The Old Scottish Rite Cathedral
The ornate yet dignified Scottish Rite Cathedral stands on Scott Avenue, close to St. Augustine Cathedral in downtown Tucson, the church that houses a Pamplona Crucifix some six hundred years old. Built in 1915, the Scottish Rite building became the permanent home of the Scottish Rite Masonic organization after several false starts in Tucson. Inside, members continue a Master Mason's education beyond the first three degrees, and the Freemasons' fraternal brotherhood holds its closed meetings here. Rooms are available to the public for weddings, parties, and special events, and the photographs of those spaces are genuinely lovely.
Why is a Masonic temple in a ghost blog?
Because of stories that surfaced around the early 2000s, and honesty requires a disclaimer up front: everything below is second-hand. I never spoke with anyone connected to a paranormal event in this building. The reports come from the book Southern Arizona's Most Haunted, and here is what it records. Some time ago, several bodies were found inside the Scottish Rite building, thought to be transients who had made their home in the deserted sections of the place. Those areas were already in disrepair and considered dangerous, so the members closed that part of the temple. You will see both "cathedral" and "temple" used for the building, and both fit. Whether the hauntings that followed arose from those unfortunate deaths or from Masonic members who passed on before was never clear.
The Red Room reports
Apparitions have reportedly been seen late at night in the hallway leading to the back stage of the Red Room. Yes, back stage: the Scottish Rite Cathedral is also known for a huge costume collection and for staging very good plays, and the hauntings in that wing are attributed to former stagehands and members. Witnesses describe a very bright light moving through the hallway that occasionally takes the shape of a man's lower torso and legs. Another apparition, more complete and clearly a man, has been reported in the hallway leading to the library. The Masons themselves are apparently untroubled by these visits, with some regarding them as signs from their ancestors. The book also mentions echoing voices and footsteps in the empty rooms at night, which makes the building feel alive with its own century of history.
Downtown Tucson rewards this kind of curiosity. The Scottish Rite building sits within blocks of the old presidio ground, and its stories fold naturally into the district's larger lore, covered in haunted tales from Tucson's historic presidio and the echoes of the Old Pueblo.
Walk this story
The best of downtown's strange history is walkable in a single evening. The Downtown Tucson Haunted History Tour runs evenings at 8 PM for $29, covering the district around Scott Avenue and the landmarks whose stories are anything but second-hand.
