks before been made a ‘mason at sight’ in Cincinnati. This meeting was notable for two other events. The American entrepreneur H. Gordon Selfridge was initiated into the Lodge at this time, just a few weeks before the grand opening of his Oxford Street store. And a petition was announced for the formation of a third American lodge.
    Consecrated on 3 June 1909, America Lodge, No. 3368, would be different in two respects from its predecessors. Firstly, it would emerge at a time when the ideology of Anglo-Saxonism was waning in world affairs. Secondly, although still committed to Anglo-American friendship, America Lodge would be for Americans only. Such a move was not unprecedented. Lodges such as La France, No. 2060, and Italia, No. 2687, had limited membership to their respective countrymen and had received permission to conduct the rituals in their native languages. Pilgrim Lodge, No. 238, had been doing the same for German Freemasons for over 125 years. And until 1937 America Lodge even required members to resign if they became British subjects.
    Behind this creation was perhaps the most well known American in English Freemasonry of the day. Frederick Van Duzer had moved to Britain in the 1880s from New York and was initiated in Canterbury Lodge, No. 1635, in 1889. A Founder of Columbia Lodge, he had become the first American ever to be awarded Grand Rank, becoming a Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in 1902. He was also extremely active in Royal Arch and many of the side degrees. In 1929, having been a mason for 40 years, he was elected to the Supreme Council of 33º. His two sons and his son-in-law, Robert Newton Crane, would follow him into America Lodge. Crane, a barrister, was the first American to be appointed King’s Council in Britain and, as a Mason, the second to receive Grand Rank. Both Van Duzer and Crane would chair the American Society in London and Van Duzer was the guiding spirit in the formation of the Anglo-Foreign Lodges Association.
    America Lodge now joined its Mother Lodge, Columbia, in extending honorary memberships to American Presidents. On the day of the consecration, President Taft sent a telegram to Van Duzer congratulating America Lodge on its ‘peculiar creation’ and was elected an Honorary Member a month later. In 1922, President Warren G. Harding was similarly honoured. A lack of masonic Presidents for the next 25 years meant this custom was abandoned until Harry S. Truman took office following the death of Franklin Roosevelt.
    In January 1949, Columbia Lodge voted to elect the President an Honorary Member. The letter informing Truman of the honour first had to pass through the State Department and Truman’s Chief of Protocol. Two months later, with ‘no objection to the President’s acceptance’ Truman replied with a warm letter thanking the Brethren and reaffirming that ‘the teaching and tenets of our ancient craft … should also be a vehicle of good will between nations.’ His words echoed those of the Pro Grand Master Lord Ampthill over a quarter century earlier when he declared that friendship between America and Britain could be promoted by Freemasonry ‘much more than by any other method.’
    In 1887, at the first meeting of the Anglo-American Lodge, Thomas Waller, the United States Consul General, declared himself honoured to have been part of ‘an international marriage between English and American Masonry.’ Over a century later, the three ‘American’ Lodges have come through periods of war and international unrest with that marriage still intact. Today, few Americans can be found on the member rolls of these Lodges, but the bonds remain. The American flag adorns the lodge room. The American anthem can be heard at the Festive Board. There are toasts to the President of the United States. And for visitors and residents alike, they still offer a ‘home away from home’.

Timothy Winkle, MA, is an American living in London who has published and presented papers on both sides of the Atlantic. He currently works for the Library and Museum of Freemasonry cataloguing the Museum’s extensive collection of masonic jewels.
    He would like to thank the Secretaries of Anglo-American, Columbia and America Lodges for their kind assistance in researching the article.