Western New York Architecture Deep Cuts
Former Masonic Temple, Binghamton, New York, November 2019
The former Masonic Temple at 64 Main Street (corner Murray Street) in Binghamton, New York, as seen in November 2019. Built in 1923 to a design by local architect Walter Whitlock, this four-story steel and concrete structure ultimately falls under the umbrella of the Neoclassical style, but the design is very much a forward-looking one: the streamlined forms, stylized ornamentation (note the relief panels that crown the pilaster strips at the left, with their shell motif), recessed parapet atop the main portion of the building, and stepbacks on the corner tower all presage the Art Deco aesthetic that would come to the fore in the next few years. By contrast, the hexastyle Ionic portico at the entrance is a far more traditionalist affair. This and the exterior cladding are all composed of what the Binghamton Press described in contemporaneous coverage as a "warm, buff-colored stone manufactured by the Onondaga Litholite Company" of Syracuse. The interior contained of a thousand-seat first-floor auditorium with amphitheater-style seating, three Beman organs, and mural paintings by noted artist Thomas G. Moses, with lodge chambers on the second floor and a grand ballroom on the third. Ground is broken in June 1922 on this grand building which was intended as a replacement for the former Masonic temple on Chenango Street, which had burned to the ground four years earlier. Like its predecessor, it would serve as a central meeting hall for the city's various lodges. However, progress on its construction was repeatedly delayed due to building materials shortages, such that it was not until November of the following year that the temple was dedicated. The building was used by the Masons for the next several decades (and, increasingly in later years, also rented out for concerts, stage shows, and other events) before declining membership force them to sell the building in 1989. It has been vacant and in increasingly derelict conditions since then, despite numerous failed proposals for its reviews (an apartment building for senior citizens in the early 1990s, Binghamton University student housing in the early 2000s, a mixed-use complex in the late 2010s). It is hoped that the availability of historic preservation tax credits due to the building's listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 (as a contributing property to the Main Street Historic District) will prove a boon to some future redeveloper.
Former Masonic Temple, Binghamton, New York, November 2019
The former Masonic Temple at 64 Main Street (corner Murray Street) in Binghamton, New York, as seen in November 2019. Built in 1923 to a design by local architect Walter Whitlock, this four-story steel and concrete structure ultimately falls under the umbrella of the Neoclassical style, but the design is very much a forward-looking one: the streamlined forms, stylized ornamentation (note the relief panels that crown the pilaster strips at the left, with their shell motif), recessed parapet atop the main portion of the building, and stepbacks on the corner tower all presage the Art Deco aesthetic that would come to the fore in the next few years. By contrast, the hexastyle Ionic portico at the entrance is a far more traditionalist affair. This and the exterior cladding are all composed of what the Binghamton Press described in contemporaneous coverage as a "warm, buff-colored stone manufactured by the Onondaga Litholite Company" of Syracuse. The interior contained of a thousand-seat first-floor auditorium with amphitheater-style seating, three Beman organs, and mural paintings by noted artist Thomas G. Moses, with lodge chambers on the second floor and a grand ballroom on the third. Ground is broken in June 1922 on this grand building which was intended as a replacement for the former Masonic temple on Chenango Street, which had burned to the ground four years earlier. Like its predecessor, it would serve as a central meeting hall for the city's various lodges. However, progress on its construction was repeatedly delayed due to building materials shortages, such that it was not until November of the following year that the temple was dedicated. The building was used by the Masons for the next several decades (and, increasingly in later years, also rented out for concerts, stage shows, and other events) before declining membership force them to sell the building in 1989. It has been vacant and in increasingly derelict conditions since then, despite numerous failed proposals for its reviews (an apartment building for senior citizens in the early 1990s, Binghamton University student housing in the early 2000s, a mixed-use complex in the late 2010s). It is hoped that the availability of historic preservation tax credits due to the building's listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 (as a contributing property to the Main Street Historic District) will prove a boon to some future redeveloper.