The staff of the catering department is the best to be had, the chef having been trained in the leading hotels of Europe and America. All of the equipment in the kitchens are electrically operated, including the ovens, kettles, dish washers, dough mixers, etc. The cooking is all done in aluminum and great care is used to maintain absolute cleanliness in the careful preparation of the food. This department operates its own pastry shop where the pastries used at the formal banquets as well as the daily dining service are produced.
The temple is equipped with two ton ice machines which provide for the refrigeration and the making of ice. The story unit at the east end of the building is devoted to the exclusive use of Moslem Temple. The main floor with its clerk's desk and offices for the club manager and recorder of the Shrine has the appearance of the most up-to-date hotel lobby.
On the second floor we find the magnificently furnished lounge with a well-appointed writing room and library adjoining. No pains have been spared in providing the finest period furnishings, rare rugs and hangings for the Shrine Club. Above the lounge we have the fully equipped billiard room with the card room adjoining, and above that the club gymnasium equipped with the most modern apparatus.
The remaining floors are devoted to the guest rooms, there being 80 in all. These rooms with their connecting baths are as delightful as any hotel rooms in the city and are available for any Noble of the Mystic Shrine or member of the Blue Lodge who may care to take advantage of the same at very reasonable rates.
The power plant of the temple, which is equipped with the most scientific mechanical devices of the latest design is sufficient to produce the power, light and heat for a community of 50, High pressure steam, air and water lines and electric cables are carried through immense tunnels placed 34 feet below the street, these tunnels being 10 feet in width.
The main tunnel, which runs east and west, is intersected by two tunnels of equal dimensions running north and south. In this manner the steam, air and water lines and the electric cables are accessible for inspection and repairs at any time. Great care was exercised in installing the necessary fire and water protection. The Detroit Water Commission installed an 8-inch main from their service line on Temple Avenue and a 6-inch main from their service line on Second Boulevard.
Thus interruption on either one of the mains will not impair the operation of the building. The electrical equipment through out the building is known as remote control apparatus, the same system being used also on the main switchboard.
Automatic contactors are used everywhere with over and under load attachments, fuses therefore being used only at the distributing panels and momentary overload on any part of the electrical equipment is taken care of automatically at the main switchboard.
In connection with the engine room is the machine shop where the repair work about the temple is taken care of. The Masonic Temple is one of the most complicated buildings ever erected in the United States. In the ritualistic tower but four columns extend in a vertical line from the basement to the roof, the other great columns being staggered involving eccentric loads which must be carried by proper steel fabric.
Many mammoth trusses are used throughout the structure; two Pratt trusses 39 feet in depth and 78 feet in length support three floors at the top of the ritualistic tower. Above the Consistory Cathedral carrying the Commandery and other apartments between the third and sixth floors two immense plate girders are used weighing twenty tons each.
These girders are 18 feet in depth and 78 feet in length. The Drill Hall and the Main Theatre are supported by eight immense Pratt trusses 18 feet in depth and 76 feet in length, the upper cord of these trusses supporting the Drill Hall and from the lower cord is suspended the ceiling of the Main Theatre.
A further idea of the size and extent of this great Temple erected by the Masonic Fraternity may be gleaned from the following facts: There are 1, rooms in the temple, the roof of copper, concrete and asphalt is 80, square feet in area - or nearly two acres; the excavation for the foundations required the removal of 1. This gift of the Fraternity is not only to the local community, for the Detroit Masonic Temple is assuming a national as well as an international position because of its facilities and service.
During the presentation of the original plans, the architects intention was to build the temple in the shape of a hammer. The ritual building was to be the head, and the Main Auditorium the handle. This plan was abandoned when an additional 50 feet of frontage was acquired and the Shrine Club was added. A third auditorium is located on the seventh floor but remains unfinished, however, due to lack of funds.
Had this room been completed, the Masonic Temple of Detroit would have been the only building in the world to house three theaters under one roof. In , a Masonic heritage museum was placed on the second floor, but legal battles over its use and compliance with neighborhood zoning codes limited its public use. The Los Angeles Conservancy is a c 3 nonprofit organization.
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We regret that we cannot admit children under 12, at this time. Thank you for your compliance as we work to protect our tour and event guests, as well as our team members. Behind the Scenes at the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia.
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