The Building That Protects Our Treasures

 This is the story of the marble building in Cedar Rapids that was carefully designed to protect the treasures of our Masonic past.

A Treasure Box for Our History

The Iowa Masonic Library and Museum in Cedar Rapids has always felt to me like a treasure box built to protect the story of our Craft. From the outside, the marble and solid lines give the building a sense of strength and purpose. Inside, that feeling only grows. Every hallway, every reading room, and every carefully protected shelf reflects the Grand Lodge of Iowa’s commitment to preserving what matters. When it was built in the 1950s, the goal was simple: create a safe and lasting home for the books, records, and artifacts that carry our history. Not jewels or gold, but the treasures of knowledge and memory. More than seventy years later, the building still does exactly that. It stands as a place where our past is kept safe, where visitors from around the world come to learn, and where the light of our history continues to shine.

Origins of the Library and Museum

The story of the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum begins long before the marble building that stands in Cedar Rapids today. Its roots reach back to the 1840s, when Theodore Sutton Parvin, the first Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, was asked to begin collecting books on Freemasonry. Parvin started modestly, purchasing roughly one hundred volumes for five dollars, but he had a clear vision for what the collection could become. Masons across Iowa soon began donating books, manuscripts, and artifacts, and the small collection grew quickly.

By 1884, the Grand Lodge recognized that the materials had outgrown borrowed rooms and temporary shelves. They made a bold decision: to construct the first purpose built Masonic library building in the world, right in Cedar Rapids. It was a remarkable statement for its time, reflecting both confidence in the future and a deep respect for the past. But even that pioneering building could not keep pace with the rapid expansion of the library and museum. Within a few decades, the shelves were full, the rooms were crowded, and the structure could no longer provide the level of protection the growing collection required.

By the early 1950s, it was clear that a new home was needed. The original building was demolished in 1952, and in its place rose the modern structure completed in 1955. What began with Parvin’s handful of books has grown into one of the largest and most respected Masonic collections in the world, all because generations of Iowa Masons believed that our history deserved a safe and lasting home.

Designing a Home for the Treasures

When the Grand Lodge of Iowa set out to build a new home for the Library and Museum in the early 1950s, they approached the project with the same seriousness they brought to preserving the collection itself. Architects William L. Perkins, working with the firm Hansen and Waggoner, designed a structure that balanced classical inspiration with the practical needs of a modern archival facility. The result is a building rooted in the late Beaux Arts tradition, simplified for the postwar era but still carrying a sense of dignity and permanence.

From the outside, the Vermont white marble gives the building a quiet strength. Inside, the halls are lined with grey marble from Carthage, Missouri, creating a cool, calm atmosphere that feels intentionally protective. Almost no wood was used in the construction. Instead, the architects relied on marble, concrete, glass, and bronze. Even the basement walls are nearly twenty inches thick. Every choice reflects the same idea: this building was meant to last, and it was meant to keep its contents safe.

The structure stretches long and low across its site, with the main building running roughly 245 feet in length and the library wing extending more than 100 feet deep on the west end. Inside, the space opens into multiple floors of library stacks, museum galleries, workrooms, and offices. It is a building designed not just to store a collection, but to serve the people who come to study it.

In every way, the design reinforces the purpose. This is a place built to protect the treasures of our past, a strong and steady home for the books, artifacts, and records that tell the story of Iowa Masonry.

Symbolism Carved in Stone

Freemasonry has always used architecture to teach lessons, so it is no surprise that the building itself carries symbolic meaning. Above the main entrance, engraved directly into the white marble, is a line from the Book of Amos: “Behold the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.”

It is a simple inscription, but it says a great deal about the purpose of the place. The plumb line is one of Masonry’s most familiar symbols, reminding us to live uprightly and measure our actions with honesty and integrity. Seeing those words carved into the stone makes it clear that this building was meant to reflect more than architectural strength. It was meant to reflect moral strength as well.

The classical design reinforces that message. The symmetry, the heavy walls, and the quiet order of the exterior all speak to stability and balance. Nothing about the building feels accidental. Every line and proportion seems chosen to convey the same values that Freemasonry teaches: steadiness, structure, and the ongoing work of building character. Even before you step inside, the building tells you what it stands for.

Inside the Treasure Box

The interior of the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum was designed to work in layers, each one serving a different part of its mission. Visitors enter through a wide marble lobby that immediately sets the tone: solid, quiet, and intentional. From there, the space opens into the museum galleries, where displays of Masonic regalia, Civil War pieces, international ceremonial objects, and historical documents tell the story of the Craft and the people who shaped it.

Beyond the galleries are the reading rooms, calm and orderly spaces where researchers can work with the materials they need. The library stack wing stretches out behind them, the largest part of the building, with reinforced floors built to carry the enormous weight of thousands of books. Administrative offices and archival workrooms support the daily work of caring for the collection, while the basement holds mechanical systems and secure storage for rare and fragile items.

The layout makes the building function as a museum, a research center, and an archival vault all at once. Each layer supports the next, creating a place where the public can learn, scholars can study, and the most delicate pieces of our history can be kept safe. It is a thoughtful design, and it reflects exactly what the building was meant to be: a strong, steady home for the treasures of our past.

Artistic Treasures Within

Among the treasures inside the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum, the artwork stands out as one of the building’s most memorable features. The stained glass windows, designed by Francis Robert White during the 1950s construction, bring both color and meaning into the space. White had briefly studied under Grant Wood at the Stone City Art Colony, and his windows reflect that Midwestern artistic lineage. Many of the panels include familiar Masonic symbols such as the Square and Compasses, the All Seeing Eye, the level, and the plumb line, set in rich colors that filter natural light into the corridors and reading rooms. The effect is quiet and contemplative, giving the building a sense of ceremony that fits its purpose.

The stained glass is complemented by Grant Wood’s own contribution to the collection: The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry. Wood, best known for American Gothic, was himself a Mason, having joined Mount Hermon Lodge No. 263 in Cedar Rapids in 1921. His three panel mural depicts the symbolic journey through the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason degrees. Each panel reflects the moral lessons and allegorical imagery tied to the building of King Solomon’s Temple and the personal growth emphasized in Masonic teaching.

Together, White’s stained glass and Wood’s mural create a visual narrative that runs through the building. They remind visitors that this place is not only a library or a museum, but a space where art, symbolism, and history come together. These pieces are part of the treasure the building protects, gems of color, story, and meaning that enrich the experience of everyone who walks through its halls.

The Treasures It Protects

The true measure of the Iowa Masonic Library and Museum is found in the depth of its collection. Today the library holds more than 400,000 volumes, making it one of the largest and most significant Masonic collections in the world. That growth began early. By the start of the 20th century, the library already contained rare books, documents, and artifacts that drew researchers from across the country.

The focus of the collection has always reflected the purpose of the institution. Since its founding in 1845, the library has gathered materials on Freemasonry and its many branches, including York Rite, Scottish Rite, Shrine, Eastern Star, Prince Hall, and even anti Masonic movements. Because belief in a higher power is a requirement for membership, the library also collects works on world religions and philosophies. And because our first Grand Secretary arrived in Iowa Territory as the personal secretary to the territorial governor, the library naturally became a home for Iowa history as well. Long before Cedar Rapids had a public library, this institution was already collecting literature in the humanities, and it has remained open to the public ever since.

Some of the items preserved here are remarkable in their rarity. The oldest book in the collection is a 1470 edition of The Pharsalia by Lucan. The library also holds a first edition of the Book of Mormon from 1830 and a daybook used by Joseph Smith. Among the many autographs and historical documents is a letter written by Abraham Lincoln. There is even a small lock of George Washington’s hair. And of course, the building protects an original Grant Wood painting, tying Iowa’s artistic heritage directly to its Masonic history.

These pieces, books, manuscripts, artifacts, and works of art, are the treasures the building was designed to protect. They are the reason the walls are thick, the floors reinforced, and the spaces carefully controlled. Each item adds another layer to the story of Freemasonry, of Iowa, and of the people who shaped both.

A Home Built for Memory

When you step back and look at it all, the marble walls, the layered interior, the stained glass, the rare books and artifacts, you begin to understand what this building truly represents. It is more than a library, more than a museum, and more than an archive. It is a place built with intention, shaped by generations of Masons who believed that knowledge, history, and tradition deserved a safe and lasting home. Every part of it, from the thick concrete floors to the quiet reading rooms, was designed to protect the treasures entrusted to it.

But even the strongest treasure box needs a keeper.

The building can safeguard the past, but it takes people to bring that past to life, to guide visitors, to care for the collection, and to make sure the light inside never dims. That is where the story turns next, to the person who knows this place better than anyone, and who carries its history with both expertise and heart.

Part Two is about her.