Historic Masonic Temple in downtown Lansing sold

(This story was updated at 3:57 p.m.)

THURSDAY, Aug. 19 — The historic Masonic Temple on Capitol Avenue in downtown Lansing has been sold by WMU-Cooley Law School, but the school declined today to identify the buyer.

“The Temple building, which was WMU-Cooley Law School’s second-owned building, has not been used for several years and was first listed for sale in December 2014,” Cooley President James McGrath, said today in a statement.

“Cooley Law School moved from the Temple building in 2000, when the 10-story Cooley Center opened with state-of-art classroom, faculty, staff, and administrative facilities. We are excited that a buyer has come forward and will use the building to help with the important revitalization of downtown Lansing. The sale closed on July 30, 2021.  At this time, we are unable to share additional information.”

Neither the Ingham County Register of Deeds nor the City Assessor’s Office had recorded the change of hands as of this morning.

The temple, built in 1924, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

In recent years, there has been speculation that local investors wanted to buy it for a boutique hotel. Lansing Public Media Center Director Dominic Cochran said he and city officials also briefly pursued a partnership that could’ve brought a performing arts center to the building.

“We were super intrigued. It already had an auditorium space on the top floor. It had a lot of potential,” Cochran told City Pulse. “We had this old school European opera house concept. It was a great idea, and it would’ve involved a massive feat of engineering to pull it all off.”

Those early plans fell through in 2019 when officials realized they needed to install a freight elevator to reach the top floor auditorium space. And Blue Cross Blue Shield was unwilling to sell off a slice of an adjacent parking lot at its Lansing Service Center on Capitol Avenue.

The building, which has also been described at seven stories, has a multi-story ballroom and stage on top. The limestone-fronted building is considered in the Classical Revival architectural style. According to Wikipedia, “The main facade has a lower basement containing a recessed entry, above which is a pedimented, antae-decorated block. Anthemion and acroterion motifs are repeated along the roofline and metal grills in the pediment frieze. The temple's interior was extensively altered by Cooley Law School to house classrooms and offices.”

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