From the Excelsior Springs Standard - 5/1/2012:
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"After months of investigation, a warrant has been issued in connection with an embezzlement case at Clay Lodge #207.
Kent Eugene Hubbard, 40, Lawson, has been charged in Clay County with theft/stealing (value of property/services is $25,000 or more), a class B felony. The warrant was issued and served April 27, at which time a probable cause statement and other documents were filed with the court.
According to the probable cause statement, Hubbard was a member of the building board at Clay Lodge #207, for which the official business name is Masonic Building and Realty Company, Inc., and was one of two people who could sign checks for the lodge.
Starting in early 2010, police determined that Hubbard had been remodeling the downstairs area of the lodge’s building at 110 S. Main Street to prepare it for rental by a local business, and he hired two people to help him with the renovations later that year.
However, police have not found any contract between Hubbard and the lodge for the work, nor have their been any receipts requested or received. The investigation revealed that at least some lodge members were under the impression that Hubbard was donating his labor, but the other person authorized to write checks told police that Hubbard was to pay himself from the lodge’s bank accounts.
When Bert Macy took over as master of the lodge last October, he contacted Hubbard and asked him to drop off the lodge checkbook to the other person authorized to write checks; police said at that point Hubbard admitted to this other person that he had nearly emptied the lodge’s bank accounts, removing about $10,000 and leaving less than $50 in the bank.
Police examined bank records and learned that between February and June 2010, Hubbard wrote six checks totaling more than $27,000 to Aesthetic Installations, which is a business in his wife’s name. In June, Hubbard started his own business, Aesthetic Improvements, and from September 2010 to May 2011, he wrote 42 checks totaling more than $80,000 to that business. During the last week of April 2011, he also wrote three checks to himself for a total of $1,300, bringing the total amount of money Hubbard acquired from then lodge to $109,657.67.
Estimates for labor on the job done on the ground floor of the lodge building range between $2,500 and $4,000.
The police investigation was hindered by the presence of numerous checks which were valid payments, including more than $11,000 paid to one of the men hired to help Hubbard, as well as checks to three businesses for materials and disposal of waste material.
Hubbard’s bond was set at $30,000, with 10 percent approved. An arraignment was held Monday."
From the National Register application:
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"The Auditorium, c. 1905-1909
Three-story buff and red brick, multiple entry with display windows, commercial building. Canted entrance, supported by a single steel column, at southeast facade features an aluminum-framed door and plate glass fenestration. Secondary entrances have been infilled at east facade. Transom infilled with brick. Steel transom extant. Brick piers divide bays. At the east facade, all of the second story windows have been infilled; third story units are one-over-one, double-hung sash. Windows at the third and second story of the south facade duplicate those of the east facade; several windows at the second story have been infilled. Stone lugsills and lintels. Brick piers at the southeast and northeast corners are corbeled near the roof line and feature a contrasting cross pattern. North facade has been partially covered with stucco. The majority of fenestration at the first and second stories have been infilled; third story units duplicate that of the primary facades. Additional features include brick quoining and corbeling."