Lord Sholto Douglas Chapter Three Plaque

The Esoteric Fraternity

Located at Applegate, CA

Originally established in the city Boston in 1887 by Hiram E. Butler and brought to California in 1891
The Esoteric Fraternity was originally known as the Esoteric Publishing Co.
Its publication THE BIBLE REVIEW was concurrent with the CHRISTIAN HERALD, the most widely circulated religious publication in the world.
The original property was purchased from railroad magnate Leland Stanford in 1892 and was augmented by a land grant from President Grover Cleveland.
This grant included the property now known as Our Lady of the Oaks. Many of the buildings date from the 1890s using bricks formed from the property's rich clay and fired using the manzanita indigenous to the area. Legal problems forced the company to change its name to The Esoteric Fraternity and for some time sold shares of stock as the Esoteric Commonwealth.
The residents of the property who were given monastic names by Mr. Butler would seldom number more than a dozen at any one time and probably no more than forty throughout its existence.

DEDICATED SEPTEMBER 20, 2003
LORD SHOLTO DOUGLAS NO. 3
E CLAMPUS VITUS
AND SO RECORDED