McCammon Memorial Masonic Hall, 11 Sullivan Place, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 9JF

McCammon Memorial Masonic Hall is a two-storey, two-bay redbrick Edwardian freestyle building on the east side of Sullivan Place, Holywood, built around 1905 to designs by Godfrey W. Ferguson of Avenue Chambers, Belfast, with a rear extension added around 1915. It represents the first permanent home of the local Masonic lodge and is a good example of this type of minor civic building.

The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting stair tower to the right. The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and plain redbrick gable chimneystacks. Rainwater goods and eaves are uPVC over projecting masonry eaves, with masonry verges. The left bay is topped by a Dutch gable with sandstone volutes. The stair tower has a castellated parapet with a curly central crenel, topped by an octagonal timber cupola with a copper pavilion roof, with sandstone copings and a string course throughout.

The walling is redbrick laid in English garden wall bond over a projecting brick plinth. Architectural detailing is confined to the principal west-facing façade. This comprises a sandstone cill course to the ground floor and a string course between floors, broken by a panelled sandstone fascia over an ovolo brick base carrying the carved lettering: MCCAMMON MEMORIAL MASONIC HALL. The semi-circular windows have decorative brick surrounds with sandstone keyblocks; the remaining windows have brick jack arches and chamfered brick reveals.

The principal west-facing elevation is dominated at ground floor in the left bay by a large Art Nouveau window with replacement stained glass. The right bay projects and has three closely grouped windows to the first floor with staggered windows below. Both bays have three grouped windows at first-floor level, and the Dutch gable above the left bay contains a Diocletian window. The entrance is set centrally in the internal angle between the two bays, and consists of a replacement timber panelled door with a Masonic knocker (removed at the time of survey) and a plain fanlight, all set beneath a sandstone canopy on scrolled brackets and accessed by concrete steps. The canopy and window detailing show suggestions of Art Nouveau and neo-Baroque styling, all executed in sandstone.

The left gable has a single window at first-floor level and is extended to the east by a large two-storey hall extension, four openings wide, abutted at ground floor by a plainly detailed single-storey toilet extension. There is a steel fire escape and escape door to the left side. The rear elevation is plainly detailed with two high-level ground-floor window openings and three cement-rendered buttresses. To the extension, detailing is minimal: walling continues in the same redbrick bond but with yellow brick to the first floor on the south side and a cement-rendered rear elevation with plaster strips between openings. Extension windows are horizontal and set at high level to the ground floor, with larger windows at first-floor level, all with concrete lintels. The right gable has a window to each floor on the right side, and four equally spaced windows to each floor on the extension. All windows throughout the building are uPVC replacements.

The building is set slightly back from the street behind a brick boundary wall with a steel pedestrian gate. The perimeter is paved, with a steel fence to the north.

The interior, as described at the time of construction in the Irish Builder (1905), was admirably arranged for the working of Masonic ritual. The entrance hall and staircase were well lit and described as a pleasing feature, with a white mosaic floor. The staircase led to the first floor, where a large room was intended for the working of the higher degrees. To the left of the entrance hall was a cloakroom, also used on occasion for refreshments, which communicated with the lodge room and had off it lavatories and a strongroom for Masonic requisites and secretaries' boxes.

The lodge room itself was described as quite unique in style and character. It is an absolute square with a timber ceiling. An octagonal dome in the roof throws a soft, subdued light over the whole room. Heating was by Messrs Musgrave's system; ventilation was provided by cold air admitted below the pipes and controlled by regulating valves, with extraction by two of Boyle's ventilators in the roof. Artificial lighting was by two arc incandescent lamps, each of one hundred candle power, fitted by Mr John Clements, who was also responsible for all plumbing and gas fitting.

Along two walls and part of a third are twenty-six stalls with shaped backs and armrests. At the east wall is a dais, flanked on each side by a handsome balustrade, with a canopy over the chairs of the Worshipful Master and others at the centre. The canopy is formed by a moulded pediment supported by square panelled pillars with carved capitals, embellished with the emblematic jewel of the Worshipful Master. At the west end is a second dais and pediment of similar character but less ornate. Masonic emblems mark the positions of the other officers. All chairs were specially made and specially presented. All fittings and furniture were carried out in solid oak. The joinery was executed by Messrs Mayers and Co under their foreman Mr Gillespie, to the architect's designs.

Historically, a Masonic lodge had existed in Holywood from 1813 to 1856, meeting at various temporary locations across the town. A new lodge was constituted in 1868, as announced in the Freemasons' Magazine, initially meeting at Mr Leister's Hotel on Main Street. The lodge subsequently met at a variety of locations including the Assembly Rooms, the Presbyterian Church, and the former National School building before this permanent hall was built.

The hall was constructed in 1904. The contractor was Messrs J and R Thompson of Short Strand. The total cost of construction was recorded in the valuer's notes as £830. It was named the McCammon Memorial Masonic Hall in memory of the late Provincial Deputy Grand Master of Down, A. McCammon. Godfrey Ferguson was also the architect for the Freemasons' Hall in Lurgan, dedicated in 1900, and was well known as the architect to the Northern Bank.

The building first appears on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919–31. It enters the valuation records in 1905 as a Masonic Hall and yard, occupied by the Society of Freemasons and leased from Henry Harrison, with a valuation of £17. In 1916 the rear portion of the building was raised from one storey to two storeys, with the valuation rising to £18 as a result. The Freemasons became the immediate lessors in 1920.

Twenty-three Lodges, Chapters, Councils and Templars meet in Holywood, including John B. Crozier Lodge 497, commemorating the former Rector of Holywood and Archbishop of Armagh, and TVP McCammon Memorial Lodge 540, which commemorates Lieutenant Colonel TVP McCammon, Commanding Officer of the Royal Irish Rifles, who was killed in action in France in 1917.

Although the original windows have been lost, most of the original detailing and the internal layout survive, reflecting the building's unbroken use as a Masonic hall.