High Street, Belfast, Me 13

High Street, Belfast, Me 13

"High Street, Belfast, Me 13" "High Street with the City Block, the Masonic Block, and the Windsor Hotel." --Earle Shettleworth, 2011 Businesses that can be identified beginning on the distant right are: Shiro's Poor & Son, Druggists J. Y. McClintock's City Block: The Republican Journal, The progressive Age (steam power printing) R. H. Moore, Druggist Masonic Temple Windsor Hotel On the left: S. A. Parker - United Laundry Garage and Machine Shop (owner unknown) MASONIC TEMPLE: The partial destruction of Masonic Hall, by an accidental fire on the evening of May 24, 1875, induced a movement for more spacious accommodations, which resulted in the incorporation, by the Legislature of 1876, of the Masonic Temple Association of Belfast, for the purpose of procuring a lot and erecting a Masonic building thereon. Early the next year, sufficient subscriptions warranted the purchase of the lot at the corner of Main and High streets, for $7500, and in June, ground for the foundation of the present Masonic Temple was broken. The building was completed in 1878. It is 83½ feet long on High Street, and 54 feet wide on Main Street. It is three stories high, surmounted by a mansard roof, and has a tower at the northwest corner. The material is brick, with freestone trimmings. The whole structure is supplied with water, steam, and gas. There are three stores on High Street, first occupied by Charles Henry Mitchell, confectioner; Cyrus R. Davis, groceries, and Carle & Mansfield, dry goods dealers. The adjoining corner store, having entrances on both streets, was taken by Horace Eugene McDonald, jeweler; and that below on Main Street by Ferguson & Rackliff, milliners. The second story was devoted to offices, and the third and fourth to the Masonic Fraternity, whose hall proper, at the south end, is 46½ by 40½ feet, and 21½ feet high. George M. Harding was the architect of the building, and Israel Wood Parker the builder. Charles Henry Bray was master of the brickwork. The cost of the structure, including the land, was about $35,000. On the 4th of July, 1879, the building was dedicated by the Grand Lodge of Maine, on which occasion ten thousand visitors were in the city. An account of the building and dedication of the Temple may be found in chapter XL, on Celebrations and Observances. A sixteen-column Masonic supplement, giving a description of the edifice and of the celebration, was published by the "Republican Journal." 1879. Early in this year, the Belfast Masonic Fraternity having become established in the new Temple, it was determined to dedicate that edifice on the Fourth of July, that being the thirty-first anniversary of the consecration of Corinthian Royal Arch Chapter, and extensive preparations were made. The ceremonies took place under the supervision of the Grand Lodge, and were preceded by the largest procession ever witnessed in Belfast, comprising three thousand Masons from thirty-two different Masonic bodies, and nine bands of music. A dinner for three thousand persons was provided in a tent, 250 feet by 115, pitched in the Allyn Field. At its close an oration was delivered by Grand Master Josiah H. Drummond. An evening reception in the Temple and a dress ball in Hayford Hall closed the festivities. A detailed account of this celebration was published in a Masonic supplement of the "Republican Journal," portions of which appeared in Russell Glover Dyer's "History of Corinthian Chapter." WINDSOR HOTEL: The Windsor Hotel opened circa 1850 as the New England House. The name was later changed to the Windsor House in . It featured its own stable located next to the Masonic Building. The building was originally constructed in 1809 as a private home by Benjamin Eells. The annex began life as a tenement owned by J, Y. McClintock. It became the Windsor Annex when it was purchased from McClintock in 1912 by the Dunton Brothers. All 30 guests and patrons escaped without injury when the Windsor Hotel and annex burned to the ground in 1960.