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Masonic Temple - Butte, MT

in Doorways of the World

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 380671 N 5096587

Chartered October 3, 1876 as Butte Lodge #22, the Masons of Butte had this temple built at the turn of the century. It was a replacement for an earlier, and less extravagant, lodge building which the, by that time 500 member, lodge had outgrown.

Stone on the lower floor and brick on the upper three floors, embellished with tasteful amounts of artwork, the Masonic Temple was designed by the firm of Link & Carter, the precursor to the even more well known Link & Haire. This, Butte Lodge #22, was one of six chartered in Butte between 1876 and 1922, this one being the first.

The power and prestige of the Masons in Butte at the turn of the century is exemplified in their temple, and particularly in the entrance, surely designed to elicit OOOOhs and AAAAhs from strangers who should enter. One of two matching archways at ground level, the entrance is formed of five steps, the first with a square Egyptian column, the next two with round Doric columns, then an Ionic column, the last a Corinthian column. Over the arch is a highly decorated and oversized keystone. The entire series of steps in the arch above the columns is of carved stone, each step carved with either seashells, leaves, flowers or a Grecian style chain design.

Elsewhere on the building is artwork typical of the time, including Ionic column capitals, a series of small busts under the third floor windows, with a very ornately carved panel beneath each of the centre three busts, followed by another, smaller, panel below featuring round columns, scrolls and a wagon wheel motif.

Though the masons built a new temple beside this one, initially intended as a replacement for this temple, a decline in the fortunes of the town, and the Masons, is likely what led them to forgo moving into their beautiful building, instead leasing it to the Fox Film Company. The Masons have remained in this building ever since.

Masonic Temple

314 W PARK - French, Second Empire - Contributing - Masonic Temple, Link & Carter, architects
The Masonic Lodge in Butte (a.k.a. Butte Lodge No. 22, chartered October 3, 1876) is an exuberant and eclectic Beaux-Arts building, constructed in 1901 [314 W. Park]. The main floor entry and arched windows feature a variety of column styles from Egyptian Capaniform to Greek Doric columns. Next door, Link and Haire, with associate W. Wellington Smith, designed a second building in 1922 to replace the Masonic Lodge. Masonic symbols adorn the glazed terra cotta cornice and accenting urns, while plaster on the façade and a ceremonial room went unfinished. Rather than move to new quarters, the Masons elected to lease the building to the Fox Film Company, where they operated The Fox Theater from the 1920s through the 1980s [now the Mother Lode Theatre]. These two buildings, along with the Butte-Silver Bow Courthouse, are the finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture in the city.
From the NRHP Registration Form

MASONIC TEMPLE
The first Masonic Lodge in Butte was chartered October 3, 1876. With a membership of 550 after the turn of the twentieth century, the organization had outgrown its old quarters on West Park. The new temple, completed in 1902, provides an early example of the grandly scaled Beaux-Arts style that came to dominate Butte’s later civic structures. Link and Carter, the forerunner of the prestigious architectural firm of Link and Haire, created the new temple, enhancing its façade with Ionic columns, a cornice of lions’ heads, and decorative borders of acanthus leaves and geometric designs.
From the NRHP plaque at the building