When the Colored Masonic Temple opened in downtown Birmingham in 1924, it was one of the only places African-Americans could walk in the front door and not have to move to the back.

For decades, the seven-story, Renaissance Revival building housed black professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. At one time, it housed a barbershop, a jeweler, a billiards room, NAACP offices and much more. The structure, located in the 4th Avenue Business District, hosted social events and meetings. Legends like Duke Ellington and Count Basie regularly performed in the 1,500 seat auditorium and grand ballroom.

The Masonic Temple, commissioned by the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons of Alabama, was a symbol of black prosperity in the segregated South. The building was also a major landmark in the Civil Rights Movement for housing the NAACP's legal team and sheltering Freedom Riders in 1961. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth also organized protests and sit-ins there.

Beginning in the early 1910s, The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Alabama began raising money, a whopping $650,000, to build the massive structure.

Now, more than 90 years after the Masonic Temple opened its doors, Birmingham's grand lodge needs to make magic again. The grand lodge is seeking to raise $10 million to $15 million to restore the building.

This time, though, the temple has the power of the National Park Service behind it.

The Colored Masonic Temple is part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. The monument also includes the A.G. Gaston Motel, the neighboring Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Street Baptist Church, Bethel Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, St. Paul United Methodist Church and portions of the 4th Avenue Business District.

Corey Hawkins, who serves as the grand master of the grand lodge, said the group hired Community Concepts Agency to launch a capital fundraising campaign and is working with the city of Birmingham to secure other funding.

A GoFundMe campaign was launched on Saturday to help raise money for the first phase of the project. The goal is $50,000.

Birmingham City Councilor William Parker and other city officials worked with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to secure $600,000 in funding for asbestos and lead paint abatement.

"It sounds like a lot, but we do have faith that we can get some assistance," Hawkins said, of the amount of money that needs to be raised.

"We are hoping that because of the importance of the temple to the Civil Rights Movement, especially during Jim Crow times, it was a place where African-Americans could go and walk in the front door and not have to go in the back, and sit anywhere they wanted to in the building. If they sat in the balcony, it was by choice. It wasn't by demand.

"We are hoping that story gets out there and people remember ... that the Masonic Temple played a major role," he continued. "It was where a lot of the organizing was done (for the civil rights) marches and protests. It housed the NAACP, as a matter of fact the NAACP was the last to move out."

Noted civil rights attorney Arthur Shores, of the NAACP had his office in the Masonic Temple, Hawkins added.

The temple was also a place where acclaimed black entertainers came to perform, he said.

Brent Leggs, senior field officer, preservation division for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said the Masonic Temple was included in the national monument for being a "major landmark" for civil rights.

Securing federal historic tax credits will likely be critical for the grand lodge, he said. The tax credit is equal to 20 percent of the qualifying expenses for the rehabilitation of the project.

"The economic benefits are substantial for a property of this size and scale," Leggs said.

Hawkins said the grand lodge also hopes to secure state historic tax credits, if they are reinstated this spring by the Legislature.

Joe Clark, chief executive officer of Community Concepts, said his agency is coordinating the fundraising and applying for grants.

"We would like to have $3 million to $4 million in cash on hand and have a builder or architect on board (by June) to carry forward with the project," he said.

Clark said his agency is also in the process of designing community service programs that could operate out of the temple once renovations are complete, such as a life skills program for teens and programs for the homeless and veterans.

This is a rendering of the renovated Colored Masonic Temple. (Prince Hall Masons)

Restoration

Vestiges of each decade of the Masonic Temple's 90-year history can be found throughout the massive building. The original hardwood flooring and hexagon tiles remain as well as ornate moldings, marble slab walls and columns and ironwork staircases.

Through the renovation process, the building will be restored to its original 1920s grandeur, Clark said.

Many of the professionals who vacated the building, the last in 2011, left behind floral linoleum from the 1960s, vintage light fixtures from multiple decades, vintage dental, hairdresser and office equipment and NAACP memorabilia.

Hawkins said the upcoming renovations will be the first for the temple. Despite that, he said the temple is in remarkable condition. The structure is sound, he said, but the building likely needs new plumbing and electrical wiring as well as extensive renovations to make the office and retail space more open and modern.

The grand lodge plans to restore the two-story grand ballroom and the office and retail space. In the adjoining parking lot, they plan to construct a parking garage with additional retail space on the ground floor.

Clark said the antique items left behind will be restored and displayed in the temple to celebrate the building "being a center for dentistry, surgery, medicine, music and law for blacks in the 1900s."

Hawkins said he knows the fundraising and restoration won't be easy, but he's up for the challenge.

"We know with God anything is possible," he said. "We are going to keep fighting."

Hawkins said he looking forward to the day when the Masons and sister organization, the Eastern Stars, can all gather at the temple for a ribbon cutting.

He said he wants to have a big celebration to "commemorate our forefathers, the dream they had by building this building when they did, and us being able to hold on to it and secure its existence for another 90 years."

More about the Colored Masonic Temple and Prince Hall Masons

The Renaissance Revival-style building was designed by architect Robert R. Taylor, who was Tuskegee University's main campus architect, and Leo Persley. They were the state's only two professional black architects, according to an article in Alabama Heritage magazine.

The building was constructed by Windham Brothers Construction Co., which was a black-owned and operated.

The Booker T. Washington Library (now Smithfield Library) was located in the Masonic Temple for about 30 years.

Washington, civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole and W.C. Handy are famous members of the Prince Hall Masons, according to the Alabama's grand lodge.

The Prince Hall Masons are the oldest and largest group of Masons of African origin in the world.

In the 1960s, the Prince Hall Masons of Alabama had 30,000 members. Now membership is around 8,000. The group's mission is to make good men and assist those in need through community service, scholarships and training.