Temple

This is part of an article I did last month on the tours of the Masonic Temple, along with some photos of the place.

While some of the magnificent skyscrapers that dot the Detroit skyline get all of the credit, one of the city's most captivating, beautifully designed structures sits a few blocks north at the corner of Second and Temple. And it's a little-known secret that its hallowed halls are open to the public for tours that will leave visitors agape and awestruck.

The Masonic Temple, while pretty high at 14 stories and eye-catching with its Gothic Revival architecture, is, on the inside, a leviathan of ornate design and regal decorative schemes. The tours, set up by appointment for groups both big and small, illustrate an almost magical beauty to this enormous and sometimes mysterious building.

The Masonic's size alone paints a pretty vivid picture of the scope of this Detroit giant. The building is about 600,000 square feet of usable floor space in — get this — its 1,037 rooms. It houses theaters, cathedrals, elegant and enormous ballrooms, public halls (some of them with a capacity for 5,000 people), dinner rooms, recreation rooms and myriad of units, hallways and rooms.

Masonic Temple docent John Snider conducts the tours and he does so with a passion and knowledge befitting such an intense and commanding structure. He said the building's rooms are so great in number it's hard to keep track of them.

"I haven't even seen them all," Snider said. "Every week I find something new. Last week, I found a dumbwaiter shaft I never knew existed. There are no existing plans for the building. It's like an onion. You keep peeling back layers and it's just these ornate forms of architecture and design."

The Masonic tours provide visitors an opportunity to explore one of the most magnificent and architecturally stimulating bodies of work in the world. Brass floors, beautiful parlors with high oak paneling, rooms replicated from ancient Italian castles, rich period furniture, one-of-a-kind fixtures and classical artwork dominate the landscape inside this majestic building.

And on top of all of that, are the little mysteries and secrets that are truly unique to this structure. There are secret passageways built into the design of the building for all sorts of reasons. Secret chambers and stairwells have gone undetected for decades. An unfinished, Olympic-sized pool sits on the sixth floor, built some 80 years ago. And those are just a few of the elements of interest inside the Masonic.
"The rather impressive banquet rooms and ballrooms are the sort of thing that is really something to see," Snider said.

It's a stunning assault of visual beauty, but also adds a quirky kind of unusual flavor as well. Some interesting tidbits from the Masonic Temple include:
The building is designed in the shape of a gavel.

The cornerstone was laid in Sept. 18, 1922 using the same trowel George Washington used when he laid the cornerstone at the nation's capitol in Washington D.C.
At 12 million cubic feet, it is the largest and most complete building of its kind in the world.

Talk about sturdy. The concrete foundations go nearly three stories below ground level and vary from 6 to 34 feet by 6 feet in depth.

The sixth floor is home to a painting of George Washington, originally done in 1856 by the same artist who did the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware.

The Masons — a centuries-old fraternal brotherhood that is basically the oldest and largest fraternity in the world — have long been known for their secretiveness and privacy, their commitment to the brotherhood and, as evidenced in the Masonic Temple, a passion for architecture and symbolism.

"There is a historic part of the tour that we dig out," Snider said. "There are lodges in there that have been meeting since 1764. One lodge started in 1821. We had two young men join recently and sign their names to the book. They were then asked to turn to the front page and there were the names of people like Lewis Cass and Augustus Woodward. It becomes more than just a name."

Snider added that each tour is somewhat different, depending on the group.
"We will go into a particular lodge room and give everyone an opportunity to ask questions or respond to other questions," he said. "It's a lot of fun."

Tours — confined to the Ritual Tower (which is plenty) — can take up to three or more hours, so be prepared to spend some time and make sure you bring comfortable footwear and clothing. Photography is allowed and encouraged.

For more information on the tours or the building itself, call 1-313-832-7100 or visit http://www.themasonic.com.