A Sudden Death at the Masonic Temple
A janitor who kept the furnaces running at the Second and Pike building dies quietly while at his post.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The body of John Albert Stafford, the janitor and engineer of the Masonic Temple building, on Second and Pike streets, was found yesterday morning in one of the closets of the building. He sleeps in the building and it is his custom to light the furnace fires about 4 o'clock in the morning, but when Mr. Knight, the tyler of the temple and manager of the building, came down he found that Stafford had not commenced his work. A search was continued until the body was found about 9 o'clock sitting in the closet cold and stiff and holding his pipe in his hand. A post-mortem examination was later held and it was discovered that the death was due to heart disease.
“Stafford had not commenced his work, and on looking around for him saw his coat and hat in an ante-room.”
The Masonic Temple at Second and Pike was a civic anchor for decades. Today, that intersection remains a high-traffic urban hub, though the original building has long since been lost to the city's redevelopment.
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