New Britain herald., 1927-01-29
GIVES REPORT ON
 MASONIC TEMPLE
s. H, Raymond Writes History,
 Showing Steps Toward Goal

Sherwood H. Raymond. active chairman of the Masonic Temple
 building committee. has prepared g 1 history of the temple corporation since it's incorporation 13 years ago. outlining the steps that have been | taken to erect a temple in this city. | The report, addressed to the direc- 1 tors and stockholders of the corpora
 ton, is as follows;
 The directors of the Masonic ! Temple Corporation feel that a brief
 history of the corporation and its
 accomplishments will be proper on this the 13th anniversary of its or
 ganization.
 "The first meeting of the cor poration was held on July 22, 1914. At this time there was on record
 total of 42 stockholders, each hold
 ing one share of stock. This same
 group of members had previously
 applied on the 1st of July the same
 year for articles of incorporation
 which are granted, with an author
 ized capital stock of s5O,000.
 According to the application ask
 ing for articles of incorporation the
 nature of the business to be trans
 acted and the purpuose to be pro-
 noted Cor carried out was stated
 to be the erection of a buildieg in
 the city of New Britain; to buy. sell,
 mortgage and lease real estate,
 From this the original paidin
 capital Of S1,050, this corporation
 has steadily progressed towards it's
 main object of accommodating funds for the erection of a Masonic tenn pie. This corporation has consistent .ly carried on it's business as set forth in the articles of incorpora- tion until we have today total of
 529 stockholders with pard-in capi- tai of S45,050 as compared with the original 42 stockholders with paid-in capital of S15,05o.
 Your directors, at various times, in order to carry out the purpose of this corporation, have purchased and sold to advantage various parcels Of real estate and today are holding a very desirable piece of land only three blocks from the center of the city. You will rRfll that at Q special meeting of this corporation held on December 2S, 1925, the chairman of the board of directors was authorized to appoint special and secret site committed; that all inquiries might be handled by said committee and that said committee might work without being hampered by every realtor in the city. This committee was appointed immedi- ately and continued their efforts for a period of over nine months. Dur ing this period, this committee held many meetings and carefully con- sidercd many propositions. On Sep tember 13, 1926, your site committee made the following report to the board of directors:
 "'The committee appointed for the purpose of recommending site for Masonic temple has made care full survey of properties offered for sale that would seem to be at all suitable for this purpose. We found Is different properties all of which we carefully considered from the standpoints of distance from the center of the city, location with re- spect to noises, parking facilities, as we'll as for general surroundings, and of course, their cost price. We beg to report as our unanimous first choice and recommend, the pur- chase of A. J. Sloper property on Russell street. This property has ample frontage and depth on which to build a temple suitable for our needs. It is within easy reach of the center of the city and near enough West Main street to be cas- fly located by strangers, yet far so that the noises will not be dis turhing. Russell street affords un- limited parking. There are no build ings on this property necessitaung removal and the price is s22,500, which your committeee considers fair
 Your site committee was asked many questions about this and the other twelve sites. After due consid- eration was given to all properties the committees report was unani- mously adopted by the board of di- rectors. At this same meeting, the chairman was authorized to appoint a building committee and he at once the site committee to serve as building committee. This committee immediately started to function and on September l 15th held their first meeting as building com mittee and organized as follows: An drew J. Sloper was elected honorary $. H. Raymond, active George F. Spear, secre- tary, together with E. F. Hall and George K. Macauley. I feel person. ally that the corporation is to be on having on this com- mittee (with the exception of the ac- tive chairman) men who are pecul- larly fitted to weight all the inn portant' factors that come into the out of this project, partic- llarly the honorary chairman, Broth CT Sloper, who for long period of years. has been in close touch with finance, real estate and building, who was actively interested in the erec- ton of such buildings as the First ! National bank of New Britain, the New Britain Institute and the First Baptist church. His altruistic inter- osts in this corporation were demon- strated by personally financing the : cost of the competitive sketches. thereby insuring a keener interest by he architect who presented sketches. On this basis, sketches were sub mitted at meeting held by the f committee on October %. Sketches from four competent archi-