In June 1867, Andrew Johnson became the first president to undergo a masonic initiation at the White House.
His executive schedule prevented him from holding the ceremony at the masonic Temple on 9th and F Streets Northwest and the initiation moved to the White House. Benjamin B. French, former commissioner of public buildings and Grand Master of masons, presided over the initiation. French and his colleague Azariah T.C. Pierson arrived at the White House just before lunch.
They dined with Johnson in the library on the Second Floor and then retired to his personal quarters where French and Pierson conferred the Scottish Rite degrees and instructed Johnson on the various signs, passwords, and lectures.
President William H. Taft welcomed a delegation from the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, a masonic appendant organization, in 1911. They initiated Taft into the body during a private ceremony in the Oval Office. Similar ceremonies were held in the Oval Office for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 by a delegation from the Tall Cedars of Lebanon and in 1977 for Gerald Ford by the D.C. Royal Arch and Cryptic Council bodies.
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