Cairns Masonic Temple, Heritage masonic temple in Minnie Street, Cairns, Australia.
Cairns Masonic Temple is a two-story concrete building with classical design features located on Minnie Street in Cairns City. It features high-set steel-framed windows and Corinthian columns framing the entrance.
The foundation stone was laid on Armistice Day 1934, and the building opened in October 1935 under Queensland's governor at that time. It was restored after a cyclone struck in 1956 and was later listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
The temple's name honours the masons who died in World War I, and its Minnie Street parapet carries the Latin motto AD GLORIAM DEI beneath a carpenter's square and divider. A tablet to W. H. J. Mayers, the first District Grand Master, was set into the base of the left entrance pillar in 1954. Masonic meetings ended when the building was sold to the Catholic Church in 2017.
The temple stands at the corner of Grafton and Minnie Streets, with its main entry and stair on the Minnie Street side facing southeast. Masonic use ended with the 2017 sale to the Catholic Church, so the interior is not open as a temple; view the facade, entrance columns and AD GLORIAM DEI parapet from the street.
The two large entrance pillars were destroyed or damaged by a cyclone in March 1956, along with windows and outbuildings. The replacement columns, completed in 1957, were built hollow in line with Masonic tradition, and a copy of all records made after the 1934 foundation stone laying was sealed inside one of them.
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