Nagasaki Masonic Lodge Gate

This stone gate, now positioned beside the Former Ringer House in Glover Garden, is all that survives of the Nagasaki Masonic Lodge. The lodge was founded in 1885, primarily by British men employed at Mitsubishi's Nagasaki Shipyard, with Scotsman John Calder as its first Master. A Square and Compasses symbol is carved into one of the pillars. After the lodge disbanded in 1919 and its building was demolished decades later, the gate was moved here for preservation. Built from Amakusa sandstone like many structures in the old foreign settlement, it is a small but concrete remnant of Nagasaki's international 19th-century community.