100-year-old Masonic Temple changes hands

The owners of the Havre Historic Post Office have expanded their efforts to revitalize downtown Havre in buying the Masonic Temple across the street.

Erica Farmer and Marc Whitacre sat in old green chairs on the fourth floor of the Masonic building and apprehensively said they were excited for the project and laughed.

"I think the gist is we felt obligated in some way," Farmer said. "We're sort of dedicated to this downtown thing. I guess it's fair to say that we're a little disappointed that no one took care of the building with the last potential sale."

Farmer was referring to the Kalispell-based buyers who bought the building from the Masons, but then defaulted on their payments. The sale never came to a close.

"It was never consummated," Whitacre joked.

The change of hands was finalized Wednesday and the couple have already started work on the building. Construction crews have gone through the street to repair the fire suppression water line that busted in August and flooded the basement of the building. A coal chute was also blown open in the event and that will be repaired alongside the street.

"We thought, 'If no one is going to step up, it needs to be done and it's the right thing for downtown,'" Farmer said.

The couple hesitated to say how much the building went for, but Whitacre said it was a similar package to the old post office's. There was a drop in price because of the water main break. Farmer and Whitacre are footing that bill. Farmer said the Masons were comfortable with the arrangement. The price will eventually be a part of public record.

"This building is in much better shape than the post office," Farmer said.

"The post office was a wreck," Whitacre said.

They bought the post office in 2011 and after extensive remodeling and revitalization, renamed it the Havre Historic Post Office in 2014 after opening the building to the public for commercial use.

Whitacre said most everything in the Masonic Temple is running in the building, whereas in the post office, all they had was electricity when they started. Much of the work in the Masonic Temple will be cosmetic.

There will have to be some repairs to appliances, Whitacre said: the water heater will have to be replaced, the boilers need to be brought back up to par, circuit breakers that were immersed in water will need to be replaced.

"It's in incredibly good shape, and from an economical perspective, it's a very fruitful property," Whitacre said. "It could do quite a lot."

Farmer said, as far as their vision for the property, their number one goal is to preserve the building.

Whitacre said there is already a large amount of rentable real estate in the building, especially on the second and third floors, which hold office-sized rooms. Farmer said a little bit of updating and touching up on the floors will need to be done, but they're almost ready for renting.

The fourth and fifth floor hold where the Masons used to meet. The fourth floor holds a large room with two-story ceilings where the Masons met and practiced. The fifth floor has a functional, fairly complete kitchen with a large hardwood dining area.

"Most people don't know this stuff is here," Whitacre said. "The biggest problem is the lack of knowledge in the community about the resources in the building."

Farmer said their plans for the top two floors are going to be similar to what they've done in the bottom floor of the post office. It will be a museum-like convention space and the Masons have left many items to be showcased on the floors.

"One of the things that Marc and I are impressed with with this building is if you look at the history of it - a lot of people came together and spent a lot of money. The cooperative effort for them to build this kind of building with quality and it's still standing strong 100 years later," Farmer said. "You just don't see that kind of craftsmanship and that collaboration of effort."

Here are some key dates in the century-long history of the Havre Masonic Temple on 3rd Avenue:

• March 20, 1901: Chinook Lodge 50, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, recommends granting a dispensation for creation of Havre Lodge 55. It was granted by the Grand Lodge of Montana April 2 1901.

• March 19, 1908: The Havre lodge buys land on 3rd Street where the temple would eventually be built.

June 1912: Masons form a building committee to oversee construction of the temple.

• Nov. 12, 1915: Cornerstone is laid for the new building.

• June 1, 1916: The first meeting is held in the new building.

• Sept. 2, 2015: Drs. Marc Whitacre and Erica Farmer close on the property and announce plans to rehabilitate the structure.