Murals in danger? Masonic Temple needs a roof. Meanwhile developers putting on the squeeze
Mason Mike Chapin at the Masonic Temple last week.The Masons are concerned about the murals that tell the town's history. They're also worried about the future of the building itself.
BY CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Every once in awhile, Ric Huston’s phone will ring from a number he doesn’t recognize.
Invariably it will be a real estate agent, asking him the same thing. They “understand” the Masonic Temple on Nucleus Avenue is for sale.
Huston, a longtime Mason and previous leader of the civic organization, politely tells them it’s not.
Some persist, however.
One even offered to take him out to a nice steak dinner.
Huston declined.
But there is real concern from the 35 or so members of the Masons in Columbia Falls about the historic building. The building is one of the oldest in Columbia Falls and its murals tell the town’s history in their artwork.
“This lodge holds a lot of history for all of us,” Huston said last week.
If the Masons were to sell, and to be clear they have no intentions of doing so, the building and its murals would almost certainly be torn down.
But the building desperately needs a roof. It’s expected to cost about $11,000 to completely replace it. After years of patches and rebuilds, it’s leaking so badly it’s damaging the bathrooms.
The club has raised about half the funds that are needed, but in order to pay the other half, they’d have to drain their budget and expunge their popular “Bikes for Books” program, which has been ongoing for 15 years.
The program encourages Columbia Falls Elementary and Deer Park students to read books. The more books they read, the better chance a student has of winning a bike.
The past few years they’ve given away about 40 bikes between the three schools.
There is also significant concerns about the murals themselves. The Masons say if they did sell, the building and murals would likely be torn down.
All the more reason to raise some funds to fix the roof and secure the building for future generations.
The murals back in 2003 were funded through a community-wide effort. It initially cost about $8,000 to have both of them painted. Artist Clark Heyler did both murals and a few years ago he touched up one after vandals spray-painted it.
The murals need work again. The stucco on the lower part of the building is starting to flake, particularly on the south wall and slowly, the artwork is being lost.
The murals were painted in stages. The first was painted on the east side of the hall, the second was painted on the south side of the hall.
The hall itself is one of the oldest buildings left in downtown and is historic in its own right. The Masons began building the hall in 1950 and the cornerstone was set on April 30, 1951. But it took years to complete, as men were working on the Hungry Horse Dam and then, the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant.
The Masons are the oldest fraternal organization in the world, with roots in the Middle Ages in Europe as a guild of skilled builders. Their symbol is the compass and the square — tools not only of the building trades (i.e. masons) but also symbols of how one should lead their lives.
Many of the founding fathers of the U.S. were Masons. George Washington was a mason and Benjamin Franklin started the first lodge in the U.S.
The “G” inside the compass and square stands for God and also, Geometry. The group, however, is nondenominational.
They do not, however, recruit members as other civic organizations do. Their motto is “to be one, ask one.”
To that end, they encourage anyone who is interested in joining to simply ask a mason.
As for the roof, anyone interested in helping can contact lodge master elect Reece Roat at lazytw@hotmail.com or any other mason in town.