
Family turned a former Freemason temple in Indiana into a home - mmhsieh
https://www.businessinsider.com/family-freemason-temple-indiana-into-home
======
Dumblydorr
A decade or so ago, my band mate and a few other folk musicians purchased an
old temple in Cumberland, RI. After initial estimates of 75k for renovations,
they are 200k in and they've done countless hours of free labor.

The result? Talisk, Alasdair Fraser, and Hanneke Cassel are all playing there
this spring...three of my musical idols!

Let's restore and repair our great spaces, the value and community is
incredible! Blackstone River Theater is a great example of the cultural value
of this investment.

~~~
CalRobert
That's pretty cool! Do you have a link to any sort of pictures, etc?

~~~
WhompingWindows
Yes! Can anyone comment on how tough it'd be for the BRT to have an
e-reservation system for tickets? Right now, you have to call, leave a
message, then they have to call back and confirm...it's not ideal.

BRT, Masonic Temple venue: [http://www.riverfolk.org/venue-
info/](http://www.riverfolk.org/venue-info/)

Alasdair Fraser:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08zd3hI87bc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08zd3hI87bc)

Talisk:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9481kEyAPM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9481kEyAPM0)

Hanneke Cassel:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFD1nURfyMU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFD1nURfyMU)

~~~
wjnc
Even tiny parties use eTickets over here. I looked one providor up. It uses
Eventix.io

------
zomg
The misinformation about Masonry in the article is very unfortunate. The
Freemasons are not a “secret organization” — they are organization of secrets.
Big difference. Also, this building isn’t a temple, they’re referred to as
lodges. I can go on...

The Masons are one of the largest fundraising organizations in the world, who
started and fund the Shriners Hospitals, as an example.

Would have preferred to see a more positive and realistic perspective on the
Freemasonry.

~~~
overthemoon
What does the difference between "secret organization" vs "organization of
secrets" mean?

~~~
glckr
They're publicly well known, and as far as I'm aware they don't have any rules
against telling people you're a member. Many of their temples/lodges/whatever
you want to call them are identified somewhere on the facade (Freemasons' Hall
in Edinburgh for example is available for hire as an event space).

However, what they do and talk about within the lodge is secret.

~~~
msla
> They're publicly well known, and as far as I'm aware they don't have any
> rules against telling people you're a member.

2B1ask1 is a Freemason slogan: To become a Freemason, ask one about joining.

[http://freemasoninformation.com/2b1ask1/](http://freemasoninformation.com/2b1ask1/)

In fact, from the page:

> If you are seeking Membership YOU MUST ASK a Mason or a Masonic Lodge for an
> application.

Can't very well ask one if the fact they're Masons is supposed to be a secret.

------
eigenvalue
Must get very cold in the winters-- I can't imagine what it would cost to heat
most of that space. I'm also impressed at how permissive the local zoning
rules are. I guess in parts of the country that are struggling economically
and seeing population declines, they can't be too difficult. The property
taxes are probably super low as well given then very low purchase price.

~~~
egb
"It’s not bad at all!! We have 6 separate central a/c units and 8 separate
central heating units. We can pick & choose what parts of the building to
heat/cool and to varying temperatures. Our highest gas bill this past winter
was $330 and that included almost an entire month of subzero temperatures. The
building is incredibly well insulated."

[https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/m...](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/my_house_is_a_20000_sq_ft_1926_former_freemason/f9f8baa/)

~~~
tylermac1
That's incredible. My gas bill in the winter for a 100yo house is more than
that. Very jealous.

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notjtrig
Original reddit post

[https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/m...](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/e4r2ap/my_house_is_a_20000_sq_ft_1926_former_freemason/)

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BlameKaneda
Cool article!

I had a wealthy relative who carried her bag with her so she wouldn't have to
travel from one side of her house to the other just to get something, and if I
lived at this former temple I'd do the same.

"Other times, the children use the [movie] room to play hide and seek, and
sometimes they invite the 15 to 20 other kids in the neighborhood over to have
a Nerf-gun fight."

If I were a kid I'd have a blast here.

------
aequitas
Not a temple, but maybe just as interesting. This guy bought a dismantled
nuclear missile silo and documented the process of recovering it and
converting it to a house:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd50A5qLv8FemVufSvDgkCQ/vid...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd50A5qLv8FemVufSvDgkCQ/videos)

The channel has been quiet for a year or two but becoming active again this
year it seems.

~~~
empath75
In the 90s, a large percentage of LSD manufacture in the US took place in an
old nuclear missile silo in Kansas.

~~~
vageli
Where can one read more about this?

~~~
empath75
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wamego-lsd-missile-
silo](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wamego-lsd-missile-silo)

------
cdubzzz
Tangentially related, anyone in the PNW who doesn’t already know about
McMenamins should check out their hotels. They mostly buy old historic
buildings and remodel them as hotels/restaurants/pubs/etc. while maintaining
interesting aspects of the building histories.

E.g. we have stayed at the Kennedy School in Portland where our room was a
converted class room.

[https://www.mcmenamins.com/stay](https://www.mcmenamins.com/stay)

~~~
geocrasher
I discovered them a couple of years ago when I went to see a movie (The
Greatest Showman) at McMenamins in Centralia, WA. Wow. I twas like going back
in time. Oddly, one of my favorite things was the bathroom. Original porcelain
from the 1920's or so, and the urinals didn't flush. Instead, wastewater from
the sink drained into the urinals and flushed them. Very efficient!

------
giarc
I feel like professionals should have completed this job. The picture of the
bathroom is really disheartening. All the pipes are industrial looking and the
"taps" are ball valves. The sink is a bucket and the tub is a
cattle/agricultural wash basin.

I suspect the local historical preservation society has limits on the exterior
of old buildings but can't do anything about the interior work.

~~~
Bozzz
The bathroom is pretty bad, but the other renovated rooms are decent. The
kitchen looks great, the kids room is acceptable, and the library is very
classy, although I think the desk may be facing the wrong way...

~~~
awinder
The kids room looked like an amazing setup, desk + foosball + a kick ass
built-in lofted bed? My inner child was thinking of all that space for the
activities

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scottlocklin
I wonder how they heat the place; Indiana ain't the Bay Area.

I used to know a guy who rented part of the Alameda former masonic lodge. The
architecture was amazing. The guy who bought it got a real steal (I think
during the 2000 downturn).

~~~
BubRoss
They probably heat it selectively and still pay a lot in utilities. One of the
photos of stairs looks like it has a fairly small HVAC so there are likely
multiple systems for the whole building.

------
frankus
One of the tricky things with a project like this is that banks are very leery
of underwriting a mortgage on something that isn't a residence (I ran into
this when I briefly flirted with buying an old fire station). Usually the best
you can do is a construction loan at a fairly high interest rate.

But if you have California equity and are buying at Rust Belt prices (as in
this case) you can just pay cash.

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justaman
Those antique pool tables that came with the place could be restored and sold
for several thousand dollars. What a steal.

~~~
phkahler
But why?

~~~
jerf
I think the point may just be that the price was pretty aggressive, not that
it should necessarily be done.

I was also wondering if the pipe organ works, or is close to working. I don't
even have an estimate of what that might be worth but it wouldn't surprise me
that it alone would be more than what they paid for the place. Again, I'm not
saying I would want them to do that, just that that may be pretty valuable on
its own.

But on the flip side, I can see why they had a hard time finding a buyer. Even
were it ready to live in on day one, it would be a project home nevertheless,
just to find something to do with the space. You can get similar problems when
selling a church; if there isn't another organization of a similar size and
similar needs ready to move in, who is really going to buy it, especially for
larger churches?

------
motohagiography
In Ontario, one of the more popular things to do is convert one room
schoolhouses into homes. The same is done with churches, so it makes sense
that former fraternity assets are as well.

These organizations used to form the fabric of a civil society that persisted
underneath the volatility of governments and economic concerns. The liberal
aspect of the group created neutral ground for people with different religious
convictions to form a civil community outside their churches and temples.

When you look at the historical impact of that organization, the best summary
I've heard is it has served as a check on hegemony, as the villains of history
seem to be the ones most concerned about them.

------
slap
This is the family blog, about the renovation :
[https://freemasontomansion.wordpress.com/](https://freemasontomansion.wordpress.com/)

------
citilife
I nearly did the same thing in my town. Bit more expensive, but there was a
roughly 18k-sqft old fraternity house in town. My wife and I considered
purchasing it at $400k, we put an offer in at $350k, but it was declined.

Another group bought ($390k) it and completed a remodel (estimated $180k) and
it's now worth ~$1.25m and it's beautiful. Kind of regret not purchasing it,
but it just wasn't in the cards at that price.

~~~
jnwatson
I won at auction and helped renovate a 90-year-old former sorority house. We
started with an estimate of $300k and ended up at over a million dollars.

Every time I hear "we should estimate software like we estimate construction",
I tell this story.

~~~
867-5309
reminded me of the quote "software are like cathedrals: first we build them,
then we pray"

------
wafflesraccoon
Heating and cooling costs must be a pain point, I wonder if there is an easy
way to zone the AC to just a room.

~~~
TACIXAT
You can get wall units in some select areas and that should take care of
things. If they previously had a house in San Diego they probably aren't
hurting financially. I'm jealous of all the space, it almost seems like too
much without putting in a gymnasium and skate park.

~~~
cptskippy
> If they previously had a house in San Diego they probably aren't hurting
> financially.

That's not necessarily true, it really depends on when they bought their home.
Housing prices in California have nearly quadrupled in the last two decades.
Families that could afford a house in the 2000s are priced out of the market
today. If you entered at the right time you could be paying more in property
taxes than mortgage, or living paycheck to paycheck with a three figure
salary.

The article says they bought it outright and used the equity from the sale of
their CA home to fund the initial remodeling costs, and they've put an
additional $40k into it. The reddit post says they sold their home in San
Diego for $700k, which at that price is a sub 2000 sq ft ranch.

Just looking at the photos in the article, there don't appear to be hundreds
of thousands of dollars in renovations. In fact most of the living spaces
shown appear to have been done on a budget. So if we assume the kitchen was
the additional $40k in renovation costs, we can assume they didn't get all
that much out of their house in San Diego. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say
$150k.

------
jxramos
There's some commentary here and with the focus on this article being an old
empty temple. Are there a lot of these abandoned temples around? Are these
fraternities in decline or something? What was the height of their popularity?

~~~
hokumguru
Historically the peaks of Freemasonry in America were around the time of the
revolutionary war, civil war, and two world wars. Being a fraternity first and
foremost - soldiers abroad found brotherhood and companionship together in
freemasonry - their numbers soared around this time as new initiates joined.
Since the 70's or so the fraternity has seen a steady decline of membership
not to dissimilar to the decline of religious institutions.

------
gwbas1c
I had a similar opportunity when I last moved, but the giant historic downtown
structure was over a million dollars, and had some visible deterioration that
made me think I'd spend another million in repairs.

It also occupied almost the entire plot of land, which for that downtown area,
was unusual.

On the other hand, if I bought it, I'd have beachfront property in about
50-100 years once the ice caps melt!

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
> They bought it in full for $89,000, so they do not have a mortgage and are
> debt-free after using the money they got from selling their San Diego home.
> The equity they earned from that sale funded most of the up-front remodel
> costs at the temple.

I suppose that says something about California real estate prices.

------
mynegation
Toronto has a building [1] of a very similar size and internal layout that is
used as a concert venue and offices for some IT company with conspicuously
generic name. The list of people that performed there looks like Rock-n-Roll
Hall of fame and it was one of the most entertaining places to visit during
Doors Open Toronto. During the visit I realized that graffiti-style artwork
inside was done by someone I know.

[1] [https://www.888yonge.com/](https://www.888yonge.com/)

------
otterpro
The buyer says that the house seems "haunted" and that there are "paranormal
activities". Haunted houses typically have lower values on the housing market,
as demonstrated by horror movies like The Shining, etc. All jokes aside, it
would've been better to convert it for commercial use, such as an office,
rather than for it to be a residential unit, since all that empty space seems
to be wasted.

~~~
tartoran
Or an event hall, or a quirky hotel of sorts

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ropiwqefjnpoa
That's awesome. Maybe they open a restaurant or something on the lower floors
and recoup some money.

~~~
mikemac
sounds like a good way to lose more money :D

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awb
Even in rural Indiana isn't $89k for a 20k sq.ft. home really cheap?

~~~
SavageBeast
I grew up in that part of the world and I can safely say nobody there has $89K
laying around to make a purchase of this type (renovations aside, imagine
heating the place). The absence of qualified buyers drive prices around there.
People who have never been to the rural areas of the midwest simply have no
perspective on the economics of that region. Its not impossible that the
equity from their San Diego home sale made them the richest people in the
county (I don't recall the town being mentioned in the article).

~~~
OrangeMango
> richest people in the county

Any farmer who has land passed down through generations is a multi-
millionaire.

A good friend of mine in high school lived on about 600 acres. His family made
almost $10 million selling half of it to Walmart.

~~~
triceratops
Surely the location of that land matters? Not every farm is worth so much,
right?

~~~
OrangeMango
Oh, without a doubt you are right. "Good" farmland is quite valuable however.

[https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/agletter/2015-2019/n...](https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/agletter/2015-2019/november-2019)

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zeeone
How is this building $89k and not $8.9M?

~~~
evandena
rural rust belt

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sabujp
> California Masonic membership is open to men age 18 or older who meet the
> qualifications and standards of character and intention, and who believe in
> a Supreme Being

no one's perfect and I don't believe

