HI-Line Living: 305 Building

The new owners of the former Masonic Temple on 3rd Avenue have no qualms with showing the public the interior of every room in the building that once belonged to Havre's Freemasons, or Masons.

Masons are part of a fraternal organizations that started as stonemasons in the 14th century and have since evolved. Factions of groups are dispersed throughout the world, with large concentrations in the United Kingdom and the United States.

As long as Mason history is, so is the wide and varied perception of Mason identity and goals. One thing is for sure: Masons are secretive by nature, and few outside of their ranks have ever seen the insides of Masonic meeting and ritual rooms.

Building owners Marc Whitacre and Erica Farmer are not Masons and they were happy to show off every room. In fact, during the Discover Downtown community event planned for May 14, Whitacre and Farmer said they plan to give a tour of both The 305 Building - they insist the building be called by its new name - and the Havre Historic Post Office to interested participants.

The married couple bought The 305 Building in September 2015, but not before a massive water main break flooded the building and 3rd Avenue.

The couple said they were all set to close on the building when they noticed a river flowing in front of their house. They live on the top floor of the Historic Post Office across the street.

Farmer said the Masons were having a meeting upstairs and she and Whitacre rushed over to help out and help "save the building."

Whitacre and Farmer have a fascination with old buildings. Farmer said one of the things that impressed her about Whitacre when they met back home in Kansas is that he lived in a house built in 1887. She was smitten by the amount of work he put into that house.

As the water gushed that August day, a Havre resident who was working his last day at the Historic Post Office jumped into action and waded through the flooded basement of The 305 Building to turn the power off before water got into the electrical panel.

Farmer guessed that shutting off the power caused the Masons upstairs to halt the meeting. She was surprised at the way the group responded to the incident. Farmer said that, aside from two members who were at the meeting, the rest of them simply "stepped over the mud and dirt to get in their trucks, and left."

Whitacre said the burst pipes caused the water to rise up 17 inches in the basement.

"You can say you love a building, but no one would do that to their own home," Farmer said.

The small group of people who stayed on site jumped into action to do what they could to minimize the damage the flood would do.

Since the couple had yet to close on the building, the flooding incident lowered the price of the building "significantly," Whitacre said. The couple said repairs ended up costing $39,000.

THE TOUR

Whitacre said records indicate The 305 Building was completed in 1916. He said Masonic temples are typically located above "commercial enterprises" meant to sustain the members' operations.

Whitacre and Farmer have plans for some form of enterprise on all five floors of The 305 Building.

Tera Verploegen is the owner of one of said commercial enterprises.

Montana Country Boutique, on the main floor of the building, sells special-occasion formal wear. Verploegen said most of the clothes in the store are made in the U.S., some in Montana.

Whitacre pointed out the intricate ceiling design in the boutique.

Another room on the first floor is an unoccupied space across from the boutique. The room has been painted and is ready to turn it into a luncheonette. Technically, Whitacre said, whoever takes it over can use it any way they want, but, he added, it would make sense to put the commercial sink attached to the wall to good use.

The large room, that the owners call the reception hall, on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street is filled with cloth-covered tables with red table runners and available for someone needing a large space.

The couple has already rented out the reception hall for events. The room has been everything in the past, Farmer said - it has been a drugstore, a bookstore and more recently, a dance studio.

Whitacre added that whoever rents the large corner space will also get a safe. The safe is in the basement. It has shelves and, typical to safes, a heavy, metal door that locks and keeps out unwanted visitors.

There are two ways to get upstairs: the stairs and the first passenger elevator on the Hi-Line.

Whitacre said the Otis Elevator is in near original condition, a fluorescent light being the only exception.

The doors of the elevator open manually. When the family hosted a party in the largest room on the top floor, their 13-year-old son, Grant, played the part of operator, ushering guests to the party via the elevator.

The second and third floors, which already house a few tenants, are rooms intended for professionals looking for an office. Portions of the second and third floors are under construction.

Whitacre and Farmer have poured hours of work into pulling out carpets, sanding and applying polyurethane to wooden floor; painting walls; and installing new carpets.

They said there is plenty of office space available. The office spaces go for about 85 cents a square foot, which calculates out to anywhere from $200 to $300 a month for an office.

The fourth floor has historically been the mysterious part of the building.

On the way to the conference room, there is a long, narrow room filled with dark wood-paneled lockers. Farmer said the lockers were most likely used to store robes and other ritual regalia.

The couple is considering using the lockers to store tablecloths and other things of the sort.

The next room was referred to as the conference room because, the couple said, it's where Masons members met regularly.

The first thing a visitor entering the conference room sees is two human femurs resting on a large glass case that runs the width of the room.

Neither Whitacre or Farmer know where the bones came from.

"Maybe they were dug up some place," Whitacre said, laughing. "You can actually mail-order these things."

Whitacre said it's not illegal to have the bones. He said his father, who was a plastic surgeon who performed a lot of trauma surgery, had several human skulls lying around.

On the wall opposite of the window wall hang multiple tableaus with little square pictures of Masons throughout the years. One of the framed displays, the one nearest the glass casing, features Havre's Eastern Stars, an appendant body of the Masons open to women. The pictures of Havre's Eastern Stars are all female.

The "big room" was next.

The big room is a vast space with a high, trimmed ceiling that reaches to the fifth floor. Blue carpet peppered with yellow flower petals stretches across the floor. A four-sided kneeling altar sits in the center. And different-sized black leather chairs and benches are attached to all four walls.

On the far wall is the biggest chair, with the iconic Masonic "G" above it.

Farmer said the large room was most probably used for formal receptions and events. As for the chairs of different sizes, Whitacre said it is most likely associated with particular rankings in the group.

A chapel barely bigger than an upscale walk-in closet is nestled in the corner of the fourth floor. A peaked stained glass window allows sunlight and three wooden pews are lined against the wall, with an altar nearby.

Whitacre said the former owners told him the room was called "The room of quiet reflection."

During the tour of the building, Farmer received a message confirming a wedding ceremony with 50 guests scheduled for July in that room.

The fifth floor is mostly taken up by a large reception hall with tall French-door windows.

Farmer said she imagines someone opening an Italian bistro in the room. A long, spacious kitchen with large gas-powered Vulcan stoves is attached to the room.

Lastly, there is the roof top.

Farmer said she has a vision for the rooftop of The 305 Building.

She imagines a tabletop for two, probably an extension of the Italian bistro.

The table could be reserved for people who want to celebrate special occasions such as anniversaries or engagements, Farmer said.

In the evening, as the sun is setting, Farmer imagines a couple celebrating an engagement, or maybe an anniversary on the rooftop. She imagines them sipping wine and eating mussels under the vast, magenta-streaked Montana sky - this assuming the Hi-Line wind is in respite, she said, laughing.

Back inside, from the top floor to the bottom, each floor along the staircase is accented by red flower baskets held in place by chain links in the open stairwell.