The strange destiny of the Hollywood Masonic Temple

Hollywood is undoubtedly a unique place, where nothing can happen like anywhere else. So it's hardly surprising that the Hollywood Masonic Temple has had a rather surprising destiny. In just over a century of existence, this building has only been used as a Masonic Temple for around forty years, but it still stands in Hollywood, having been used for a variety of purposes, some of them quite surprising. Situated on Hollywood Boulevard, the former Masonic Temple is at the heart of the fires currently raging in Los Angeles, and may well come to a dramatic end. 

Hollywood, the city of cinema 

In 1887, a land developer called Harvey Henderson Wilcox bought 60 acres of land not far from Los Angeles to build a ranch for himself and his family, which he named Hollywood. When fig and apricot farming proved to be a financial failure, Wilcox decided to subdivide his land and sell it off in parcels. The result was the small town of Hollywood, which became a municipality in 1902 and was incorporated into Los Angeles in 1910.

It was also around 1910 that the fledgling film industry began to set up shop in Hollywood, attracted by the region's varied landscapes, very low land prices and California's particularly sunny climate (around 350 days of sunshine a year). As early as 1908, films were partly shot in Hollywood, but in 1910, the director D.W. Griffith (1875-1948), who was a Freemason, came from New York to live in Hollywood for several months and shoot three films entirely on location. Back in New York, his description of Hollywood caused a furore in film circles and from 1913 several companies decided to set up there. The small Californian town became the Mecca of American cinema and its fame spread around the world.

There were, of course, many Freemasons in film circles and they formed Hollywood Lodge No. 355 under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of California. The lodge met at a site where the Dolby Theatre was later built. In 1921, they purchased land on Hollywood Boulevard to build a temple, which was dedicated in 1922. The project was entrusted to architect John C. Austin, who also designed Los Angeles City Hall and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, for the Masonic Appendant Body of Shriners.

The two-storey building is flanked by an imposing neoclassical facade decorated with columns. The ground floor contained rooms open to the public, including a billiard room, ladies' room and ballroom. Upstairs were the temples and strictly Masonic rooms.

Financial difficulties 

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused problems for the Freemasons, who could no longer maintain the building. So they rented out the ground floor to a social club, which turned out to be running an illegal slot machine!

After the Second World War, the Lodge regained possession of the whole building, but a decline in membership in the 1970s led them to re-let the ground floor as a restaurant and nightclub. In 1982, the Lodge decided to move to the Van Nuys area and later to Tarzana. The Hollywood Temple was then sold to singer Rosita LaBello, who founded the Hollywood Opera & Theatre Company. When the company went bankrupt, the Lodge bought the building back, only to sell it again in 1986. 

The Hollywood Masonic Temple at the funeral of D.W. Griffith in 1948

After extensive renovations, the former Masonic Temple then housed a 250-seat cabaret, a 500-seat auditorium and an 800-person dance club.

In 1995, Disney leased the building as a promotional space, and in 1998, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (a Disney subsidiary) bought it to transform it into the El Capitan Entertainment Center.

The Hollywood Masonic Temple today (January 2025)

Since 2003, the Hollywood Masonic Temple, now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Center, has been best known as the production site for a popular television show on ABC (which is also owned by Disney), Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Jimmy Kimmel Live on view

With the show's contract up in 2026, Jimmy Kimmel had already announced that he was unlikely to renew it. However, the fires currently ravaging the Hollywood area have prompted the authorities to evacuate Hollywood Boulevard on 8 January 2025. Jimmy Kimmel Live has therefore been suspended. No one knows what will happen to the building, which is threatened by flames...