Holt Masonic Temple

Also Known As:
Holt Recreation Building
Holt Central High School

2168 North Cedar Street, Holt, Michigan

Status: Still Standing

Opened: 1949

Architect: Unknown

The large brick-faced block building at 2168 North Cedar Street was constructed between 1949 and 1952 for the Holt Masonic Lodge as a Masonic Temple and Recreation Building.

In 1948, the Holt Masonic Association, which was founded in 1945, organized plans to built a Masonic Temple. The site was obtained in 1948 and a lessee for the first floor was arranged with Mr. Porter Field. Stock was sold, which raised $12,000, which helped in the early construction of the building.

In May 1949, a groundbreaking was held and construction commenced. In September 1949, the first floor was completed and occupancy was granted to Mr. Field. In 1952, the Grand Lodge F. & A.M. of Michigan granted dispensation of the Holt Lodge F. & A.M. No. 572 to occupy the lodge rooms on the second floor. Total construction costs came in at $51,000 across two mortgages and stock, cash, and labor. Both mortgages were paid in full by 1960, and a third mortgage was taken to redeem stock, which was in turn paid in full by 1964. A cornerstone was donated by Michigan Memorials, Inc., and laid in 1965.

The building is perhaps most well known for its bowling alley and the Holt Recreation Bowling Lanes, which was opened on the first floor by Porter Field and Donald Hadwin in 1949. The twelve-lane alley was a popular establishment in Holt for nearly fifty years, closing its doors in the 1990s.

On the second floor, the Masonic Temple hosted weekly dances on its sprawling 3,000-square-foot tongue-in-groove Maple floor, considered one of the finest dancing floors in mid-Michigan. The first dances were held in the early 1950s and the final in 1999.

The Holt Masonic Lodge disbanded in 1999 and sold the building. A donation from the Masonic Lodge to Delhi Township after its closure partially paid for the development of the Veterans Memorial Gardens, including its fountain, hence the large Masonic symbol laid into the sidewalk in the park.

Following the closure of the Holt Recreation Lanes, the building was leased for many years by Holt Public Schools. It was used as Holt Central High School, for alternative and adult education, from 1997 to 2003. It has since served a variety of uses, including as a dance studio, child care center, and other commercial ventures.