{"nrhp_refnum":"82002162","name":"Masonic Temple","other_names":["Crocker Bank"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2105 Bancroft Way and 2295 Shattuck Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkeley","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.86794545500004,"lon":-122.26731454299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-07-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick Masonic Temple with a basement at 2105 Bancroft Way and 2295 Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley, California, designed in 1905 by architect William H. Wharff.","why_significant":"It is one of the earliest multi-story brick buildings to replace Berkeley's wooden pioneer business district, and the only one of Wharff's classical downtown buildings that remains largely unaltered. It was long the city's most prominent downtown building and its chief large meeting room before the 1910 City Hall. It is also tied to prominent Masons and to the lodges' civic, educational and charitable work.","narrative":"Rising four stories with a basement at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way, this brick building was designed in 1905 by architect William H. Wharff as the home of Berkeley's Masonic lodges. Its steel frame carries buff and light brown brick facades with Ionic pilasters, keystoned windows, a dentiled cornice and a granite doorway with a stained glass square and compass. Shops occupy the ground floor, while lodge rooms, a banquet hall, an armory and a 30-foot-high main lodge room fill the upper levels. The building was among the first multi-story brick structures to replace the town's wooden business district, and it is the only surviving Wharff downtown building that remains largely unaltered. Before the 1910 City Hall opened, it served as the city's main large meeting room. The lodges moved to Albany around 1970 and sold the building to a bank that had long occupied the ground floor. The upper floors remain intact but largely unused.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"William H. Wharff (architect); Robert Greig, Contractor (per photo caption)","architectural_style":"Elaborate classical downtown style; brick classical","criteria":[],"status_note":"Ground floor altered in 1944 for a bank; upper floors largely intact inside and out but closed since the lodges left about 1970, except for very infrequent events and inspections.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.661793-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/82002162.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002162/f1f5871257-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002162/f1f5871257-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masonic_Temple_(Berkeley,_CA).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masonic_Temple_(Berkeley,_CA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858272","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonic_Temple_(Berkeley,_California)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6783710"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/masonic-temple-82002162/"}