Est. 1927 · Egyptian Revival Architecture · Utah Masonic Headquarters · South Temple Historic District · Little Cottonwood Granite
The Salt Lake Masonic Temple sits at 650 East South Temple Street in Salt Lake City's South Temple Historic District. Planning for the temple began in 1920 when Salt Lake City Freemasonry outgrew its previous lodge at the corner of Second East and First South. By 1925, plans had been completed, land had been purchased, and interior furnishings had been arranged. Construction finished in July 1927, and the building was dedicated that November.
The building's exterior was constructed from granite quarried at Little Cottonwood Canyon, the same source used for the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Total construction cost was reported at approximately $750,000. The five-story building contains multiple lodge rooms of varying scale, a library, lounges, administrative offices, a banquet hall, and an auditorium. The interior decoration draws extensively on Egyptian Revival vocabulary, an architectural movement popularized in the United States by Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. The building is widely regarded by Salt Lake City architectural historians as the city's leading example of the style.
The Salt Lake Masonic Temple Association continues to maintain and operate the building, which is in continuous use by Wasatch Lodge No. 1 F&AM and other Utah Masonic bodies.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_Masonic_Temple
- https://slcmasonictemple.com/about-us/
- https://www.ksl.com/article/44210209/a-look-back-at-salt-lakes-masonic-temple-90-years-later
- https://jacobbarlow.com/2018/11/04/salt-lake-masonic-temple/
ApparitionsDoors opening/closingLights flickeringPhantom sounds
The Salt Lake Masonic Temple's folklore is staff-anecdotal and gentle by the standards of haunted-building lore. The defining narrative element is a reported caretaker discovery, sometime after the building's opening, of an unburied cremation urn in a storage room. The urn was attributed by the building's records to a Mason identified in the staff retelling as Charles Valentine. The remains were reportedly returned to family for proper interment after the discovery.
Following that event, building caretakers across multiple staffing eras have reportedly logged a recurring pattern of low-level anomalies: doors found open after being locked, lights cycling on after being shut off and the reverse, and occasional door slams in unoccupied wings. The most distinctive single report describes a young girl observed in a corridor and a set of small footprints found in an ashtray's sand.
The accounts circulate primarily as oral tradition among temple staff and through community-submitted entries on regional Utah folklore sites. No formal paranormal investigation report for the building has been located, and the temple itself does not market haunted programming.
