Everywhere you turn in the Kora Shrine Temple there is a touch of the Middle East. Elaborate camel heads carved into the wood by the staircase. A mural of the pyramids at sunset over the dining-room bandstand. A crescent-shaped maroon altar upstairs. All Shrine Temples have a Middle Eastern theme, but not all have as strong and ornate a feel as Lewiston’s.

What’s with all the symbolism?

Frank Preble explains:

Back in the late 1800s, a New York Mason traveling abroad attended a lavish soiree thrown by French royalty, Preble said.

“All of the people were dressed in Arabic garb,” he said. “He was quite impressed with all that, the fezzes and the ornate stuff and the color of the garb they wore, and that’s how we ended up. He came back and created Shriners.

“They thought at the time that the Masonic fraternity was too staid and businesslike. They were looking where they could go, commingle and have fun, drink, and wine and dine with their ladies. This was created as the fun portion of the Masonic fraternity.”

And those leadership titles? Also, in all likelihood, a means of being different, David Lidstone said. The temple’s leader – the potentate – translates to being a company CEO. The chief rabban is a vice president, the assistant rabban is a second vice president and so on.

Potentates, responsible for everything that goes on at the temple, hold that title for one year. It used to be that men entered a leadership track that took 10 years to reach that top spot, Preble said. That’s since been cut to seven.

Lidstone is in line to be potentate in January 2010. Karl Finnimore is the current potentate.

– Kathryn Skelton

By the numbers
Kora Shrine Temple

$100,000: Original construction cost in 1906-08

$400,000+: Cost of adding an elevator in 2000

2: Times a year Central Maine Medical Center takes over the dining room (one charity gala, one Christmas party)

7: Number of ovens in the kitchen (three gas, four convection)

10,000: Number of gallons of oil a year to heat the building

19,996: Number of members over the last 100 years (they’ll hit 20,000 this summer)

Interested in a tour? Just ask

The public is welcome to stop by during the week, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., for a look inside. To arrange for a guided tour, call in advance: 782-6831

What is a Shriner?

Men who become “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine” – Shriners – are Freemasons who have reached the high rank of Master Mason. According to KoraShiners.org, men can apply to their local lodge to become a Freemason if they’re 18 or over, wish to join the fraternity and believe in a god (any god – members are Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and of other religious backgrounds).

Masonry “dates back hundreds of years to the time when stonemasons and other craftsmen gathered in shelter houses or lodges. Over the years, formal Masonic lodges emerged, with members bound together not by trade, but by their own desire to be fraternal brothers,” according to the site.

Shriners support 22 Shriners Hospitals that offer free care to children in need with issues including burns and orthopedic problems.