Winona Masonic Temple

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Winona Masonic Temple

Winona Masonic Temple.jpg

The Winona Masonic Temple from the northeast
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Location 255 Main Street, Winona, Minnesota
Coordinates 44°3′2.5″N91°38′22″W / 44.050694°N 91.63944°W / 44.050694; -91.63944 Coordinates: 44°3′2.5″N91°38′22″W / 44.050694°N 91.63944°W / 44.050694; -91.63944
Area Less than one acre
Built 1908–09
Built by John Lohse
Architect Warren Powers Laird and C.F. Osborne
Architectural style Beaux-Arts
NRHP reference # 98000152 [1]
Added to NRHP February 26, 1998

The Winona Masonic Temple is a historic Masonic Temple in Winona, Minnesota, United States, completed in 1909. Many local civic and business leaders were members of the lodge. Containing a large ballroom and other meeting space, the building was an important venue in Winona for both Masonic activities and general public events. [2] The Winona Masonic Temple was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 for having state-level significance in the themes of art and social history. [3] It was nominated as the headquarters of a fraternal organization important to Winona's civic and social development, and for containing Minnesota's largest collection of Masonic theatre backdrops and stage equipment. [4]

A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall 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.

Winona, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the state of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf. The city is named after legendary figure Winona, said to have been the first-born daughter of Chief Wapasha (Wabasha) III. The total population of the city was estimated to be 27,592 at the time of the 2018 census.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) 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 preserving the property.

Contents

Masonic history of Winona

Many Euro-American men who came to Minnesota in the mid to late nineteenth century were Freemasons. Consequently, the development of Masonry in Minnesota paralleled the organization of many of the state's first towns. In 1853 a Grand Masonic Lodge was organized by the three lodges that already existed in Stillwater, Saint Paul, and St. Anthony. The Grand Lodge dispensed charters for new lodges and created standard procedures and rituals. In January 1857 a charter was issued for Winona Lodge No. 18. [2]

Freemasonry group of fraternal organizations

Freemasonry or Masonry consists of fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of Freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. The candidate of these three degrees is progressively taught the meanings of the symbols of Freemasonry, and entrusted with grips, signs and words to signify to other members that he has been so initiated. The initiations are part allegorical morality play and part lecture. The three degrees are offered by Craft Freemasonry. Members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are usually administered by their own bodies.

A Grand Lodge is the overarching governing body of a fraternal or other similarly organized group in a given area, usually a city, state, or country.

Stillwater, Minnesota City in Minnesota, United States

Stillwater is a city in Washington County, Minnesota across the St. Croix River from the state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat. The population was 18,225 at the 2010 census. Stillwater is part of the Twin Cities Metro Area.

For the first several years of its existence the Winona Lodge met in various buildings. Meetings were mostly held in members' places of business. In 1863 and 1864 local chapters of the Royal Arch and Knights Templar Masons merged with the Winona Lodge. In 1873 the Masons moved to the third floor of the new Laird Norton Lumber Company Building. The space was designed according to the Masons' specifications. [2]

Royal Arch Masonry

Royal Arch Masonry is the first part of the York Rite system of the Masonic degrees. Royal Arch Masons meet as a Chapter, and the Royal Arch Chapter confers four degrees: Mark Master Mason, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason.

Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple, the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.

In the late nineteenth century membership grew and the Masonic activities of the Winona Masons became more complex. New Masonic chapters were formed under other Masonic orders. Several bodies were charted that followed the Scottish Rite Valley, one of the most complex orders of Freemasonry. In 1900 a local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star was formed that allowed female members. [2]

Scottish Rite fraternal organization within Freemasonry

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, commonly known as simply the Scottish Rite, is one of several Rites of Freemasonry. A Rite is a progressive series of degrees conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central authority. In the Scottish Rite the central authority is called a Supreme Council.

Order of the Eastern Star Freemasonry-related fraternal organization

The Order of the Eastern Star is a Masonic appendant body open to both men and women. It was established in 1850 by lawyer and educator Rob Morris, a noted Freemason, but was only adopted and approved as an appendant body of the Masonic Fraternity in 1873. The order is based on teachings from the Bible, but is open to people of all religious beliefs. It has approximately 10,000 chapters in twenty countries and approximately 500,000 members under its General Grand Chapter.

With membership growing the Winona Masonic Benevolent Association (WMBA) was formed in 1906. Part of the WMBA's mission was to construct a new Masonic temple. The WMBA commissioned architects Warren Powers Laird and C.F. Osborne of Philadelphia. Local contractor John Lohse constructed the building. The temple was built in a red brick and stone Beaux-Arts tradition of the Neoclassical style. [2]

Warren Powers Laird, FAIA was an American architect from Minnesota. He was Dean of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Pennsylvania from 1920 to his retirement in 1932.

Philadelphia Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2018 census-estimated population of 1,584,138. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style

Beaux-Artsarchitecture was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Gothic and Renaissance elements, and used modern materials, such as iron and glass. It was an important style in France until the end of the 19th century. It also had a strong influence on architecture in the United States, because of the many prominent American architects who studied at the Beaux-Arts, including Henry Hobson Richardson, John Galen Howard, Daniel Burnham, and Louis Sullivan.

One of the Temple's historic stage backdrops CathedralSetMasonicTempleWinonaMN.jpg
One of the Temple's historic stage backdrops

The most prominent interior feature was a large proscenium-arch stage at the heart of the building. The stage and its scenery were important in the rites and rituals of the various orders of masons, especially the Scottish Rite. The WMBA bought ninety-eight hand-painted scenic drops that were produced by Sosman and Landis Scene Painting Studios in Chicago. The temple was completed in December 1909 with mahogany finishes that reflected Masonic ideology. Masonic furniture and other decorations were also purchased. [2]

Proscenium

A proscenium is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same.

Chicago City in Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450 (2017), it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, and the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States. The metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, and the fourth largest in North America.

The Masons were highly respected in Winona, and the construction of the temple only served to heighten their presence in the community. Masonic events held at the temple consistently brought large numbers of people to Winona. The town's role as a Scottish Rite headquarters also brought regional Masonic conferences to the city for over eighty years. The large ballroom hosted balls, banquets, and civic events. [2]

In the 1930s membership in Masonic organizations began to wane. The Winona Temple, because it was a center for the Scottish Rite, fared better than many others. However, in 1978 the Winona Temple lost what made it prominent when the Scottish Rite was moved to a temple in Rochester, Minnesota. A year later the WMBA sold the Winona Temple to the city. The valuable scenic drops were left in the building even though the Scottish Rite had moved. [2]

Current use

In 1979 the Winona Masonic Benevolent Association sold the building to the city to create a senior center on the ground floor, while retaining access to the upper second and third floors. [4] In 1997 the Theatre du Mississippi was founded and began performances in the Masonic Temple. [2] [5] The city of Winona also rents out the facility as an event venue. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Hollywood Masonic Temple Hollywood Boulevard building

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Masonic Temple (Springfield, Massachusetts)

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Masonic Temple (Casper, Wyoming) building in Casper, Wyoming

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Masonic Temple (Evansville, Indiana)

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Masonic Temple Building (Cadillac, Michigan) building in Cadillac, Michigan

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Masonic Temple (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)

The Masonic Temple is a historic fraternal and commercial building at East Fourth Avenue and State Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Fundraising for the building was led by Joseph Carter Corbin and J. N. Donohoo. It is a four-story brick building, built between 1902 and 1904 by the state's African-American Masonic lodge, the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. It was at the time Pine Bluff's tallest building. The ground floor held retail space, the second floor professional offices, and the upper floors were devoted to the Masonic organizations.

Sterling Masonic Temple

The Sterling Masonic Temple is a historic Masonic building located at 111-113 West 3rd Street in Sterling, Illinois. The edifice was constructed in 1899-1900 to be the new headquarters for the city's Masonic lodge, as its former meeting place had burned down in 1898. The lodge, formally known as the Rock River Lodge Number 612 A.F. & A.M., first met in 1869 and was the town's second chapter of the Masons. Architect George W. Ashby designed the lodge's new building in the Chateauesque style. The building's design includes a steep mansard roof with equally steep dormers adorned with pinnacles, buttresses topped by ornamental griffins, and a brick and stone exterior. The Masons met on the third story, as Masonic meeting rooms were typically elevated for secrecy; the lower two floors were rented to businesses.

Terre Haute Masonic Temple

The Terre Haute Masonic Temple in Terre Haute, Indiana is a Classical Revival-style Masonic building that ground was broken for in 1915, cornerstone was laid in 1916, and opened in 1917. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior in 1995. The structure was commissioned by the Terre Haute Masonic Temple Association which was included one director from each of the following bodies that funded the building of the temple: Terre Haute Lodge No. 19, F&AM, Social Lodge No. 86 F&AM, Humboldt Lodge No. 42 F&AM, Euclid Lodge No. 573 F&AM, Terre Haute Chapter No. 11 R.A.M., Terre Haute Council No. 8 R. & S.M., Terre Haute Commandery No. 16 K.T. The Temple was built by A.W. Stoolman with Archie H. Hubbard serving as architect.

Masonic Temple and Lodge (Alameda, California)

The Masonic Temple and Lodge are two adjacent Masonic buildings in downtown Alameda, California. The older Masonic Temple at 1329–31 Park St was built from 1890 to 1891. The building was designed in the Victorian Eclectic style and features brick pier which extend above the roof line, a tower on the south side of the roof, and an arched stone entrance with carved doors.

Masonic Temple (Kirksville, Missouri) masonic temple in Kirksville, Missouri

The Masonic Temple in Kirksville, Missouri serves as the home for Kirksville Masonic lodge No. 105. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2010.

Masonic Temple (Burlington, Vermont)

The former Masonic Temple at 1-5 Church Street at Pearl Street in Burlington, Vermont was built in 1897-98 to be the state headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Vermont, Free and Accepted Masons. It was designed by John McArthur Harris of the noted Philadelphia firm of Wilson Bros. & Company in the Richardson Romanesque style.

Asheville Masonic Temple

The Asheville Masonic Temple is a Masonic Temple located in Asheville, North Carolina. Designed by British American architect and Freemason Richard Sharp Smith, the building was opened in April 1915. It is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the Downtown Asheville Historic District.

Bay City Masonic Temple

The Bay City Masonic Temple is a historic building located at 700 North Madison Avenue in Bay City, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

References

CC-BY-SA icon.svg This article incorporates text from MNopedia, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DeCarlo, Peter J. (2014-10-13). "Winona Masonic Temple". MNopedia. Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved 2015-07-08.
  3. ↑ "Winona Masonic Temple". Minnesota National Register Properties Database. Minnesota Historical Society. 2009. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  4. 1 2 Curran, Christine A.; Charlene K. Roise; Charles W. Nelson (August 1997). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Winona Masonic Temple". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  5. ↑ "The Historic Masonic Theatre". Theatre du Mississippi. 2011. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  6. ↑ "Historic Masonic Theatre" (PDF). City of Winona Parks & Recreation Department. 2013. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
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