Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham announced on March 13 that the Masonic Temple located on Main Street is unlikely to be restored and will probably require a costly demolition.

The Masonic Temple is a historic site located several blocks west of Binghamton High School. The Freemasons, an oath-bound society dedicated to fellowship, moral discipline and mutual assistance, first came to the Binghamton area in 1798 and built their first lodge on Chenango Street in 1898. After a fire destroyed that building in 1919, they constructed a new temple on the corner of Main and Murray Streets.

The building was designed by Walter H. Whitlock and Charles H. Conrad with a classical six-column portico influenced by the Art Moderne style. The building once held a theater along with two lodge rooms on the second floor and upper floors, which also housed recreational rooms and a ballroom.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the upstairs theater hosted live concerts, Broadway performances and local productions for the Tri-Cities Opera and Summer Savoyards, while dances were hosted in the ballroom. With declining Freemason membership beginning in the 1980s, they began to convert the upper levels of the building into senior housing.

This plan was discontinued in 1990 following an unanticipated halt in funding. The Freemasons then moved out and the building was sold in an auction in December 2000 to a development group in Sarasota, Florida, which planned to convert the building into student housing. Binghamton University announced that the plan to redevelop the building was underway in 2001, however, the project was put on hold.

The property was then owned by Isaac Anzaroot, a landlord who had owned over 100 properties in the city at one point before a bank foreclosed on him. Anzaroot also surrendered 26 properties to the city in 2023 after accruing several housing code violations. The ensuing settlement barred him from owning and managing properties in Binghamton for 15 years.

“This was my first time ever in the building,” Kraham said following a tour of the building in 2023 after the city acquired the space. “I don’t think it’s been in operation in my lifetime. Seeing it was really a ‘Wow’ factor, the amount of square footage. I believe it’s a 60,000-plus-square-foot building. It has a lot of potential but it’s going to take the right type of developer, someone who can access either historic tax credits, state and federal grants to make it a reality.”

The property is currently owned by Sharestates, a Long Island-based real estate investment firm that has listed it for sale online for $150,000.

Police have frequently been called to the building to prevent trespassing. The building also faced an arson fire in March 2025.

In a March interview with WNBF, Kraham said that the cost of remediation and rehabilitation “would so exceed its marketable use that I don’t see a future for that building other than demolition.” He suggested the Masonic Temple, along with the neighboring property that previously housed a Dollar General store, could represent a “commercial development opportunity.”

Kraham said he does not have a specific plan in mind for the space right now and that the cost of demolition could be “substantial.”