Masonic Temple, Davenport, Iowa, circa 1935

About this postcard

A tall, blocky stone Masonic Temple rises above a street corner, shown in a tinted view with a small frame house at left and trees and a low building at right. The building's stripped-classical massing, with pilaster-like vertical panels and a stepped parapet, identifies it as the Davenport Masonic Temple, the hall that served the city's Masonic lodges. Davenport was a Mississippi River manufacturing town, and fraternal orders were a large part of civic life in river cities of the period, with lodge halls built as visible statements of local standing.