2134 Cadillac Boulevard
The Acacia Lodge No. 447 of the Free & Accepted Masons, The Acacia Temple
Sometimes, you’re too late. That phrasing can apply to many things here, but I’m mainly referring to the fact that this structure was on my list for ages. Considering it was placed on a healthy corner of the eastside I passed frequently, in my head, I wrongly assumed its safety. Two weeks ago, it practically burned to the ground in the second fire in two weeks. We’ll get to that later.
The origins of this structure continue to puzzle me. By 1902, there was a structure here owned by Mrs. Betty and Mr. John F. Duntley. In September, the couple hosted the Mary Palmer M. E. Church choir and 40 guests at the home. Duntley (or his son who shares his name) was the co-founder and manager of the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company alongside Charles M. Schwab, a steel magnate. Both Duntley’s sons were involved in the company, too.
According to the 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 426 Cadillac, the parcel’s original address, was a large two-story home. It looks very similar to the front portion of the structure pictured here, which was obviously built in two sections. I’d guess that the structure was added onto, and the front portion of the building pictured here was the Duntley home. That said, I’m getting ahead of myself, and I can’t prove that.
Duntley lived in this home until his death on Saturday, August 5, 1913. He was 71, and the cause of death was uremic poisoning, which is caused by untreated kidney failure. The funeral was held at the home on Cadillac Boulevard. His wife, Betty Lyon Duntley, lived in the house until she died in 1918.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the home had a room for rent in 1919. It was furnished and reasonably priced. This is the last mention I’ve found of the structure in use as a home.
The cornerstone for the addition on the backside of the structure says 1920. Oddly, no article denoting its placement has been found. It might exist; I just haven’t been able to find it. The Lodge that built it was instituted in 1915.
Thanks to documents shared with me by David Alan Jones, the cornerstone was laid on September 10, 1920. Apart from that, I haven’t been able to find much information.
Throughout the rest of the 1910s, the Acacia Lodge was often in the paper for its baseball team, constantly battling for the top spot in the Masonic League. One article in 1919 said, “One of the best attractions in a baseball way that has ever been staged will be on display at Navin field Saturday afternoon when the four leading teams of the Masonic league will be pitted against each other in a double bill…”
The structure pictured here wasn’t for baseball. The Acacia Lodge No. 447 of the Free & Accepted Masons met here, and, according to the 1929 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, the addition had a dining room on the first floor and a lodge room on the second floor. Known around town as the Acacia Temple, the structure’s capacity had to be hundreds. In addition to Lodge No. 447, many other lodges and groups held meetings here, too.
By the mid-1920s, the corner of Kercheval and Cadillac was bustling. The Epiphany Episcopal Church Community House, on the corner, which still stands, had five storefronts, a gymnasium, an auditorium, and offices. In between that and the Acacia Lodge sat the Church of the Epiphany, formerly called the Epiphany Episcopal Church. Between these three structures, thousands of Detroiters had third spaces to escape the trials and tribulations of life at home, on the assembly line, or in the classroom.
Regardless of whether the front structure was once a home occupied by the Duntley family, the Acacia Lodge No. 447 of the Free & Accepted Masons had to get a mortgage to fund the construction of their temple. By 1931, there was still around $24,500 left on the bill. Warren F. Fultz, general superintendent of the Motor Products Corporation, had joined the lodge less than five years before he died in January 1931. While working on his automobile in his garage, the door slammed shut, and he was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. A bachelor, Fultz had set up his will so that a trust would give the Acacia Lodge a large sum of his money after his death. The matter first went to the court, but, in the end, the Acacia Lodge got a lump sum of cash instead of annual payments. Fultz had never held office but was on the Entertainment Committee at the time of his death.
The mortgage was burned on October 20, 1931, seven years after the Detroit Free Press reported that the mortgage had been placed. Some reports said the mortgage was worth $50,000, over $1,000,000 in 2024 if that value was calculated in 1931. If it was the initial value from 1924, 100 years ago, it was worth just over $900,000.
The burning of the mortgage was cause for celebration, with Reverend Alfred S. Nickless, Lodge Chaplain, acting as principal speaker. In addition to dinner and dancing, Miss Frances Wadsworth and her dancing pupils provided Vaudeville entertainment. Genesee Lodge No. 174 of Flint attended the event and brought their band and orchestra.
Throughout the 1930s, the Acacia Lodge was home to family parties for members, father and son events, Founders Day parties, and banquets. In addition to housing Acacia Lodge No. 447, numerous other groups and clubs utilized the space, most notably Chapter 420 of the Order of the Eastern Star, which met at the lodge soon after its construction until around when the lodge was sold.
In 1940, the Acacia Lodge celebrated its 25th anniversary with a silver anniversary dinner, which included a ladies’ night with Freddie Warren’s Orchestra and Miss Barbara Scully, a Detroit Soprano. Ladies’ night was popular at the Lodge and happened on multiple occasions.
Things began to slow down in the 1940s and 1950s as Detroit’s fraternal organizations transitioned, moved, and closed. Various events, funerals, and club meetings were still held here; however, Acacia Lodge No. 447 would fizzle out at this location in the 1960s. A post online says that the lodge eventually moved to a structure near Vernier and Mack in Grosse Pointe Woods, and the Acacia Temple Association was last listed at a retirement home there in 1983 when it was dissolved. That same year, another one was filed from a home in Warren and disbanded in 2006.
In June 1967, Miller Bros. Realty put the structure up for sale. The ads listed it as suitable for a church, fraternity hall, or similar use. It had a seated capacity of 400, a complete kitchen, and a finished recreation room. The ads ran through June and stopped, so the structure likely sold, or the owners weren’t certain what to do with it.
After that, I’m unsure what happened to the Acacia Temple. I haven’t found a single mention of it until urban explorers went inside in 2009.
Though the website is now down, I utilized the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive’s site to get some information from DetroitFunk’s post on the structure. According to the blog, “The hall area is all gutted and prepped for new floors, and the roof was completely redone at some point in the recent past.” The writer later stated that the roof had only been started, and, given that there were huge holes in it by the 2010s, it was likely not finished. The post also says that there were a ton of documents related to the Detroit Public Schools inside, insinuating that DPS had once occupied the property. Considering the Land Bank currently owns it, I find that unlikely; however, it isn’t impossible.
In 2018, the City of Detroit planned to demolish the structure, posting demolition notices on the front. A small group of preservationists fought to save it from the wrecking ball, pleading that it was historically significant. They succeeded, and the property was saved.
By this point, the structure already had large holes in the roof and no floors in some areas. Still, much ornate woodwork remained inside. It appears the city did nothing to slow down the deterioration that had been ongoing for years.
In October 2024, a duplex two parcels up Cadillac caught fire and burned into the night. Fire chasers speculated that hot ashes from that fire blew in the wind and landed on the structure pictured here, causing it to catch fire. I’m uncertain how damaging that fire was; however, another fire would completely destroy the former Acacia temple a few days later. These photographs were taken a few days after that fire.
An emergency demolition was placed on the structure, and while I was taking these photographs, a worker from the demolition company was on the scene assessing how best to demolish what remained of the building. We joked that you could probably just poke the top portion, and it would all come crumbling down like a game of Jenga.
Jokes aside, what remains of this building is a shocking testament to how well-built this place was. It had been vacant for at least two decades before the fire (I’d guess longer) and had massive holes in the roof and collapsed floors. The Detroit Fire Department (correctly) let it burn and protected the nearby structures (including Epiphany Episcopalian Church) instead to ensure no lives were lost over an old, dingy building. As a lover of old dingy buildings, the sight of this structure made me sad, but no old building is worth losing a life over.
As I said before, this place had been on my list forever. I always felt that it was safe because this corner of the neighborhood was doing so well. I take no pride in checking this one off my list, though I’m happy to have documented it before it’s gone completely.
Sometimes, you’re too late.
