In the early 80s it rose from the dead, was rehabbed and rented out as a performing arts space. It houses artists upstairs, and there are good bars on the ground floor. This isn't to say I love it; I don't. Richardsonian Romanesque is my least favorite American building style. But you can appreciate what the building said at the time it was constructed: here was a castle, erected in the bright new city of Minneapolis, and in case you didn't get the point, Jack, Masons Rule.

What it lacked in symmetry it made up for in exuberance. Larry Millet’s AIA Guide to the Twin Cities notes that it contained four Masonic Halls, each stacked upon the other – no doubt you had to be a 33rd degree to get access to the toppermost hall.

The domes rotted out and were removed, but the rest of the building was impervious to anything short of a direct hit by a tornado. Buildings like this didn’t look as if they were assembled; they were carved from a mountain.