A while back, I had a week on this blog featuring buildings in South Natick. Now I’ll be featuring some buildings in downtown Natick. In 1874, a massive fire destroyed 35 buildings in the downtown. New brick and stone structures were soon built to replace the lost ones. One of the these is the Masonic Block on Main Street, constructed of Vermont marble and completed in 1874. The polychromatic High Victorian Gothic building was designed by S.S. Woodcock and has commercial space on the lower floors and rooms on the upper floors used by the Meridian Lodge, originally established in 1797 by Paul Revere. A glimpse of the building’s occupants in the late nineteenth century can be found in the History of Middlesex County, Vol. I (1890):

Masonic Brick and Marble Block.—This was erected in 1874, and belongs to the estate of the late Leonard Morse. The front is of marble, the other walls are brick. It is occupied on the lower floor by the Atlantic Tea Stores Company, Messrs. Wilde & Soule, who deal in teas, coffees and crockery; by James F. Gray, manufacturer of confectionery and keeper of fruit for sale; by Leonard P. Stone, dealer in meats and vegetables, and by Beals’ Clothing and Furnishing establishment. In the second story are Mulligan’s billiard-room, Finn’s barber-shop, Dr. Abbott’s rooms for dentistry, and Miss Mabel Morse’s musicroom. The third and fourth stories are wholly occupied for Masonic purposes.