Downtown’s historic Masonic Temple building is sold
Past master Mason and broker James McCraw with Avison Young gives some history of the Knight's Templar room during a tour on Feb. 8, 2020, of the ornate, 106-year-old Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Jeff Higdon walks down a vertiginous stairwell in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. The building, still home to active lodges, is full of history with architectural details, artifacts and symbols of a faded era. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
The square and compasses Freemason symbol is everywhere in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Even the electrical board in the Knight's Templar room of the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue is from an earlier era. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
A antique intercom system connects many of the rooms in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Jeff Higdon stands in the doorway to the Knights Templar room near the ornate stage in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Many areas of the Masnoic Lodge on Court harken back to the 1920s. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
A room formerly used by the Order of the Eastern Star sits empty in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Jeff Higdon (right) walks back old-fashioned decor in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Presumably these old painting will be removed by the new owners of the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Past master Mason James McCraw explores a lodge room in the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
The Freemason symbol, the square and compass, is everywhere from floor inlays to doorknobs at the 106-year-old Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Jeff Higdon (left) and past master Mason and broker James McCraw face outward from the Masonic Lodge in 2020. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
Organ pipes from an unfinished renovation project lean against a wall in a hallway of the Masonic Lodge on Court Avenue. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)
The ornate Memphis Masonic Temple has sold for $2.225 million, according to the Shelby County Register’s Office website.
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Tom Bailey
Tom Bailey retired in January as a business reporter at The Daily Memphian, and after 40 years in journalism. A Tupelo, Mississippi, native, he graduated from Mississippi State University. He has lived in Midtown for 36 years.
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