Hilo Masonic Lodge Hall-Bishop Trust Building
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Hilo Masonic Lodge Hall—
Bishop Trust Building |
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Vacant first floor in 2009
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| Location | Keawe and Waianuenue Streets, Hilo, Hawaii |
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| Coordinates | 19°43′33″N 155°5′17″W / 19.72583°N 155.08806°WCoordinates: 19°43′33″N 155°5′17″W / 19.72583°N 155.08806°W |
| Area | 0.9 acres (0.36 ha) |
| Built | 1908–1910 |
| Architect | Henry F. Starbuck |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 94000383 |
| Added to NRHP | April 21, 1994 |
Hilo Masonic Lodge Hall, also known as the Bishop Trust Building, is a historic structure in Hilo, Hawaii. Constructed between 1908 and 1910, it was designed to house commercial space on the ground floor and a meeting hall for a local Masonic lodge on the second floor. In 1985, the Masons moved to new premises, and since then the second floor has been rented to a variety of tenants.
The Masonic Lodge in Hilo was founded in 1896 at the home of William W. Goodale. On October 15, 1897 Kilauea Lodge #330 was officially chartered. Named for the nearby active Kīlauea volcano, it was the first Masonic lodge on Hawaiʻi Island. John Troup Moir (1859–1933) manager of the Onomea sugarcane plantation in Papaikou, Hawaii, was master of the lodge. He was also the first chairman of the board of supervisors for the County of Hawaii. A delegation from the Grand Lodge of California officially presented Kīlauea lodge with its charter in February 1898.
The lodge met in a room of a building owned by Frederick S. Lyman, son of early Hilo missionaries Sarah Joiner and David Belden Lyman. The Lyman building was on leased land, so an association (with Moir as president) was formed to purchase a lot uphill from the town, assuming urban Hilo would grow in that direction. The association raised most of what they thought a building would cost by October 1900. When a federal building was being planned in Hilo around the same time, the lodge proposed swapping their land for a corner of the federal lot, but public protests prevented the deal at first. By January 1906 they were successful in arranging a deal with Territorial Governor George R. Carter to swap their land (desired for a school) for a more central parcel, paying the difference in value.
Based on a sketch by freemason William McKay (1841–1909), architects were interviewed in Honolulu and the mainland. Henry F. Starbuck of Oakland, California was selected to design the building. He was a freemason and had designed several other lodges and churches. Harold Vaughan Patten was given as "architect" in one account, but he probably served to supervise the financial aspects of the project since he was an accountant. Plans were ready to be finalized at the end of March 1906. Construction was scheduled to begin in July when leases expired on the land which they were purchasing from the territory.
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