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| Dr. Robert Morris House in La Grange, Kentucky |
Almost every American community contains a site that involves the Freemasons. This is especially true in La Grange, Kentucky. La Grange was once home to a Masonic College (from 1844 to 1873) and was the home to Dr. Rob Morris from 1860 until his death in 1888.
Morris founded the Order of the Eastern Star (a sister organization to Freemasonry, believing that some of the benefits of the Freemasons should be available to the female relatives of Masons) and was named the Poet Laureate of Freemasonry in 1884.
His most famous poem, The Level and the Square, was written in 1854. Excerpts follow [full text here]:
We meet upon the level and we part upon the square;
There’s a world where all are equal we’re coming to it fast
We shall meet upon the level there when the days on earth are past
We shall stand before the altar and our Master will be there
To try the blocks we offer with his own unerring square
We shall meet upon the level there but never thence depart
There’s a Mansion—‘tis all ready for each trusting, faithful heart
There’s a Mansion and a welcome and a multitude is there
Who have met upon the level and been tried upon the square.
The home pictured above was Morris’ second home in La Grange. Morris’ first home was burned in 1861 due to the pro-Union stance taken by Dr. Morris; he moved to the pictured home in 1862. The residence was erected in 1840. Since 1918, the property has been owned by the Order of the Eastern Star as a shrine and museum.