Almas Temple
- Style
- Moorish / Mudéjar
- City
- Washington, DC
The Almas Temple is a Moorish Revival Masonic building facing Franklin Square at 1315 K Street NW, built in 1929 by Allen H. Potts, a member of the temple. It houses Almas Shrine, a local chapter of Shriners International, whose national headquarters is in Tampa, Florida.
the building
Terra-cotta facade. The five-story building is faced in elaborate, multicolored glazed terra cotta rendered in the Moorish style, a striking contrast to the office towers around Franklin Square.
A building on the move. In 1987 the entire structure was renovated and physically relocated about 100 feet to the west to clear the site for the new office complex One Franklin Square.
the style
The temple is executed in the Moorish Revival style, a mode 20th-century American Shriners often chose for their halls, evoking the fraternal order's self-styled Middle Eastern imagery through polychrome ornament.
More on Moorish / Mudéjarsignificance
The building is individually designated a DC Historic Landmark and appears as a setting in Dan Brown's 2009 novel The Lost Symbol.
nearby
- The Hamilton Crowne Plaza, Washington, D.C.
- Tower Building
- Engine Company No. 16/Truck Company No. 3
- Franklin, Benjamin, School (& Interiors)
- Denrike Building
- Real Estate Trust Building