Since 1961, San Juan Lodge 175 has hosted an annual Outdoor Second Degree at the John S. McMillin Mausoleum.
John S. McMillin wished to leave to posterity, a memorial to the dreams and aspirations of the things he and his generation believed in. His family, his religious beliefs, his associations are all enshrined here.
Paul McMillin, the youngest son, stated that the limestone table represented the family table, around which all the family would symbolically gather in the hereafter. There is a chair for all of the sons and daughters of the union of John S. McMillin and Louella Hiatt. The chairs are also the crypts for their ashes.
John S., because of his love and respect for the Masonic Order turned to its teaching for overall design. Masons will quickly recognize these symbolic signs of love for God, Country and Mankind. In the construction of the mausoleum he exemplified the Brazen Pillars; the Flight of Winding Stairs as a means of reaching the Middle Chamber by the teachings of the three, the five and the seven steps. The steps are situated on the east side of the structure.
The practice of erecting columns at the entrance to an edifice dedicated to worship prevailed in Egypt and Phoenicia and these ancients believed the earth to be flat and that it was supported by two Pillars of God, placed at the western entrance of the world as then known.
The broken column on the west side of the edifice was erected in the manner to represent the broken column of life and signify the unfinished state of man's work when the string of life is broken.
The Winding Stairs as a whole are representations of life, not the physical life of eating, drinking, sleeping and working, but the mental and spiritual life, of the world as a whole; of learning, studying and enlarging mental horizons, and increasing the spiritual outlook. They are winding to represent, to some extent, our path through life in that we will be unable to see what lies ahead of us and keep hidden the future of everyday living. The Three Steps are emblematical of the three principal states of human life-youth, adulthood and old age. In youth we ought to industriously occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge; in manhood we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbors, and ourselves; so that in old age, we may enjoy the happy reflection consequent on a well spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immortality.
The Five Steps represent the Five Orders in Architecture, the Tuscan, Doric, ionic, Corinthian and the Composite, and is a regular arrangement of the projecting parts of a building which united with those of a column, form a beautiful, perfect and complete whole. These Five Steps also represent the five senses of human nature: Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Smelling and Tasting. The Seven Steps represent the seven liberal arts and sciences: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. The Mausoleum is not complete as Mr. McMillin envisioned it. His heirs, for various reasons, did not see fit to install the bronze dome with its Maltese Cross. If you would like more information about our annual Degree please feel free to contact us.
