FARMINGTON – The three-story Masonic Block on Main Street, home to the Blue Lodge of Masons and the York Rite Bodies, has been sold.

Papers were signed Thursday, said Robert Lawrence, president of the Masonic Building Association. The buyer is KNK Properties LLC of Dallas, Texas, he said.

Kelly and Nancy Kading of KNK Properties have strong ties to the Farmington area with a summer home at Clearwater Lake. Nancy Barrows Kading was raised in Farmington. Attempts to reach the Kadings on Friday were unsuccessful.

“It’s a grand old building and its tough on our older members, but it was tough to maintain. So, after a long process,” Lawrence said, “we’ve finally sold it.”

The building was constructed in 1887, a year after a fire took the original hall along with other buildings and homes downtown, he said.

Groups with interest in the lodge hall are the Blue Lodge and Chapter, Commandery and Council of the York Rite Bodies, the Order of Eastern Star and Amaranth, which met regularly on the second and third floors.

A bookstore, Twice Sold Tales, is a tenant on the first floor. Owner Jim Logan said Kading called him Friday to arrange to meet in July.

“I knew the sale could happen when I started the bookstore 11 years ago, and I’ve known it would happen for the last three years,” Logan said. “Now it’s easier to deal with it as there will finally be a resolution.”

Logan did not know what Kading’s plans are and whether he would still be able to rent the first floor.

The building was just too much for the lodge to maintain, Lawrence said. “So, it’s with mixed emotions that we’ve let it go. We’re trying not to look back but instead to look forward,” he said.

While the lodge does not meet during the summer months, come September, he said, members will meet at the Wilton Lodge.

“We’re hoping to build a new lodge. Most likely we’ll team up with Wilton and build a lodge hall both can use. If we do, it will be located on the Bryant Road in Wilton,” Lawrence said.