El Paso Scottish Rite - 2017
Teacher with two of her students.
Designated in the original blue prints as the "Degree Room", for decades the El Paso Scottish Rite Theater was the unknown gem of El Paso theaters. Designed specifically for the conferral of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite degrees, the theater has always managed to attract a wider audience.
One story has it that in the 1930's, a man tuning his car radio received a weak broadcast from an amateur orchestra and was impressed enough to stop and listen. From the announcers dedication, he heard the group was performing in at the Scottish Rite Temple's theater, so he turned his car around, headed there, and recruited those musicians to play under his direction. Thus was founded the El Paso Symphony Orchestra.
Predating the renowned El Paso Plaza Theater by seven years, The El Paso Scottish Rite Theater is among the oldest active theaters in the region and hosts a wide variety of events from the performing arts to weddings and conferences.
The Theaters Fly Gallery contains 80 drops capable of portraying 152 different scenes. The drops we have hanging today where installed in August of 1947 and are hand-painted. These drops are lowered and raised manually by rope from a catwalk above and to the left side of the stage.
http://www.elpasoscottishrite.org/theater.html
The El Paso Scottish Rite Temple was designed by Hubbell and Green of Dallas. Built as an Early Revival Style the building was completed in 1921. It is owned by the Scottish Rite Freemasonry.
Theater located inside the El Paso Scottish Rite. Older than the Plaza Theater. Theater still being used for the original purpose and by original owners when built in 1921.
Photograph taken in December 2016 - after the traditional Holiday Lighting Ceremony at San Jacinto Plaza.
The sphinxes that guard the entrance to the temple were cast in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, by the Federal-Seaboard Terra Cotta Company (which ceased to operate in 1968) and shipped to El Paso by truck. From start to finish, with the two sphinxes safely on their bases, took a period of 10 months, with final placement on September 26, 1966. Each sphinx is 10 feet long and weighs 4,000 pounds. The official dedication took place at the Scottish Rite Reunion on October 20, 1966.
Of the nine Scottish Rite Bodies in Texas, El Paso was the first one to have sphinxes, and they subsequently arranged for a pair to be given by the El Paso Bodies to the Waco Consistory.
The El Paso Scottish Rite sphinxes are the largest single-cast terra cotta sculptures in the world. Terra Cotta is a clay-based, waterproof, fired, and unglazed ceramic. These were based on the sphinxes outside the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, D.C.
http://www.elpasoscottishrite.org/about-scottish-rite.html
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