The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C.,   ISBN:9780060953683

Customer Rating: 

Honsetly only read through the first few chapters. It was difficult to follow....the author jumped back and forth between timelines. If you can follow it, I'm sure there are some good facts there....but I couldn't keep up.

Customer Rating: 

Very esoteric and a constant intellectual challenge. The more knowledge of astronomy and astrological lore one has, the easier the book will be. For readers willing to study, it is ever intriguing, Ovason details, and provides important documentation for his argument which is, in essence, that the development of the design and erection of structures in Washington, D.C. was and is according to an astronomically oriented plan, and has been in the hands of Masons through most of its history. The author assures readers that he is not a Mason. I lived in DC for a decade and have confirmed the correctness of his architectural and compositional observations; his interpretation of course, is open to debate. In other words, the facts on the ground and in the sky, and even in the archives all check out -- it's his interpretation of them I have reservations about. For instance, it should be no surprise that astronomy and even astrology were important to agrarian societies, but it's quite a leap to say that they (i.e., Freemasons) therefore were secretly adoring Isis!!

By the way, you can bet your bottom Continental Dollar that Dan Brown (or his wife -- the "researcher"!) ransacked this book as he wrote The Solomon Key.

Customer Rating: 

This is one of the most interesting books I"ve ever read, being from Washington DC I didn't know the history of Foggy Bottom and other areas, what they were like in the 1700s and 1800s, so I couldn't put it down. There are illustrations and the writing is very creative and interesting, I just loved it. AA++

Customer Rating: 

This is a well researched work on the hidden, esoteric symbolism within the nation's captiol. I recommend this for the student of Masonry and occult symbolism.

Customer Rating: 

I just discovered the key to selling a new book, put the word Secret in the title. Currently books with the Secret are selling like Gangbusters, The Secret by Rhonda Bryne and the sequels, The Secret Life of Bees, according to Amazon, there are over 74,725 book with Secret in the title.
Okay so let's talk about this book, it is a comprehensive history which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. The book moves slowly, the author did his research and I have no quibble with that - I know this topic; however, the significance of why the Freemasons chose to do things that have been done, in the manner that they did is just not revealed, I was really disappointed because there is some terrific information out there and I am well versed in this topic based on my own research. I am wondering if this is because he wasn't allowed to "get to the point", no pun intended. I think the true reason he left out answers to why (Astrology is important but he didn't say why among other points never addressed is because Mason's aren't allowed to share the key precepts of their faith or beliefs to the uninitiated - that leaves out all females and many men.
There are many good books out there to understand the significance of Masonry -you won't find them by doing an internet search using the word - avoid the publications that will come up will give you books written by Masons (who often don't share that information, up front) these books reveal much of the same stuff rehashed, instead try books by William Schnoebelen, John Ankerberg, David Weldon, Tom C. McKenney, or anything Published by Chick Publications all provided excellent, well documented, significant information -though Ankerberg is very dry.