BNHA Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland
Interpretive Framework
Gaining Freedom for All: African American Heritage and the Struggle for Equality
Star Attractions
Pennsylvania Avenue Heritage Trail
Resource Type
Points of Interest
1307 Eutaw Pl
Baltimore, Maryland 21217
Baltimore’s Prince Hall Lodge on Eutaw Street traces its origins to New England in 1784, where Prince Hall, the father of black Masonry in the United States, is credited with making it possible for African Americans to become Masons.
In 1960, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge moved to into a former synagogue, the Eutaw Place Temple. The synagogue was designed by Baltimore architect Joseph Evans Sperry in the Moorish Revival style to resemble the Great Synagogue of Florence, Italy. The Oheb Shalom Congregation sold Eutaw Place Temple to the current owners, the Prince Hall Masons.
The Prince Hall Masons prioritize “mentoring, instructing, and inspiring.” The group’s history of providing charitable donations and educational scholarships bares this out and is legend in Baltimore communities. Among the members of the lodge are the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and James Hubert “Eubie” Blake, a composer, lyricist, and pianist who played ragtime, jazz, and popular music. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the lodge in 1964 on behalf of President Johnson’s election campaign.