Masonic Lodge, 11 Derry Road, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 8DT

Masonic Lodge, 11 Derry Road, Strabane

A detached gable-fronted two-storey three-bay rendered Masonic hall, dated 1878. The building is rectangular on plan, facing west, and set back slightly on the east side of Derry Road. It comprises a pitched artificial slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, decorative timber bargeboard and finial to the front gable, and a rendered chimney rising from the north side elevation with an octagonal clay pot. The main structure is accompanied by a gabled entrance porch added around 1990, a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the south, and a further extension to the rear. The porch has a concrete tile roof. The exterior walls are painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with replacement uPVC rainwater goods.

The west front elevation features a moulded plaque in the gable containing the Masonic emblem and applied numerals '1878', with a further circular plaque above. The three-bay arrangement comprises three round-headed window openings to the first floor with plain pilasters, impost mouldings and architrave moulding with figurative keystone. The central round-headed opening is blind with a circular plaque containing a star. Square-headed window openings are located to the ground floor. Window openings throughout have moulded architrave surrounds with painted stone sills and sill corbels; original windows have been replaced with uPVC windows with security mesh.

The porch contains a square-headed window opening with concrete sill and hardwood framed stained glass window, and a square-headed door opening with hardwood panelled door that opens onto a front cement paved area. The two-storey north side elevation has a pair of small windows below eaves level and a square-headed door opening to a steel fire escape. The south side elevation also features small segmental-headed window openings below eaves level with concrete sills. Earlier round-headed window openings are visible on this elevation, now blocked up with stone sills.

The front site is enclosed to the street by a rendered wall with concrete coping and opening via a pair of rendered piers with vehicular steel gates. To the north the site is enclosed by a rubblestone wall with stacked coping.

Historical Context

The Masonic Hall first appears on the valuation town plan covering the period 1874 to 1908 and on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. The Freemason's Lodge and yard are recorded in the Annual Revisions fieldbook in 1880. The property was leased from the Duke of Abercorn, with Mr J Steele noted as secretary. It was valued at £13 15s, plus 5s for the yard.

By 1933, the Trustees of Strabane Masonic Hall leased the building from the Marquess of Hamilton, with the valuation revised to £40. At this date the building comprised a club room, kitchen, cloaks with WC and hot water, and smoke room downstairs, with a lodge room and anteroom upstairs. In 1935 the trustees requested a reduction in valuation on the grounds that the hall could not be used for non-masonic purposes, and the valuation was reduced to £30.

The lodge was built on land leased from the first Duke of Abercorn during the period when he served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland from 1874 to 1886. It is likely to have been the nearest purpose-built lodge to his seat at Baronscourt. Upon the first Duke's death in 1886, his son, the second Duke, became Grand Master, serving until his death in 1913.