Maryland Masons Buy Back Their Historic Baltimore Temple After 30 Years! Really!

by Christopher Hodapp

According to a report Tuesday by Melody Simmons in the Baltimore Business Journal, the Grand Lodge of Maryland has just re-purchased its former downtown Baltimore headquarters, the spectacular 19th-century Masonic Temple at 225 North Charles Street, nearly 30 years after selling the building and moving out to the suburbs in Cockeysville.

As Robert Hayes said in the classic comedy, Airplane!, "It hit me like a thunderbolt! I asked the guy next to me to pinch me to see if I was dreaming!"

Maryland’s Freemasons have actually bought their old place back! 

And that’s a damned remarkable development in an era when American Freemasonry seems to be shedding its historic buildings quicker than my wife's brother could dodge a dinner check. 

Known for the last two decades as The Grand, the historic Victorian landmark has operated as an upscale wedding, banquet, conference and special events venue. But the property was recently placed into receivership following several changes in ownership and ongoing financial difficulties. 

Construction began on the Baltimore Masonic Temple in 1866, and the building was completed in 1869. Designed originally by architect Edmund G. Lind, it became one of the grandest Masonic headquarters in America. Inside are extraordinary ceremonial and banquet rooms, with elaborate plasterwork, marble columns, stained glass, vaulted ceilings and decorative finishes reflecting the architectural tastes of the Victorian era. Rooms included Corinthian Hall, Oriental Hall, Marble Hall and Edinburgh Hall. 

The building survived devastating fires in 1890 and 1908, with the Brethren rebuilding and improving it both times. The major reconstruction completed in 1909 gave the Temple much of the magnificent appearance it retains today.

For well over a century, it was the center of Maryland Freemasonry, hosting lodge meetings, grand lodge communications, banquets, ceremonies and countless other gatherings. During World War II, it even served as a Masonic Service Center for members of the military, providing overnight accommodations for thousands of servicemen passing through Baltimore.

But by the 1990s, like so many other American grand lodges, Maryland decided that a sprawling suburban headquarters would better serve its members than an aging and increasingly expensive downtown landmark. The fraternity moved to Cockeysville in 1994, and the new headquarters complex was completed in 1996. The old Baltimore Temple was sold in 1998 for a sickening $500,000.

At one point, the building was actually threatened with demolition to make way for a parking garage. Fortunately, preservation-minded developers rescued it, and an extensive rehabilitation transformed the old Temple into the Tremont Grand, which opened in 2005. It eventually became known simply as The Grand. In subsequent years, its spectacular interiors even appeared in film and television productions, including House of Cards and Veep. 

According to the Business Journal, the Grand Lodge has paid $2.5 million for the property, or five times what they sold it for in 1998. That hasn't been officially verified in the press. But that price reflects inflation, along with major renovations and updates done to the venue by previous owners. By that yardstick, they got a steal.

Hodapp Climbs on Soapbox

Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been beating this particular drum for years. Our buildings are not just pieces of costly real estate. All across America, Freemasons have been selling off some of the most architecturally significant fraternal buildings ever constructed. Some have found second lives as theaters, hotels, restaurants, apartments and event centers. Others have been stripped of their historic interiors, left to deteriorate, or simply demolished.

In too many cases, the fraternity has become so concerned with the cost of maintaining these great buildings that we have forgotten what they represent.

Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers didn’t build these temples merely to provide pretty rooms in which to hold stated meetings twice a month. They built them as lasting monuments to the importance of Freemasonry in their communities. They wanted their cities to know that Freemasonry was a permanent, respected, contributing part of civic life. And they frequently built them in the very hearts of their cities, where the public could see them every single day.

Of course, it’s easy for me to sit here and wax poetic about marble staircases, stained glass windows and soaring ceilings when somebody else has to pay the heating bills. I understand the enormous financial burden these buildings can represent, especially to a fraternity whose membership has declined dramatically from its mid-20th-century peak in 1958. 

But I have long believed that abandoning our historic temples is often a short-term solution with very long-term consequences. Once we sell them, I can now say we ALMOST NEVER get them back. Maryland has just demonstrated that almost is the important word in that sentence.

Here in Indianapolis, we face many of the same challenges with our own magnificent 1909 Indianapolis Masonic Temple. It’s an enormous, architecturally significant building with beautiful lodge rooms, banquet and ballroom facilities, an 980-seat auditorium and a remarkable history of service to both Freemasonry and the public. Like so many of these great temples, its future depends upon finding ways to make it relevant, useful and financially sustainable in the 21st century.

I’ve long argued that the solution to preserving our Masonic landmarks isn’t simply to lock the doors, reduce the thermostat and hope the maintenance bills go away. We need to find imaginative new uses for these buildings, professionally manage them, welcome the public inside, create partnerships with our communities, and remember that our historic temples can be some of Freemasonry’s greatest tools for education, outreach and public awareness today, in the here and now. They cannot just be relics from the distant past. And a building that sits empty six days a week isn’t fulfilling its potential, no matter how magnificent the lodge room may be.

Maryland’s decision to buy back its historic Baltimore headquarters and continue its use as a public events facility suggests an encouraging approach. My understanding is that several lodges have already expressed interest in returning to their original downtown home there once the lodge rooms are ready for their meetings again.The building can generate income, serve the wider community, and still retain an active Masonic presence. 

Naturally, the success of such an arrangement will depend upon the economics, the management, and the willingness of the fraternity to think beyond the traditional use of a Masonic building. But the fact that the Brethren of Maryland have taken this step at all is worth celebrating. And maybe, emulating.

Meanwhile, the Grand Lodge is going to keep its current headquarters in their admittedly magnificent modern facility in Cockeysville. When it was built in the 1990s, they spared little expense on that building and used their old downtown building's decor as inspiration for the new auditorium. It contains some of the most beautiful plaster and painting treatments I've seen in modern construction anywhere, so annual meetings will likely remain a fixture there. (Photos below)

So congratulations to the Grand Lodge of Maryland. I hope this turns out to be an enormous success, and that other Masonic jurisdictions around the country pay attention. After all, we spend an awful lot of time in our ritual talking about the importance of building. It’s great to see Brethren reclaiming a great one for a change.