Masonic Temple

Yuma, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Built in 1931 by Los Angeles architects Edward Gray Taylor and Ellis Wing Taylor, the Masonic Temple in Yuma, Arizona exemplifies the late Art Deco style of Moderne architecture. The building's early history was marked by financial hardship: in 1933, during the Great Depression, the Masonic lodge lost its funds in a bank closure and transferred ownership to Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company to satisfy a mortgage debt of $16,900. The lodge regained ownership in 1940 after renting the building back. Today, the temple stands as one of Yuma's few surviving major Modernist Art Deco structures and was recognized for its historical significance when listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, following a substantive review in the 1979 Yuma Multiple Resource Area survey.