File:Former Orinoco Hall, Boreal Clubhouse, Tyrian Temple, Paramount Temple et al. - Buffalo, New York - 20210307.jpg

English: As seen in March 2021: the building at 246 East Utica Street (corner Purdy Street) in Buffalo, New York has a long history as home to a succession of fraternal societies. For the first eleven years of its existence it was known as Orinoco Hall, named for its main occupant, Orinoco Hive No. 200 of the Ladies of the Maccabees, the women's auxiliary of the Knights of the Maccabees. Nonetheless, the building also comprised space for various other Catholic fraternal organizations, most of which were affiliated with St. Nicholas whose parish church was just down the street: Division No. 8 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and St. Nicholas Branch No. 65 of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association met there until 1902 and '03, respectively. The building was sold in 1906, and after brief periods spent owned by the I.O.O.F. and the National White Cross Relief Society, it served from 1913 through 1923 as the home of the Boreal Club, a social group of business and professional men of the Cold Spring neighborhood. But by far the longest-tenured owner of the building were the Freemasons: first known as the Tyrian Temple, one of Buffalo's most active Masonic halls that was home to not only the Tyrian Chapter No. 610 but, by 1940, nearly a dozen other Masonic lodges, chapters, courts and councils. In 1957, those groups gave way to Paramount Lodge No. 57, the Buffalo chapter of the Prince Hall Masons, the oldest and still the largest predominantly African-American Masonic organization. They met here until at least 1980 and technically still own the building, though it's been vacant for some time. Meanwhile, the now-bricked-over storefront space at street level was adapted for commercial usage in roughly the mid-1920s; among the building's most notable retail tenants was Fran's Delicatessen, occupant of the space for most of the 1970s. Architecturally speaking, the building is a typical example of late-period (built in 1895) Romanesque Revival architecture as adapted to the form of a more modest-scale commercial and institutional building, as best exemplified in the twinned round-arched windows on the top floor, crowned by window heads of projecting brickwork. Further ornamental masonry work comes in the form of a dentil row along the roofline, florid splayed arches above the second-floor windows, another round arch enclosing a recessed balcony on the Purdy Street side, and the repeating diamond pattern in the frieze on the side elevation.