Green Giant

It's a building that we pass on Meridian Street on our way to work, either because we're too hurried to stop and enjoy the downtown scenes, or because its beigey stone exterior is camouflaged against all of the other neutral colored downtown structures. For whatever reason, we forget it's there -- at least until the sun goes down. After a weekend night full of bar-hopping, however, we notice an absinthe-hued glow peeking over the tops of the downtown skyline. When we finally hop in our cab to hitch a ride home, our noses pressed against the sticky window glass, it's impossible to ignore. It's the Scottish Rite Cathedral, seemingly blanketed in Kryptonite, lit up in all its green glory. An embarrassing confession: I admit to having no idea if the Scottish Rite was a full-functioning church, a museum, a place where people like to put on plaid kilts and play the bagpipes... and drink scotch...? until I visited the Scottish Rite Cathedral's Web site. Apparentlythe Scottish Rite is an appendant body of the Masonic Fraternity that was chartered in Indianapolis in 1865. The gorgeously spooky example of neo-gothic architecture remains the largest building in the United States devoted to Freemasonry, and the National Registry of Historic Places recognized the Rite in 1983. Its members and guests have regular events, banquets and dinners and even sponsors a learning center for dyslexic children. Hmm... beautiful and functional? When does that happen? Image: Maggie Conner