Seattle hosted the 41st Annual Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Nobles of the Mystic Shrine - or Shriners - convention from July 12-17, 1915. Shriners came from every part of the country on 56 special trains, including three trains that held just the LuLu Temple delegates from Philadelphia. Every hotel was full and "the overflow was lodged in fraternity and sorority houses in the University District, in private homes, and there still wasn't room to quarter comfortably all the visitors." More than "400,000 cantaloupes alone were consumed by visiting Shriners," according to a Western Avenue merchants' report. Sixty thousand Shriners marched in the Grand Shrine parade.

This photograph shows the LuLu Temple patrol posing in Seattle at the 1915 National Convention. There is a small fez cut out of red paper glued in lower left corner, embossed in gold with "41st Session imperial Council" 1915 Seattle.

Handwritten on image: Lulu Temple Patrols 41st Annual Session Imperial Council A.A.O.N.M.S. Seattle July 12-17, 1915 Frank H. Nowell Official Photographer

Caption information source: "Shriners, Last Here in 1915, Made History With Conclave," The Seattle Daily Times: June 17, 1935, p. 11.
Caption information source: "About The Shriners and LuLu Shrine: Founding and Organization", http://www.lulushriners.org/our_history.html, accessed March 25, 2019.