Jack White has bailed out a historic Detroit rock venue that was on the verge of foreclosure. Late last month, White anonymously paid the $142,000 the Detroit Masonic Temple owed in back taxes, helping keep the almost-100-year-old venue in the black. White has played the temple several times, and his mother served as an usher at the building when he was growing up.
Though White probably wasn’t anticipating it when he kicked in the money, the Masonic Temple Association has decided to rename its 1,600-capacity Cathedral Theater “The Jack White Theater.” Association president Roger Sobran said the organization decided to make the change because it was so appreciative of White’s “magnanimous generosity and unflinching loyalty to this historic building.” (Subsequent tourism from Jack White fans probably won't hurt.)
Anyone else interested in contributing to the Detroit Masonic Temple—which, in addition to the Jack White Theater, also holds two more theaters, a chapel, eight lodge rooms, a 17,500 square foot drill hall, two ballrooms, office space, a cafeteria, a Shrine building, dining rooms, a barber shop, 16 bowling lanes, and a powerhouse that once generated all the electricity for the complex—can do so on the Temple’s website.