{"id":2926,"date":"2025-09-20T20:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/?page_id=2926"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:58:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:58:01","slug":"lot-82","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/?page_id=2926","title":{"rendered":"Lot 82"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lot 82<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Impressive, odd shaped cabinet card of the Masons of the original Masonic Temple in Bay City Michigan. It measures a fascinating 5\u201d x 11\u201d and reminds us of the later yard long photographs in miniature. The membership was obviously quite large as this seems to go on forever. Most of the Masons are dressed in robes and hold spears and a number have curved swords which are commonly referred to as a scimitar. The largest example of one is being held by one of the elders, who is posed in front of the men in suits and masonic hats on the steps of the building. There are at least five religious men on the far left. The archway above the entrance reads Masonic Temple<\/em> with a large circular Masonic ceramic tile partially visible above.
A group of businessmen petitioned to start a Masonic chapter in 1860. While the lodge moved several times over the years it built its permanent home in 1893.
According to https:\/\/www.downtownbaycity.com\/listings\/historic-masonic-temple\/, \u201cIn May 1903, the new Temple was destroyed by fire. All that remained of the building were the vertical walls. The entire roof, including a 114 foot-high Octagonal Minaret Tower and three Moorish Domes, was completely destroyed. The Masonic fraternity immediately set out to rebuild the building. The rebuilt Temple was completed and rededicated in 1905. The building has long been considered one of the two most beautiful Masonic buildings in the country. In 2004 demolition was considered for the building because of the large size but in 2005 The Bay City Arts Council made an agreement with the lodge. The Bay Arts Council formed the Friends of the Historic Masonic Temple of Bay City as a non-profit and ownership was transferred in 2016. Through the efforts of the Friends the Temple was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2016 and is designated as a building of statewide historic significance. This is a surviving example of the original building as we have seen other photos of the rebuilt version and the sign above the arch reads Masonic Club and the circular area above is stained glass.”
The image has great tones and contrast. There is some scattered spotting as seen.\u00a0\u00a0By Harman and Verner, Bay City, MICH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening bid $25<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lot 82 Impressive, odd shaped cabinet card of the Masons of the original Masonic Temple in Bay City Michigan. It measures a fascinating 5\u201d x 11\u201d and reminds us of the later yard long photographs in miniature. The membership was obviously quite large as this seems to go on forever. Most of the Masons are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2926","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4616,"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2926\/revisions\/4616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}