Masonic Hall

716 Avenue of the Americas | also 71 West 23rd Street, 46 West 24th Street | NoMad | built 1912

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1869

    Masonic trustees buy the 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue corner for $340,000

    In 1869 the trustees of the Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund bought the corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue for $340,000. The purchase ended a search for a home that had begun in 1842, when Freemasons first proposed replacing their old Gothic Hall on Broadway. A Grand Lodge schism, the Civil War and a shortage of money had held the plan up. The earlier Masonic Hall built on this lot in the 1870s was later torn down for the present building.

    Source: nymasoniclibrary.org

  2. 1870

    June 8

    Grand Master James Gibson lays the cornerstone of the first Masonic Hall on the lot

    On June 8, 1870, Grand Master James Gibson laid the cornerstone of a new Masonic Hall at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, an earlier building on the site of today's hall. The Grand Treasurer placed more than 50 items in the stone, among them coins, newspapers, badges and souvenirs from several lodges and officers. Harper's Weekly printed a sketch of the building by Stanley Fox later that month.

    Source: nymasoniclibrary.org

  3. 1875

    June 2

    Napoleon LeBrun's Second Empire Masonic Hall is dedicated; by 1905 it has repaid about 2 percent of its cost

    The Grand Lodge dedicated its new hall on June 2, 1875, an earlier building on the corner that Napoleon LeBrun designed in the Second Empire style. The Panic of 1873 stretched construction to four years, and the cost reached $1.279 million. Meant to earn money for the Grand Lodge, it fell short: by 1905 it had returned only about 2 percent of what had been spent on it.

    “…formal dedication on June 2, 1875 ... at the staggering cost of $1.279 million ... by 1905 ... had only returned approximately 2 percent of the initial investment.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1909

    September 8

    St. John's Lodge holds the first meeting in the new 24th Street hall, using Washington's Bible

    The first meeting in the new Grand Lodge building took place on September 8, 1909. St. John's Lodge opened it with the George Washington Bible and conferred a Master Mason degree that evening. The project had been contested: Past Grand Master James Ten Eyck stepped down as a trustee of the building fund, hoping to persuade Grand Master Townsend Scudder that the construction would be unwise.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1984

    Joe Jackson finishes tracking Body and Soul in the Grand Lodge Room

    Musician Joe Jackson completed the tracking for his 1984 album Body and Soul in the Grand Lodge Room of the Masonic Hall, because of the room's acoustics. The room seats about 1,200 and sits in the complex's 24th Street building, among lodge rooms that are all elaborately ornamented.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1986

    Fifty artisans restore the Grand Lodge room, and discarded silver chandeliers return to the Colonial Room

    A 1986 restoration of the Grand Lodge room took fifty artisans and gallons of paint, and its windows had to be removed plate by plate, reinforced and put back. It was part of a larger renewal of the meeting rooms under interior designer Felix Chavez. Two sterling silver chandeliers found discarded in the basement during the 1980s restoration were polished, restored and hung in the Colonial Room.

    Source: Untapped New York

  7. 2006

    The Grand Lodge opens the Masonic Hall to public tours

    In 2006 the Grand Lodge of New York began offering tours of its hall to the public, as part of an effort to reach out for new members that coincided with its 225th anniversary. The building was designed by the Mason Harry Percy Knowles and holds the Grand Lodge Room, a 1,200-seat auditorium. Its Renaissance Room, a high point of the restoration, has been called the world's most beautiful Masonic lodge room.

    Source: flatironnomad.nyc

  8. 2017

    Jerrod Carmichael films his stand-up special 8 in the Grand Lodge Room

    Comedian Jerrod Carmichael shot his second stand-up special, 8, in the Grand Lodge Room in 2017. Bo Burnham directed it. The 1,200-seat room is part of the lodge meeting space on the building's 24th Street side.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

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