Masonic Temple (Toronto)

The Masonic Temple is a six-storey building located at 888 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (on the north-west corner of Davenport Road and Yonge Street).HistoryConstruction began November 2, 1916, when the contract was signed and approved by the Board of The Masonic Temple Company for the tearing down of an existing church and excavation. The Masonic ceremony of laying the cornerstone occurring November 17, 1917, with the first Lodge meeting taking place on New Year's Day, 1918. At its peak, the Masonic Temple was home to 38 different Masonic bodies: 27 Craft Lodges, six Chapters (York Rite), two Preceptories (Knights Templar), two Scottish Rite Bodies and Adoniram Council.The hall functioned as a ballroom in the 1930s and began to host rock acts in the late 1960s.In the years before its sale to CTV, the building housed live music clubs known as The Concert Hall, and earlier, in the late 1960s, The Rock Pile, a sitting-on-the-floor style concert venue that featured not only showcases for top local talent but also appearances by major international recording stars, including Toronto's first Led Zeppelin concert on February 2, 1969, during the band's inaugural North American Tour.Although the location remained historically significant and was added to the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory in 1974, the building has changed hands a number of times. In 1997, it was threatened with demolition: a developer had planned a new highrise residential building marketed to Asians, solely to exploit its "lucky" address of 888 Yonge Street, It was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in the same year.