Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh

E97: From Secret Society Myths To Community Events At The Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center

• Leila Carter & Maureen Burch • Episode 97

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What makes Maureen Burch with Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center a good neighbor? 

Think that grand stone building on Cemetery Lane is off-limits? We open the doors with Maureen Burch from the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center and reveal a community-first venue hiding in plain sight- just seven minutes from downtown, rich in history, and designed for real-world events. From conferences and performances to weddings and milestone celebrations, this space pairs old Pittsburgh character with modern flexibility.

Maureen shares how her nonprofit and education background shaped a mission-driven approach to operations, where rental revenue supports both a large, versatile facility and meaningful philanthropy. We highlight the on-site dyslexia school supported by the Scottish Rite of Pittsburgh- free tutoring for families, offered most weekdays- showing how Freemasonry’s “making good men better” ethos translates into tangible community impact. Along the way, we tackle common myths about Freemasonry and unpack why this is not a private hall or a mausoleum, but a public venue with room to create, connect, and give back.

For planners and teams, the practical details shine: a 500-seat ballroom, a 500-seat auditorium, four lodge rooms for 100–175, and the tech-enabled Grotto for 80. Add a full commercial kitchen and flexible vendor options, and you’ve got a rare setup for keynotes with banquets, performances with receptions, or streamlined corporate off-sites. Because many Masonic and performing groups meet at night and on weekends, daytime availability is wide open- ideal for business conferences and trainings looking for space in the North Hills with quick access to the city.

If you’re ready to rethink venue options in Pittsburgh, this conversation is your guide. Subscribe for more local stories that bridge tradition, service, and smart planning, share this episode with someone scouting a space, and leave a review to help more neighbors find us.

To learn more about Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center go to: 

pghmasoniccenter.com

Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center

(412)931-1996


SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of an event center or conference space? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Maureen Birch, with the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center. Maureen, how's it going? It's going great. Thanks for having me, Lila. Thanks for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and the business. So please tell us more about your company.

SPEAKER_01:

The Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center is an event space in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh. We're actually in Ross Township. We're right off of the Perryview exit on 279. So we're very centrally located, about seven minutes from downtown Pittsburgh. We are an organization that's owned by a group of Masons. And the group that is owns the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center is called the Masonic Fund Society. But we do business as an event center, and we're open not just to Masons for Masonic activities, but also the public at large.

SPEAKER_02:

Excellent. And how did you get into this business, Maureen?

SPEAKER_01:

I came the long way. I came from Illinois. I was working for the University of Illinois in Champaign, Urbana before I took this position. I've had a million careers in my life. I've been an educator. I've worked in everything from pre-K to higher education. I also worked for a lot of community nonprofits, which are very similar to the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center, is being run basically as a community nonprofit. So it's most similar to my roles as far as that goes with event planning and supporting a community nonprofit. My husband transferred work here to Cranberry about five years ago. He needed to work in person. So we moved, packed up our lives in Champaign, Urbana, and came here. About two months later, the pandemic hit, and he's been working from our kitchen table ever since.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. Well, we're happy to have you both. So are there any myths or maybe misconceptions in this industry or that you'd like to discuss today?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I will say there's a lot of myths and misconceptions about Masons and Freemasons in general, because they are, you know, what people think of as a secret society, but they're not really a secret society. They're a society that has some secrets that make more sense when you're involved in the whole and truths that make more sense when you're involved in their ceremonies, rituals, and processes. But that folds over into our event center as well, because many, many people don't believe that we are open to the public, which of course we are, and we actually really strive to be a community service. Another misconception I would say, again, with Freemasonry is that it's strictly about, you know, bros being bros hanging together. And that is a major function of Freemasonry. It's making good men better men as their slogan. And a good part of that involves meeting in both ritualistic and other ways. But one thing I don't know that everyone is aware of about Freemasons is that they are a strong philanthropic organization. We strive here to have a zero budget at the end of each year, and all of our money that comes in through outside rentals is either funneled into the actual oversight of this building, which is about a half a million square acres, or I'm sorry, square feet. So it's a quite large facility and does have a high budget in terms of you know just building upkeep and you know utilities and all that. But any other money that we bring in or comes into Freemasonry goes through to the community through many philanthropic um projects. One such example is that we have a school for dyslexia here that the Scottish Right of Pittsburgh, which is one of our Masonic organizations, um, they pay for all of the teachers and free tutoring. It happens almost every weekday here from about three o'clock to eight o'clock. And there's no charge to the students or the families for those dyslexia services. So it's a huge contribution that the the Freemasons make, both financially and in support, um, by using this facility.

SPEAKER_02:

Excellent. Yeah, that's such an important resource for those families, I'm sure. Absolutely. Who are your target customers then, and how are you currently attracting them to the center?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, um, I guess I should have addressed this a little bit in the misconceptions. One of the misconceptions is we're on cemetery lane and we are surrounded by cemeteries, and our building is is rather traditional. So I think most people, and this is one of the very most common things I hear is oh, I've driven past your building a hundred times. I always assumed you were the mausoleum, because our building architecture does sort of have that look. Um, and we were in fact, this property was purchased from one of the surrounding cemeteries. Um, at one point, the Catholic Church did not allow uh above-ground burials, and so this ground, which is limestone, wasn't of much use to them. So we did purchase it from them. But we are in fact not a mausoleum, we are an event center. Um, so that's one of the things that uh is also a misconception. You asked about our customer base, was that correct? Correct. So our customer base, again, primarily we are here for Masonic owners and other affiliated Masonic groups. They have their meetings here, and Masonic organizations often meet as regularly as every week or once a month, or we have some that just meet quarterly, or even one that comes just once a year. Um, they have all different schedules, and that's a big piece of our um who we are here for. But we are also here for community organizations. Um, the facility has within it a ballroom that can occupy up to 500, so it's one of the bigger ballrooms in the area. We also have an auditorium, a theater-like space that also seats up to 500. In addition to those spaces, we have a full commercial kitchen. We have four large lodge rooms, um, three of which can seat in sort of like theater in the round type seating, about 100 guests. And then we have one that is closer to 175. And in addition to that, we still have one other room that's called the Grotto, which is a high-tech meeting space that's set up in table, uh, a table formation for about 80 people. So, all told, it's a huge, huge building with um space for everyone.

SPEAKER_02:

That's amazing, and what a great resource for the community to have an event space like that and also the commercial kitchen that's so unique as well. Yes, very cool. Have you ever thought about perhaps doing a podcast to reach the people that you'd like to occupy the space and to get use out of it?

SPEAKER_01:

We haven't at this time. Um, I am coming, I've only been here for three years, and um the Masons are an older organization and um not as technically savvy, maybe, as we should be. We're working on that. Um, podcasts would be a good outlet for us to share what we have to offer to the community. We're currently updating our web space, that's sort of our first priority, and we're hoping that that will launch here by mid-year, hopefully, or by the end of this year. Um, and once we have that going, then we'll probably expand to social media. And we're trying to attract some more business clientele as well. We have a huge opportunity here. Most of our lodges and a lot of the performing organizations that are here are here in the evenings and the weekends. So we have huge availability for daytime events for business conferences or meetings or smaller community events. So we're hoping to expand to those markets, and a podcast could be an excellent idea.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely agreed. So, Maureen, what do you do for fun outside of work?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we just got a not a puppy, but a five-year-old rescue dog whose name is Winston. He's a cocker spaniel, or as they call clinger spaniels, because they're they're they're very homebound. Um, so that's taking a lot of my time right now. Also, my husband and I, one of the things we really love about Pittsburgh, um, we came from Illinois, and Illinois is flat, totally flat, farmland soybeans flat, um, which has a certain beauty to it, but of course the hills offer a whole different beauty. And one of the things that we like to do in Illinois, but has a whole different feel here in Pittsburgh is bicycling. Um, we both enjoy doing both trail riding and city biking. And as you know, Pittsburgh has an incredible biking infrastructure. Um, the Petal PGH and other organizations have done a really great advocacy job in the community of creating bikeable spaces. So my husband and I really enjoy that. And we're trying to get Winston. We're we're hoping Winston will enjoy a doggy follow behind like a kid carrier. We'll see. He might be a little big for a basket. He's 35 pounds, but um he does like to have his ears flop in the wind, so he might enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, very cute. Yeah. Um, I just love the incline too. If you want a view of all the hills, just riding up the incline and seeing the city from Mount Washington is really the best view that you can get in the city, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

So absolutely. And since we're still sort of tourists ourselves, when we have family or friends visit, of course, Mount Washington is one of our very first visits to give them that just spectacular view of the city. And then we've also found exploring um the community, Pittsburgh in particular, by bicycle, has been an excellent way for us to get to know our way around. Um, you see things just on a different level on bicycle than than you do when you're driving around in a car. So it's been really good for us, and we take a lot of our visitors on those trips too to get them to know the the lake shore or the the area around the three rivers and the three river trails and getting to know the strip district in those areas.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's so gorgeous, and there's so much to see and so much culturally in those areas as well in the strip that just makes Pittsburgh such a sentimental place to be. I'm born and raised here, so I just love it down there. It feels like, you know, just so nostalgic for me. Yes, yes, absolutely. So, Maureen, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think they should remember that it's a place that has a little bit of everything and it's a perfect event planning place. So, um, you know, events are not one size fits all, and we have a lot of customizable options here at the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center. Um, at least at the moment, there's the possibility. I mean, we do have preferred vendors, but we are also open to outside vendors at this time. Um, so that's one thing that we offer that a lot of other places don't offer. Um, another thing that we offer is the auditorium. So, you know, if you're looking to do some sort of an event that involves both a speaker and a place to have, you know, a banquet, or if you're looking for a place to do a performance and then a reception afterwards, um, that's a possibility we have here that most event centers do not. Um, and people used to go to a lot of the public schools for those types of things, but um after COVID, the schools are just not as open to the public as they once were. So um we have a unique niche there.

SPEAKER_02:

Very true. And is there an on-site event planner, or are you currently outsourcing you are?

SPEAKER_01:

That would be me. Um, yes, I'm the event planner. I I do the scheduling um and I walk people, like I said, there are no two events, so they're the same. Um, I mean, you can have a birthday party, but every birthday party is different too, you know, depending on the age, the size, um, whether you are serving alcohol or not serving alcohol, whether you're intending to do a catered meal or drop-off catering for a meal, or you'd like to just, you know, get some Sams and Costco trays and do something a little more simply, but not simply go to a park or have 80 people in your living room. Um, and we have spaces, you know, for as small as 25 or 50, all the way up to, like I said, we could do a full sit-down wedding or banquet type thing, you know, with a dance floor and whatnot for probably up to 350 or a cocktail reception vendor type event for up to 500. So there's a lot of flexibility built in.

SPEAKER_02:

Very nice. Wow, that's a whole nother job in itself. Coordination, I know a little bit about it, um, and just even keeping the timeline. It seems like there's you know 150 touch points for just one singular event. So um for being able to wear all the hats, it seems, um, with that. Now, how can our listeners learn more about the greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they can find us at the web. As I said, right now, our web presence is maybe not as strong as it should be, but a new website is definitely coming. And our website is PGH Masonic Center. Um, if or if you Google the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center, either one, our website will be available to you. Excellent. Is that a dot com or a dot or I'm sorry, it's a dot com.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent, excellent. Thanks for clarifying.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Well, Maureen, we very much appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and the center the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciated the invitation. It's always good to speak with fellow Pittsburghers.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And we're so happy that you're here.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having us.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnppittsburgh.com. That's gnppittsburgh.com or call 412 561 9956.