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| Courtesy Freemason to Mansion |
I remember reading about this several years ago in a news story, and recently I found a website chronicling the progress made in restoring this former Masonic temple in Indiana. A family from California relocated for the purpose of buying and renovating this building to make it a residence. A different kind of Masonic home, if you will.
Looking at the façade, I recognize similarities to the Trenton Masonic Temple in New Jersey, and I don’t doubt there are many others with the resemblance. This one dates to 1926, during the boom when the fraternity exploded in size. Through World War I and the decade thereafter, hundreds of thousands of men flooded into Freemasonry nationwide, so there was need for who-knows-how-many new buildings for lodges, chapters, Scottish Rite, Shrine, and the rest. That need has waned, to say the least, and consequently these properties are sold, but also sometimes abandoned for want of a buyer.
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| Courtesy Freemason to Mansion |
“It’s going to take us at least a year to get it the way we want it,” Theresa Cannizzaro told a local newspaper then. They’re still at it.
I’m not a big fan of Masonic lodges and other bodies putting all their energy and time into stubbornly trying to continue life in their hundred-year-old buildings. The roof, the elevator, the plumbing, the electric, the boiler, the everything cost too much to upgrade because there are too few Masons to shoulder the expenses. The Cannizzaros seem to know what they’re doing, and I wish them “profit and pleasure,” as we say.
Check out the steady updates of their progress on their blog. Actually, it’s not only the rehab; there are photos of the Masonic sights in the building, plus items they found here and there. Look them up on social media too.
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Courtesy Freemason to Mansion
The stuff you find laying around. |
