Over the past 200-plus years, Lockport’s Main Street has evolved with times. The most drastic changes took place in the 1960s and 1970s, via a transformation that many people still lament that today. Very few 19th century buildings were spared the wrecking ball during those years, but the structure on the southeast corner of Main and Cottage streets somehow managed to escape the destruction.
Today that corner is occupied by the red brick Masonic Building but it started out very early as a prime piece of real estate when Lockport was in its infancy. It was a stone’s throw away from the natural gorge where the Flight of Five Locks were being constructed in the early 1820s. The first structure to be built on that corner was the Cottage Inn, constructed by Joseph Landon (giving Cottage Street its name). It became the hub of activity in the small village as surveyors and engineers gathered there to discuss the immense project then taking place just a few yards away.
After the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the Cottage Inn served as a place for travelers to stay while in Lockport. Briefly in the late 1820s the inn was operated by Seymour Scovell, who later moved to Lewiston and left his mark on that village as well. By 1836, the Cottage Inn was gone and a new brick building had been raised on the site by Erastus Rawson. One of the storefronts was leased to G.W. Merchant of Merchant’s Gargling Oil fame. For the next 10 years, Mr. Merchant perfected his formula that was “Good for Man and Beast,” until he needed a larger space to continue his work.
The building was next occupied by another druggist, J.H. Curtiss. His business did well until a fire on Nov. 7, 1850 destroyed the building and its contents. Lockport historian Joshua Wilber listed the offices that were ruined by the fire; these included “the Village Clerk, Wm. Park…Myron H. Davis, Justice of the Peace…[and] the Niagara-Democrat [newspaper].” Wilbur was personally affected by the fire as he had a room on the fourth floor of the building. The Ringueberg Brothers store and the “establishment of J.G. Lewis” were also damaged in the fire. The burned-out lots were soon purchased by Messrs. Ringueberg and Lewis.
The Ringueberg brothers, Jacob and Nicholas, had been in Lockport since the early 1840s and were about to erect a structure that would stand through three different centuries. A June 24, 1851 article in the Lockport Daily Courier praised the brothers for their “good taste” and said the building would be “an ornament to Main St… ‘Jake’ and ‘Nick’ deserve the thanks of all those who take an interest in the general appearance of our town.” Over the next few months the newspaper printed updates on the progress of the building until it opened in December, 1851. It was a “splendid brick block with cast iron front…which for beauty and strength, is not surpassed by any structure in the village.” The paper described the stores that would be located on the first floor (Ringueberg’s, P. Netters and Potter Palmers) but really gushed over the “large and beautiful hall” on the third floor that could “accommodate 1,200 persons with ease.”
The first event to take place at the new hall was the Universalist Society’s annual soiree. For the next 20 years, Ringueberg Hall was the main venue in Lockport for large meetings, concerts, plays and balls. Lockport abolitionists and other charitable groups held fund raising bazaars there which, according to the papers, were very well attended. For a few years, in the 1850s and 1860s, the building housed a grocery and later a clothing store before reverting back to a drug store after the Civil War.
When the Hodge Opera House opened in 1871 it drew much of the activity away from Ringueberg Hall. In 1875, the third floor hall was converted into a meeting space for several of Lockport’s Masonic fraternities. It has been referred to as the “Masonic Building” for the past 150 years.
Over the next quarter century, various proprietors operated drug stores out of the first-floor Cottage Street corner space of the building, with several business offices on the second floor, and the Masons occupying the third floor. In 1900, Clay Parson acquired the drug store business from Delos Sheldon and for the next 61 years, despite different owners, it was known as Parson’s Drug Store. In 1912 the “Rexall Drugs” name was added to the side of the building.
Another shop that was housed in the Masonic Building was the harness shop of J. A. Koon. That business lasted for more than 40 years, from 1886 to 1928, supplying the then horse-drawn Lockport Fire Department with many of their equestrian accoutrements. The J. A. Koon sign that hung above the door now hangs in the meeting room of the Niagara History Center.
After 1961 the store at the corner of the building changed hands numerous times and became various businesses. It currently houses the Big Willie Has Style clothing shop. The other businesses on the first floor today are Just Lookin Antique Shop and Savor the Rise Olive Oil Co.
Two Masonic Lodges still use the third floor for their meetings and ceremonies, Niagara Lodge #375 and Red Jacket Lodge #646.