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EDUCATION

Masons to bless new high school in cornerstone ceremony

Brian Early
bearly@seacoastonline.com
Members of the Mason fraternal organization will hold a cornerstone laying ceremony at the Dover High School on Friday evening before the homecoming football game. [John Huff/Fosters.com file]

DOVER — Members of the fraternal organization the Freemasons will conduct a cornerstone laying ceremony at the new Dover High School Friday evening before the homecoming football game.

The ceremony will be conducted by the Grandmaster John E. Lobdell of the New Hampshire Grand Lodge, who is also a 1977 Dover High School graduate.

Weather permitting, the ceremony will be held in the high school’s courtyard, which is accessible through the school’s Town Square.

“This ceremony is about blessing and promoting the building to the enduring success and public good in our community,” said David Akridge, a member of the Moses Paul Masonic Lodge #96 in Dover.

The masons will enter the area walking two by two lead by the grandmaster. The Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps led by Cmd. Thomas Gamble will present the colors, followed by Dover High senior Taylor Sprague singing the national anthem. The Dover High Marching Band will be playing as part of the event.

During the ceremony, the masons will symbolically square, level and plumb the cornerstone, culminating with the grand master proclaiming the foundation stone is “well-formed, true and trusty.” Using a silver chalice, members will bless the stone with corn, wine and oil.

Traditionally, the cornerstone laying ceremony includes the actual laying of the cornerstone on the northeast side of the building. The one at the high school, as was the one at the new Dover Police Station in 2016, will be done ceremoniously.

Masons have held cornerstone ceremonies for centuries, including at the U.S. Capitol Building, where George Washington laid the cornerstone. This month, the mason’s celebrated the 225th anniversary of that event. On the Seacoast, the Masonic cornerstone ceremony has been a tradition for buildings for hundreds of years.

The public ceremony starts at 6 p.m. and will take about 30 to 45 minutes and conclude in time for the 7 p.m. football game, where the Green Wave will take on the Winnacunnet Warriors at Dunaway Field.