St John's Masonic Hall, 4 Braeheads, Banff

St John's Masonic Hall, located at 4 Braeheads in Banff, was built in 1798, with a first floor added in the late 19th century. The building underwent internal alterations in 1914, including raising the ceiling height of the Lodge Room. This well-detailed, prominently sited, two-storey, five-bay Masonic Hall is arranged in an L-plan within an irregular terrace. The central entrance features a pend with a pedimented and pilastered doorpiece, which includes the relief carving 'ST JOHN'S MASONIC HALL' on the frieze and crossed compasses in the tympanum. The first floor windows extend above the eaves into pedimented dormerheads. The structure is built of rubble with harl on the sides and rear, and has painted ashlar margins and dressings, stone mullions, and decorative finials. The doors are boarded timber.

The symmetrical principal elevation faces east and features a central pend flanked by smaller windows. The outer bays have slightly larger windows that may have been altered or added later. A wide tripartite window is located in the centre of the first floor, with single windows above the outer bays, all adorned with finialled pediments and moulded skewputts. The glazing includes 4-pane, 12-pane, and plate glass patterns, all set in timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered with grey slates, and there are coped ashlar gablehead stacks with thackstanes and some cans, as well as ashlar-coped skews with decorative skewputts on the first floor dormerheads.

Inside, the ground floor retains much of its early detail, particularly in the rooms to the north of the pend, which feature simple moulded cornices, boarded dadoes, and dado rails. The timber fire surrounds include one in the kitchen with a small range and another in the principal room with fluted pilasters, a cast iron grate, and tiled cheeks, along with shelved wall cupboards and panelled shutters. The southern rooms also have simple cornices and timber fire surrounds. The later first floor hall has a coombed ceiling, moulded cornices, and circular air vents, along with six-panelled timber doors, dado, and picture rails. There are memorials for World War I and II.

The property is enclosed by high rubble boundary walls at the rear, which create a small courtyard.