This steel reinforced building with brick exterior walls trimmed in terra cotta was designed by Matthew O'Brien and Carl Werner in the architectural style known as the Jacobean Phase of Medieval Revival.

The building has been home to two institutions that served the changing demographics of the Western Addition: the Knights Templar and the Baptist Church. Originally built as a masonic temple for the Knights Templar, a popular order at the turn of the century, the building after 1949 functioned as a center for activities connected with the civil rights struggles following World War II.

From City Planning Commission Resolution 13419 dated October 29, 1992.