Mizpah Shrine and the circus that outlived the lodge era

1909 — present

Fezzes, a million-dollar temple, and a circus: The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine — the Masons' self-styled playground, part parade, part hospital charity — had been tried in Fort Wayne once, about 1903, and had failed, as the Fort Wayne News recorded in 1909. That year the attempt succeeded: under a dispensation from Imperial Potentate George L. Street, Fort Wayne's Shriners held their first ceremonial session in 1909, one of the News's three "red letter events" of the lodge year. The temple took the name Mizpah, a biblical watchword; local tradition recorded in the city's 1979 architectural tour holds that Ellen Wing, wife of the architect and Scottish Rite founder John Wing, suggested the name, and she is remembered as the "mother" of Mizpah Temple. The young temple met for some years in downtown halls — the directories of 1915 and 1918 put it at 227 West Main Street, and the Sängerbund's newsletter history records the Shrine in Sängerbund Hall from 1914 — before it built.

What it built was the largest fraternal room in the city's history. In 1924 the Shrine bought the Olds mansion property at 407 West Berry Street and let the contract for a temple and auditorium next door, at 409–431 West Berry: Max Irmscher & Sons, builders; Guy Mahurin, architect; scenery painted on site by the Sosman & Landis studio's Thomas G. Moses. The three-day dedication opened November 18, 1925, with a ceremonial ball and closed with a performance of Aida; the Muncie Times reported 3,000 nobles in attendance and a building cost of a million dollars. The auditorium seated more than 2,400 and the banquet hall more than 2,000, and the Shrine's own plan, printed at the time, was to give the room to the public — speakers, theatrical productions, banquets — needing it for itself only four or five days a year. In 1953 the Scottish Rite bought the auditorium building; the Shrine kept its West Berry presence into the twenty-first century and in 2014 moved its center to 1015 Memorial Way, where it remains. The temple's current profile describes nearly 1,500 Shrine-Masons across twenty-two counties of northeast Indiana, supporting Shriners Children's hospitals in Chicago and Ohio.

The circus is the Shrine's surviving public institution. By the count of its own anniversaries — the seventieth circus in January 2016, the seventy-ninth in 2025, the eightieth in 2027 — the Mizpah Shrine Circus began in 1947. In the early years the show arrived by train and played on the Scottish Rite's downtown stage; when the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum opened in 1952, the circus was, by its committee's account, the first act ever to perform there, on the building's opening weekend, and the Coliseum has been its home since. Some hundred Shriners volunteer to stage it each January; the Tarzan Zerbini organization has produced it for decades, and Fort Wayne's show traditionally opens the Shrine circus year. The temple's tickets carry the plain disclaimer that the circus is a fraternal fundraiser for the temple itself, payments not deductible as charitable contributions — the benefit-machine honesty of the old lodge world, printed on the modern ticket.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne News, "Eighty-Six Years of Lodge History" (1909) — the failed first attempt and the 1909 dispensation and ceremonial.
2. West Central/Creighton Avenue historic tour documentation (1979), Allen County records — Ellen Wing and the name Mizpah.
3. Garrett Clipper, April 24, 1924 — construction contract to Max Irmscher & Sons; The Times (Muncie), November 18–19, 1925 — the dedication, 3,000 nobles, the million-dollar building; Scottish Rite Center historical analysis (2005) — capacities.
4. Friends of Wyneken newsletter (November 2023) — the Shrine at Sängerbund Hall from 1914 and the 1924 move to the Olds mansion property; R. L. Polk & Co. directories, 1915, 1918 — 227 West Main.
5. Whatzup, January 2025 and January 2016 — the circus's anniversary counts, the Coliseum opening-weekend claim, the volunteer committee; Mizpah Shrine Circus (2026) — the eightieth year and the fundraiser disclaimer; Mizpah Shrine company profile — 1,500 members, twenty-two counties.