12 S Church St Schenectady

 Old Masonic Lodge / Schenectady Civic Players Theater
 
The Masonic Lodge has been part of the Schenectady community since 1774, originally holding meeting in taverns and private homes. The Church Street building was erected in 1869 to serve as the Lodge’s first permanent meeting place. In 1919, the Masons moved to a new building at the southeast corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard. Ten years later the Church Street building was purchased and has been occupied since by the Schenectady Civic Players, a community theatrical group.
 
The Old Masonic Lodge is designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style popular in the third quarter of the 19th century.  The facade facing the street consists of a steeply pitched brick gable end-wall supported on ashlar stone exterior walls, featuring a monumental pointed arch lancet window rising above the triple-door entrance.  The shape of the window is echoed in a recess in the masonry and the soldier course brick arches surrounding the window opening.  A simple theater marquee projects above the entrance serving as a canopy.  The date stone is placed as a keystone above the main lancet window, and Masonic symbols are carved in some of the trim stonework.