I stayed in Cleveland, Ohio, on my return to Minneapolis after the League of Historic American Theatres national conference in Philadelphia. In 1905 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “I had to go to Cleveland to put in a lot of old mill scenery at Luna Park. Ed Thompson went with me and J. H. Young went to do the properties and papier mache work.” Moses had a long relationship with amusement park attractions and exciting projects with entertainment visionary Frederick Thompson. Luna Park in Cleveland, Ohio, opened in 1905 and lasted until 1929, when it was destroyed by fire. Constructed by Frederick Ingersoll of Ingersoll Construction Company, the park was located on a 35-acre site, bounded by Woodland Avenue, Woodhill, Mt. Caramel, and East 110th Street. Four years later, Moses was working in Cleveland again. This time it was for a Masonic theater.
In 1909, Sosman & Landis delivered a new set of scenery to the Cleveland Scottish Rite Theatre. That year, Moses wrote, “The Dallas Masonic work came in early, so did San Francisco and Cleveland, Ohio.” Scottish Rite installations delivered by Sosman & Landis during 1909 included Masonic theaters in Dallas, Texas, San Francisco, CA, Cleveland, OH, Kansas City, KS, Winona, MN, and Atlanta, GA. Several months ago, I wrote about the Cleveland Scottish Rite and its recent purchase by an investment group that was targeting Masonic theaters. Here is a brief recap on the history and why I made a point of stopping at the Scottish Rite in Cleveland.
The Scottish Valley of Cleveland consists of a ten-county area in northern Ohio. The four Scottish Rite bodies include the Eliadah Lodge of Perfection, Bahurim Council, Ariel Chapter and Lake Erie Consistory. Before their move to their home at 3615 Euclid Avenue, the previous home to the Cleveland Scottish Rite bodies, was built in 1883 and located at Superior Avenue and East 6th St.
Like many Scottish Rite Valleys during the early twentieth century, Cleveland’s membership dramatically increased, necessitating a new facility. Construction for a new Masonic building commenced during 1918. Interestingly, in 1919, Toomey & Volland scenic studio records indicate that they created scenery for the Cleveland Scottish Rite Temple. Ten years earlier, Sosman & Landis created the scenery for degree work in Cleveland. It is unclear how much of the original scenery may have been enlarged and moved to the new facility, if any.
After 1915, it was not uncommon for Toomey & Volland to underbid Sosman & Landis on Masonic projects, especially in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. However, even a second scenery collection delivered by a competitor would not preclude the retention of some original scenes for the new stage. Some favorite settings were simply enlarged and installed in the venue alongside the new scenery collection.
Keep in mind too, that many Northern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite installations were delivered by a scenic studio located in the Southern Jurisdiction (Toomey & Volland of St. Louis), and many Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite installations were delivered by a scenic studio in the Northern Jurisdiction (Sosman & Landis of Chicago). This may have been a calculated move for the scenic studio owners who were Masons, as working outside of their personal jurisdiction may have prevented any pressure on the studio owner to donate time, money, services, or goods.
Hubbell & Benes, the same firm that designed the Cleveland museum of art in 1916, designed the new Masonic Temple in Cleveland. The new fraternal complex was home to many Masonic Orders, including Scottish Rite, York Rite, Shrine, DeMolay, Job’s Daughters, Eastern Star, etc. The massive building covered 102,000 square feet of space, with a 2200-seat auditorium. Acclaimed for its acoustics at the time, the Masonic Temple was even home to the Cleveland Orchestra for a decade, before their moving in 1931 to Severance Hall.
As with many other Masonic buildings of this scope, the Valley cited declining membership after World War II and escalated expenses from deferred maintenance when they put their building on the market in 2017. The corporate secretary of the Cleveland Scottish Rite admitted that it cost $400,000 a year to maintain the building, “an outlay that would soon exhaust the operating endowment.” Keep in mind that the endowment is now used for rent paid to the new owners). Cleveland’s Masonic building is listed on the National Register of Historic places, so the property is eligible for preservation funding including state and federal tax credits.
Nearly one hundred years after construction began on the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland, it was sold to a private developer. The affiliate of Arkansas-based Beaty Capital Group, Inc. paid only $725,000 for the entire complex on March 31, 2017. TempleLive, a subsidiary of Beaty Capital Group is the same company that purchased the Scottish Rite in Forth Smith, Arkansas, and most recently, the Scottish Rite in Wichita, Kansas. They also attempted to purchase the Zembo Shrine building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during January 2018.
In Cleveland, Fort Smith and Wichita, the Fraternity will never be able to afford the expense of constructing anything comparable. In many cases, the materials and craftsmanship necessary to build these types of buildings are often no longer available. It is the future generations of Masons who lose in the end, as they are the ones who will never experience the space, or the physical sense of heritage. The buildings were planned and constructed by men with vision. It also takes vision to contemplate how these venues can be saved and marketed. The winners are those who purchase these jewels for pennies on the dollar.
I was curious to see how a Masonic building was operating under the direction of Templelive, hence my stop. More on my experience at the Cleveland Scottish Rite tomorrow.
To be continued…
