MASONIC HALL 1931
MASONIC HALL 1931
23 ABBOTT STREET
Just before the Police Station, on the north side of Abbott Street,
is the former Sandringham Masonic Hall, listed on the Victorian
Heritage Register since 2016. It is a most unusual building in the
Egyptian Revival Style of architecture, designed by a Brighton
architect, Gordon John Sutherland, and built by a Hampton
builder, H S G Stephenson, in 1931. Rear additions were made in
1956. The building was sold to the City of Bayside in 2017 and will be
the home of the Sandringham & District Historical Society Inc after
restoration in 2021.
The winged solar disk above the main entrance immediately
identifi es the building as a Masonic temple, as do the palm leaf
capitals to the columns in the porch, and the two obelisks at the
entrance. This unique building throws light on life in Sandringham
after two world wars, including the need for Freemasonry and
interest in Egyptian antiquities. Interests and needs have changed,
but it remains a landmark building of symmetry and simplicity.
