De Goede Hoop Temple, Cape Town
De Goede Hoop Temple is a Masonic building in Bouquet Street, Cape Town, South Africa. Its original temple was completed in 1803 and later rebuilt after a fire in 1892.[1] It takes its name from Lodge De Goede Hoop, founded under the Dutch Masonic constitution in 1772.[2]
Building the temple
The lodge acquired part of Domburg Garden in 1800 for permanent premises. Louis Thibault prepared the plans, Herman Schutte undertook the building work and Anton Anreith supplied sculpture. All three were lodge members. The temple was consecrated on 7 July 1803.[1]
The site lies close to the Company's Garden and the parliamentary precinct. An arched gateway gives access to the grounds; the gateway and the temple behind it are separate structures.[3]
Parliamentary and public uses
The lodge's premises also served colonial government. A neighbouring banqueting hall accommodated the Cape House of Assembly from 1854 to 1884.[4] Cooper records that Christoffel Brand, the Assembly's first Speaker and a leading Freemason, helped arrange the accommodation. Assembly members could also use the lodge's Society Rooms.[5]
The grounds hosted entertainment as well as meetings. During the nineteenth century, the lodge opened its gardens to the public for concerts and theatrical performances, with entrance receipts supporting charity.[6]
Fire and rebuilding
A fire on 21 February 1892 destroyed much of the temple, although some entrance rooms and the underground section survived.[1] The rebuilt building was consecrated in April 1893. The site received national-monument designation under the legislation then in force on 6 September 1968.[4]
Losses and surviving sculpture
The Grand Lodge of South Africa's historical account places the start of the 1892 fire in an exhibition hall on the grounds, from which it spread to the temple roof. Furniture, paintings and four sculptures by Anreith were lost. Other sculptures survived in rooms which escaped the destruction. During the rebuilding, lodge members met at the nearby De Goede Trouw temple.[7]
The same account dates the reopening to 27 April 1893 and records the unveiling of three new statues in 1896, commemorating Jan Hendrik Hofmeyer, a former Deputy Grand Master. These figures represent Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. They belong to the rebuilding period and should be distinguished from Anreith's surviving work from the original temple.[7]
Later Masonic use
De Goede Hoop continued to host Masonic bodies beyond its founding lodge. The Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of South Africa was constituted there on 30 August 1969 and returned to the temple for its fiftieth-anniversary celebrations in 2019.[2]
See also
- Masonic architecture
- The Layout of the Craft Lodge
- Freemasonry in the nineteenth century
- Holy Royal Arch
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Alan Amos Cooper, The origins and growth of Freemasonry in South Africa, 1772–1876, MA thesis, University of Cape Town, 1980, pp. 49–50.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of South Africa, Our History. Accessed 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Grand Lodge of South Africa, De Goede Hoop Temple — Cape Town, 16 September 2014, preserved copy of the illustrated building account, especially its description of the gateway and approach.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 South African History Online, Lodge de Goede Hoop, Stal Square, Cape Town, building history. Accessed 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Cooper, The origins and growth of Freemasonry in South Africa, p. 140.
- ↑ Cooper, The origins and growth of Freemasonry in South Africa, p. 224.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 John Smith, Freemasonry in South Africa: 1872–1922, The Square and Compasses, Grand Lodge of South Africa, no. 124, May 2022, p. 1.
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