English: Planned in 1915 and built in 1923–1925, this Classical Revival-style building at 301 Wisconsin Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, was designed to house the city's main Masonic Temple (see the Property Record online).
The building is faced with limestone with a boxy massing, taking inspiration from the earlier Greek Revival style, with a Doric portico featuring massive fluted Doric columns that taper towards the capitals and flanked by Doric pilasters and decorative urns that feature Doric fluted column bases and pilasters that taper towards the base, a cornice, a parapet with stepped sections enclosing a low-slope roof, the words “Temple of Freemasons” carved into the parapet over the entrance, an architrave with the words “Let There Be Light” carved into it over the portico, one-over-one windows with recessed metal spandrel panels on the second and third floors, entrance doors with decorative headers featuring acroterions, doors with transoms and Roman lattice motif screens, belt coursing with Greek key motif, recessed panels at bays on the side facade facing Johnson Street, a large rear wing housing a massive interior hall that is faced with pilasters on the Johnson Street facade, and buff brick cladding on the side and rear facades that face the interior of the block.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, and remains in use as the Wisconsin Masonic Center, though today it serves as an event venue as well as housing offices and chambers for the Freemasons.
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