Survey Data
Reg No
13305001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Masonic lodge/hall
Date
1860 - 1880
Coordinates
232508, 280904
Date Recorded
23/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay single-storey (with attic level) former Masonic Lodge, built c. 1870, having return to rear (north). Pitched natural slate roof (Bangor blue) with cast-iron ridge crestings having trefoil motifs, timber bargeboards and a rendered chimneystack (aligned parallel to roof ridge) having terracotta pots. Painted lined-and-ruled rendered walls with moulded rendered eaves course and plaque. Render plaque over main entrance with Masonic square and compass motifs. Square-headed window openings with stained glass quarry glazed windows, architraved surrounds with pointed heads having heraldic motifs and with rendered lintels/entablatures over. Quatrefoil openings with rendered surrounds to gable ends at attic level. Central round-headed entrance to main elevation (south) with timber panelled double doors, chamfered rendered architraved surround with blocks and keystone, and a fanlight with stained glass and timber tracery. Set back from road in own grounds to the west of Granard. Rubble limestone (partially rendered) boundary walls to road frontage (south). Pair of dressed limestone gate piers to entrance with chamfered plinths, cut stone capstones and with double leaf cast-iron gates with Masonic square and compass motifs.
Appraisal
This appealing and well-detailed former Masonic hall/lodge retains it early form and character. Its façade is enlivened by the extensive render detailing, the stained glass windows and the decorative ridge cresting. The plaque over the main entrance is adorned with the square and compass motif, which is one of the most prominent symbols of Freemasonry. The stained glass windows and the quatrefoil openings to the gables give it a vaguely religious feel. The good quality entrance gates and the simple boundary wall complete the setting and add to this appealing composition. The gates reinforce the Freemason theme with another cast-iron square and compass motif. This building is one of a number of Masonic lodges/halls still extant in County Longford, indicating that Freemasonry was relatively popular in the county during the nineteenth century. This building is an important element of the built heritage of Longford and the social history of Granard.