In each Transitions section of Preservation magazine, we highlight places of local and national importance that have recently been restored, are currently threatened, have been saved from demolition or neglect, or have been lost. Here are five from Spring 2025.

Restored: Masonic Temple Building

After enlisting the prolific 19th-century architect John Henry Devereux to design their grand lodge building in Charleston, the Ancient Free Masons of South Carolina occupied the palatial 1872 building for the better part of the next 100 years. But during a mid-20th century renovation, the structure’s original Gothic-style arched windows were partially filled in. Now, a recent rehabilitation by developer East West Partners has brought the former Masonic temple back to its original look. By the time East West Partners became involved in 2019, the second and third floors had been vacant for roughly 50 years.

As part of a full restoration of the brick-and-stucco facade, the project team carefully replicated the original windows—a $2 million endeavor. It converted the upper floors into 12 residences while the ground floor remains occupied by retail space. “Our whole intent was to bring back that original architecture that was so well done back in the late 1800s,” says project manager Graham Worsham. Now known as 71 Wentworth after its current street address, the rehabilitated building was unveiled in November 2024.

Saved: Palace Hotel

For decades, the Palace Hotel in Ukiah, California, sat vacant, deteriorating, and mired in uncertainty. There were various proposals over the years to save or demolish the building, but none came to fruition—until now. The Palace Hotel has hope in the form of a new steward. Local general contractor Tom Carter purchased the hotel in October 2024, with plans to restore it and eventually reopen it to guests. Carter secured a city permit in December to begin shoring up the building and sealing its roof to prevent further degradation. He’s looking for investors to join him in bringing the Palace back to prominence.

The hotel consists of four structures built between 1891 and 1929, with the earliest portion considered Ukiah’s finest example of brick construction from that period. In its heyday the Palace hosted a number of distinguished guests, including California governors and film stars, but it eventually shuttered in the 1980s and was left to deteriorate. Carter previously undertook a successful restoration of the Tallman Hotel in nearby Upper Lake, California, and he’s bringing his lifetime of construction experience to saving the Palace. “For me,” he says, “it’s the love of the building.”

Restored: Aberdeen B&O Station

Following decades of neglect, a former rail station in Aberdeen, Maryland, escaped demolition in 2003. Now, after a recent restoration, the station looks just as it did when it was erected in 1885. Once a stop along a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) train line, the building was designed by prolific Victorian-era architect Frank Furness in the Shingle Style, featuring a brick-and-cedar-shake exterior and a distinctive bulb-shaped chimney. (Furness designed more than 100 rail stations, but only a small fraction remain.) Passenger service at the Aberdeen B&O Station ceased in the 1950s, and it has sat empty since the early 1990s.

A feasibility study revealed that because freight trains have gotten bigger, the 2,585-square-foot structure was too close to the tracks, so the Maryland Historical Trust and The Historical Society of Harford County funded a relocation of the station about 50 feet from its original site in 2015. But it remained in poor condition until 2021, when its owner, the nonprofit Friends of the Aberdeen B&O Train Station, embarked on a $1.1 million restoration project designed by David H. Gleason Associates and executed by Bathon Builders. The team made structural repairs, swapped lead paint–ridden cedar shakes for replicas, and sourced color-matched bricks to replace those that were failing. “The windows and doors are either original or they’re reproduced to the original,” says historic consultant Mary Rasa. The exterior restoration was completed in July 2024. The Friends group is preparing to tackle an interior rehabilitation this year, with plans to eventually rent out the space and create an exterior public interpretation component.

Threatened: Overfield Tavern

In the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2024, a fire broke out at the Overfield Tavern Museum in Troy, Ohio. Flames ripped through the museum’s two log structures—a cabin and a tavern, both more than 200 years old—destroying historic furnishings, clothing, and art. Miraculously, the buildings’ hewn-log construction is still largely intact, a testament to “just how sturdy those old-growth logs are,” says Ben Sutherly, the museum’s board president. Early Ohio settlers Benjamin and Margaret Overfield built the one-room log cabin in 1803 as a place to raise their children. The 1,080-square-foot tavern, completed next door a few years later, was the cornerstone of Troy’s early community. After the tavern ceased operating in 1824, it saw a wide variety of uses: a residence, a clubhouse frequented by local industrialists, and even a preschool.