Shuter's Hill

When you get off at King Street, it’s almost impossible to not see the Masonic Temple. And yes, the Masonic Temple is very cool, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the land on which it sits: Shuter’s Hill. While the Masonic Temple has been around for almost 100 years, the human history of Shuter’s Hill stretches back nearly 5,000. As early as 3000 BCE, Native Americans used it to send hunting and fishing parties to the valley below. By the late 1700s, the hill was home to a plantation that was also the site of a grand mansion. During the Civil War, it served as a union encampment. And though this purpose was never realized, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wanted it to be the site of the United States Capitol.