The Hennepin Center for the Arts (HCA) was built in 1888 as a Masonic Temple

Masonic Temple

Masonic Temple is a term commonly used in Freemasonry with multiple but related meanings. It is used to describe an abstract spiritual goal, the conceptual ritualistic space formed when a Masonic Lodge meets, and the physical rooms and structures in which a Lodge meets...

. The structure was built by Long and Kees

Long and Kees

Minneapolis-based Long and Kees was an architectural firm that designed some of Minneapolis's most important historical buildings. It was named for its two proprietors, Franklin B. Long and Frederick Kees...

 in the Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...

 architectural style. In 1978, it was purchased and underwent a renovation to become the HCA. It is located at 528 Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue

Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery , north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the former "Bottleneck" area west of Loring Park, through the North Loop in the city center, to Northeast Minneapolis and...

 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. Currently, it is owned by Artspace

Artspace Projects, Inc

Artspace Projects, Inc is a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The organization's goal is to provide affordable housing and practice space to artists and arts organizations. The company both renovates older buildings for suitable use, and builds new ones....

 and is home to more than 17 performing and visual art companies who reside on the building's eight floors. The eighth floor is the Illusion Theater, which hosts many shows put on by companies in the building.

HCA is now a part of the The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts (formerly the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center). The new performing arts center is a three-building complex that includes the renovated Shubert Theatre building (renamed the Goodale Theater) and a new glass-walled atrium connecting the two historic buildings and serving them both as a common lobby. The Cowles Center will host its inaugural performance season Fall 2011.