Masonic Hall, 2 Back Road, Cargacreevy, Lisburn, County Down, BT27 6TR

Masonic Hall, Cargacreevy

A detached, symmetrical three-bay two-storey Masonic hall in neo-classical style, dated 1867 and built to designs by William Redfern Kelly. The building is prominently sited at the junction of Back Road and Old Ballynahinch Road, Cargacreevy.

The hall is rectangular on plan with a single-storey flat-roof modern extension to the rear. The roof is hipped with natural slate and blue-black angled ridge tiles, featuring a rendered chimney stack with four clay pots. The eaves have plastic rainwater goods on overhanging corbel-bracketed details. The walls are finished in painted smooth render with a moulded platband beneath the eaves, raised quoins, and a chamfered plinth.

The principal north-facing elevation is four windows wide at first-floor level, with a central entrance door flanked by paired windows at ground floor. The entrance is a replacement double-leaf timber-panelled door with transom light, flanked by panelled pilasters and surmounted by an entablature with moulded string course and a dentilled corniced canopy on decorative scrolled console brackets. Windows throughout are replacement uPVC in moulded surrounds with projecting masonry sills. Ground-floor windows are surmounted by plain entablature and cornice; first-floor windows are lugged with arch at centre and corbelled sills.

A distinctive feature of the first-floor principal elevation is three raised moulded roundels containing Masonic symbols: from left to right, the Royal Arch Chapter, the Masonic square and compass with central 'G' and star with knight's templar.

The east elevation is blank. The south elevation has two windows and a central doorway (accessed via steel stairwell) at first-floor level, three windows to ground floor, and a single-storey modern extension to the right of centre. The west elevation has three windows at first-floor level and two windows with a central timber-sheeted replacement door with transom light at ground floor.

The building was originally constructed as a combined post office, shop and Masonic hall. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the post office and shop (originally positioned at the west side of the ground floor) were removed, and the fenestration replaced. Three chimneystacks and a round-headed dormer were also removed from the roof at this time. Despite these alterations, the lodge remains well proportioned and retains much historic detailing, both classical and specific to Masonic tradition.

The hall was constructed by William Redfern Kelly (1845–1928), a member of the Freemasons and chief engineer for the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, who was appointed Chief Engineer in 1905. A plaque in the main meeting room records that the chief promoters of construction were the Reverend Samuel Scott and Hugh G. Patterson, both lodge members. The first occupant was Hugh Gill Patterson, a member of Harmony Masonic Lodge No. 723, who let the house from Samuel Neilson. In 1879 the building passed to Thomas Patterson, who installed a shop front; a post office was added by 1902–03 and continued to operate until at least 1920. The building subsequently passed to Vincent Brown, a Presbyterian grocer, in 1896, and then to Andrew Patterson, a cattle dealer and caretaker of the hall, in 1906. The hall remains in use as the meeting place of Harmony Masonic Lodge No. 723.

The setting comprises a small front garden set back from the road, enclosed by a rubble stone boundary wall with hedgerow. Square painted rendered gate piers with pointed caps and a metal latch gate mark the centre. A paved rear yard is enclosed to the west by a low masonry wall with coping stones. A modern garage and large tarmacadamed car park occupy the east side.

This is a relatively rare example of a comparatively large and well-detailed rural Masonic hall, retaining its original use and of considerable social and historical importance to the local community.