Right here at 219 Newnan Street you face the Morocco Temple, the Shriners International building. Designed here in Jacksonville by Henry John Klutho and erected in 1910–1911, this is the oldest Shrine temple in Florida and a grand example of prairie-style architecture threaded with ancient Egyptian–themed symbols. Notice the entrance: a large battered architrave with a massive transom set atop short columns in the Egyptian revival manner.
The building rises three levels — a main floor, a 1,500-seat auditorium, and a balcony — built of steel-reinforced concrete with stuccoed brick walls and rich terracotta ornamentation. A fabricated metal cornice, patterned with geometric design, projects above the third-floor windows on both front and sides; contemporaries described that Sullivanesque ornament as intentionally emphasizing the building’s horizontal aspect. Step closer and you can imagine the interior light, where many windows and fixtures used color-tinted glass and mosaic-tiled floors added their own glow.
In 1979 this landmark was recognized on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, added on November 29, 1979. The terracotta work, the short Egyptian columns, and the projecting metal cornice above the windows reward a slow turn of your head.