CALGARY—There’s a rare offer on the Calgary real estate market.

This gorgeous 17,000 sq ft brick building — temple, actually — is a gem in the Beltline district, nestled between an office tower and a condo building. This unit has historic appeal, having been used for nine decades as offices for a society with secrets; however, the possibilities are endless! Highlights include plush velvet seating, a banquet hall, grand thrones and classic woodwork throughout. Located a short walk from the downtown core. Price tag? Just shy of $10 million.

Faced with declining membership and rising property taxes, the Calgary Masonic Temple is up for sale.

The Freemasons are known for their secret rituals and worldwide connections, but as their historic temple goes up for sale and members begin to chart a path forward, Calgary’s Masons want people to know they’re not as secretive as everyone thinks. Especially as buyers start to come knocking at the brick monolith they’ve called home for decades.

Looking down from the façade is the symbol of the Freemasons — a compass layered over a square, surrounding a capital G. The three-storey building, built in 1927, serves nine lodges of the historic order.

Temple committee chair Chad Kretz said the building has served around 2,000 of the 5,000 members in Alberta for ninety years, as well as women’s and children’s groups.

Kretz is relatively new to the Masons, having joined just five years ago. But his uncles and his grandfather were Masons, and when he moved back to Calgary after studying abroad, he turned to the Masons to make connections.

“They got me on my feet,” he said.

But membership dues, especially declining ones, aren’t enough to sustain an aging building with mounting maintenance costs.

Kretz said that in 2015, the Calgary Masonic Temple paid close to $94,000 in property taxes. This rose to almost $113,000 in just one year, and to $139,000 in 2018, though a tax credit helped with the cost. But Kretz said the organization anticipates paying around $188,000 for 2020.

“It’s tough to continue paying taxes when you’re a non-profit and ... the only thing supporting you is the people who want to be Masons,” he said.

There has been talk of making the building a heritage site, but Kretz said that wouldn’t have changed the cost. Instead, he said it’s time the Calgary Masons got a fresh start.

Kretz said the Masons are currently exploring all their options for after the property is sold. The “best-case scenario,” he said, would be to build a new space from scratch that includes more commercial options to create extra revenue.

“I tend to look on the bright side and say we’re going to be able to sell this building and create something that’s going to last for another hundred years and something that’ll be more financially feasible.”

But if the building sells and the Masons haven’t found a replacement, Kretz said they’ll use other Masonic buildings in the city or rent space if need be, perhaps in a community centre or a Legion hall.

Inside the Masonic Temple

The Masons have been around in Calgary since 1883. The cornerstone for the temple was laid in 1927, and has been actively used since 1928. Not much has changed inside, according to Kretz, except for the installation of an elevator and a few necessary upgrades.

The temple’s main attractions are two large rooms — the Blue Lodge Room on the first floor, and the Red Lodge Room on the third.

The Blue Lodge Room is, well, blue — it’s lined with dark blue velvet seats, and the floor is checkered with blue and white tiles. The ceilings are arched and the walls at either end of the room are also royal blue. There are large, dark wooden thrones for the senior Masons, and a rolling altar.

Golden candle holders line the walls, interspersed with the framed charters of each of the lodges housed in the temple. On the south end, two tall pillars hold small globes above a throne. Two stones sit in the corners of the other end of the room — one rough, one smooth. Kretz said they represent the goal of Masonic life, which boils down to simply becoming a better person.

The organ, its pipes painted with a landscape scene and gold stars, overlooks the room from a small gallery on the south end. It’s a Casavent organ, more than a hundred years old and one of the Calgary Masons’ most prized possessions.

John Norrish, current Worshipful Master of the Concord Lodge, said when the organ is played, it makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. But it’s not often used anymore, he said, as fewer people today are learning to play it.

As Worshipful Master, a position replaced each year, Norrish is in charge of his lodge’s regular meetings.

On Nov. 8, the Blue Lodge Room is being set up for a special meeting. A long table lined with chairs holds items that wouldn’t look out of place in an old mystery movie: Black candles, scales, daggers, a Bible and feather pens.

The Red Lodge Room is similarly decorated with red velvet chairs and a red checkered floor. On the south end, above a throne, is the propeller from a First World War biplane, with a clock set into its face. On the other end, a stage with a red curtain.

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Other than the two lodge rooms, the building feels much like a community association or church. There are meeting-rooms, photos of previous Grand Masters, brochures and posters announcing fundraisers. Viola Ceklic-Teuling, the temple’s manager and a member of one of the women’s lodges, works in a corner office overlooking 12 Ave., organizing the temple’s many events and meetings and overseeing its upkeep.

When the Masons move, Kretz said many of their most prized items, like the organ and many of the decorations, will come with them.

He said the future of the building and surrounding half-acre property is up to the buyer. Maybe it will remain, or maybe it will be torn down, replaced by another condo. If that’s the case, Kretz said the Masons hope to save the cornerstone.

‘A society with secrets’

So, what exactly do the Masons do? It’s not as much of a secret as many think, according to Kretz.

“We’re quiet. We don’t try to rock the boat too much,” he said. “But we do try to do as much good for the community, especially the local community, as we can.”

This includes fundraising for charity and volunteering, he said.

Each new member must complete the first three degrees of Masonry to become a Master Mason, explained Norrish. After that, Masons can join other groups like the Scottish Rite or the Royal Arch — or both — and achieve degrees up to 32. A 33rd degree is bestowed on certain members for lifetime service.

Though the Masons were originally founded on Christianity, Kretz said they accept members from all faiths. New members who follow other religions are welcome to bring holy items or books, such as a Qur’an, into the temple and place it on the altar.

The lodges, or groups of Masons, were often originally founded based on the members’ work. Concord Lodge, which both Kretz and Norrish belong to, meets on Saturdays because it was founded by salesmen, who travelled around for work during the week, said Norrish.

The only real secrets today are the rites of the Masons, said Kretz, but movies and media have made the organization seem much more shadowy than it is. In practice, it’s similar to a church or a community centre, he said.

“I think a lot of people allow their imagination to run wild. They think we sacrifice goats,” Kretz said with a laugh. “It’s quite overblown ... we take good people and make them better.”

Norrish agreed, adding, “We like to say that we’re not a secret society; we’re a society with secrets.”

Looking forward

Norrish has been going to the temple since he was 12 years old in the 1970s. He attended the male youth group, called DeMolay, until he was 21. Masonry runs in his family, and he even met his wife at the temple — she was a member of the girls’ group, Job’s Daughters.

After leaving DeMolay, Norrish didn’t join the Masons right away. But when his youngest decided she wanted to join Job’s Daughters like her mother, he decided to follow in his family’s footsteps.

It’s been almost 15 years, and the Concord Lodge has become a pillar of Norrish’s life, including outside of the temple.

“We have a lot of fun together,” he said. “I think that’s just as important as the stuff that’s done in the lodge room.”

The experience has helped him with his confidence, especially after taking on the responsibility of Worshipful Master, something he didn’t initially plan on doing.

“I started out not wanting to do it, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Norrish said there’s been talk of selling the building since the 1970s, but this is the first time the Masons have gone through with it, and he knows continuing to own the property is not sustainable. He has seen membership begin to pick up again in the past several years, but not enough to make a long-lasting change in the financial situation.

Norrish is sad to see the temple go, especially since he knows it will likely be torn down by its buyer. But he said the building itself isn’t what makes a Mason a Mason. Historically, the Masons did meet in secret wherever they could, he said. Today’s Masonic meeting places aren’t secret, but they’re not the core of the organization. Rather, it’s the people — his brothers — who bring him back each Saturday.

“This is an argument that Masons have all the time. There’s people that feel that we will lose our identity if we don’t have the hall. There’s people that feel that it’s not the hall that makes it Freemason, it’s the men in the lodge,” he said.

“I’m kind of in the middle. I will be sad to see the temple go, but … I’m quite happy to meet anywhere.”

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