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Detroit Masonic Temple, 2022 by JJonahJackalope – Wikimedia Commons
10 Things to know about The Masonic Temple Detroit
The Detroit Masonic Temple is located in the Cass Corridor of Detroit, Michigan, at 500 Temple Street, the building serves as a home to various masonic organizations including the York Rite Sovereign College of North America.
The building contains a variety of public spaces including three theatres, three ballrooms and banquet halls, and a 160 by 100 feet clear-span drill hall. Other recreational facilities include a swimming pool, handball court, gymnasium, bowling alley, and a pool hall.
Here are 10 things to know about the Masonic Temple in Detroit.
1. The Masonic Temple Detroit is the world’s largest Masonic Temple
A Masonic Temple is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting.
The 1920s marked a heyday for Freemasonry, especially in the United States. By 1930, over 12% of the adult male population of the United States were members of the fraternity. The dues generated by such numbers allowed state Grand Lodges to build on truly monumental scales. Typical of the era are the Dayton Masonic Center and Detroit Masonic Temple which is the largest Masonic Temple in the world.
2. The Detroit Masonic Temple has one of the largest stages in the country
The Detroit Masonic Temple by Einar Einarsson Kvaran – Wikimedia Commons
Architect George D. Mason designed the whole structure as well as the Masonic Temple Theatre, a venue for concerts, Broadway shows, and other special events in the Detroit Theater District.
It contains a 55-by-100-foot stage, which is one of the largest in the United States of America. Read more interesting facts about Detroit.
3. The Detroit Masonic Temple was designed in the neo-gothic architectural style
The Masonic Temple was constructed using a great deal of limestone. The ritual building features 16 floors, and stands 210 feet tall, with 1,037 rooms. It dominates the skyline in an area known as Cass Corridor, across Temple Street from Cass Park, and Cass Technical High School.
The neo-gothic revival is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Neo-Gothic Revival draws upon features of medieval examples, including decorative patterns, finials, lancet windows, and hood moulds. By the middle of the 19th century, Gothic had become the preeminent architectural style in the Western world, only to fall out of fashion in the 1880s and early 1890s.
4. The laying of the Masonic Temple’s Cornerstone was witnessed by over 1,000 Masons
The Detroit Masonic Temple by Andre Carrotflower – Wikimedia Commons
The cornerstone was placed on September 19, 1922, using the same trowel that George Washington had used to set the cornerstone of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. The building was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1926.
George Washington was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.
5. The Detroit Masonic Temple has a horseshoe-shaped auditorium
The Masonic Temple Association was incorporated in Detroit in 1894. It moved into its first temple, on Lafayette Boulevard at First Street, in 1896. Outgrowing these quarters, the Association purchased land on Bagg Street to build a new temple that would also include a public theatre.
Fundraising for the construction of the building raised $2.5 million, and ground-breaking took place on Thanksgiving Day, 1920. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and is part of the Cass Park Historic District, which was established in 2005.
6. The Detroit Masonic Temple has a capacity of 5,000
The Detroit Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan by Michael Barera – Wikimedia Uncommons
The Detroit Masonic Temple has been the largest Masonic Temple in the world since 1939 when the Chicago Masonic Temple was demolished. The stage of the auditorium is the second largest in the United States, having a width between walls of 100 feet and a depth from the curtain line of 55 feet.
The horseshoe-shaped auditorium originally had a capacity of 5,000. Due to poor sight lines along the sides of the stage, nearly 600 seats were removed, reducing maximum seating to 4,404. Read more about 15 of the Most Beautiful Churches in Detroit.
7. After the Chicago Masonic Temple was demolished in 1939, the Detroit Masonic Temple became the largest in the world
The Masonic Temple Building was a skyscraper built in Chicago, Illinois in 1892, and from 1895 to the 1920s the tallest building in Chicago. In 1939 the Masonic Temple was demolished, in part due to its poor internal services, but also due to the construction of the new State Street subway.
The Detroit Masonic Temple has been the largest Masonic Temple in the world since 1939 when the Chicago Masonic Temple was demolished.
8. The Detroit Masonic Temple houses two ballrooms
The Belleville Three performing at the Detroit Masonic Temple by PeRshGo – Wikimedia Commons
A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is to hold large formal parties called balls. Ballrooms are generally quite large and may have ceilings higher than other rooms in the same building.
The building houses two ballrooms, the Crystal Ballroom; and the Fountain Ballroom, the latter of which measures 17,264 square feet and accommodates up to 1,000 people.
9. The interior of the Detroit Masonic Temple was designed by architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci
Corrado Giuseppe Parducci was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early-20th-century works. Much of the stone, plaster and metal work in the interior of the building was designed and executed by him.
The three figures over the main entrance were by Leo Friedlander, while the rest of the considerable architectural sculpture on the exterior was by Bill Gehrke.
10. The Detroit Masonic Temple was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government’s official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance.
A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property. The Detroit Masonic Temple was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Read more on the best museums to visit in Detroit.
