By 1909, Albert M. (Bert) Leech was convinced there was money to be made in the blossoming love affair between the most prominent West Branch citizens and the automobile.

Early that year, he bought the G.C. Shrader grocery building at the southeast corner of Main and Poplar streets and converted it into an auto garage and plumbing shop. With the healthy farm economy putting these newfangled horseless buggies within the financial reach of the area's prospering farmers, Leech made plans to sell cars, too. "Hogs reached the price of $8.35 last Monday, The West Branch Times reported on September 9, 1909. "With a good corn crop already assured the farmer need have no fear as to the advisability of buying that automobile he has been wanting for so long."

By October of 1909, enough West Branch businessmen owned cars to prompt an "auto tour" so that "all may know of the best town on the map." After decorating their cars with advertisements, they cruised their mobile billboards through the Johnson County communities of Oasis, Morse, North Liberty, Coralville and Iowa City, where they stopped at City Park for a picnic lunch. On their way back to West Branch, they visited two more Johnson County communities Hills and Lone Tree -before heading into Washington County to cruise through Riverside and then back home through the southern Cedar County communities of West Liberty and Downey. Automobile fever peaked at Christmas, when a newspaper advertisement for a downtown store showed Santa forsaking his sleigh to deliver his pack of toys in a roadster.

In February of 1911, Leech decided to expand. He bought the two vacant lots next to the Opera Block on North Downey Street and took on Harry Gruwell, a mechanic, as a partner. "He expects to erect an up-to-date garage and plumbing shop thereon in the future," The West Branch Times reported. "He has recently sold a half-interest in his business to Harry Gruwell of Ames, who will soon be associated with him in business. Mr. Gruwell is well known here and is a young man of a mechanical turn naturally, and has had several years training in mechanical engineering at Ames."

Meanwhile, members of the local Masonic Lodge, tired of meeting since 1895 in the south end of the second floor of the Opera Block had been raising funds to construct a building of their own. In 1911, the Masons' building committee decided instead to join Bert Leech in the construction of a two-story brick building that would house Leech's garage on the street level and the Masons' lodge rooms on the second floor. Bids from five builders were opened on April 1, 1911.

The Busiest Place in Town

By mid-August, the new building for the Leech-Gruwell garage and the Masonic Temple was completed. Bert Leech moved his stock of plumbing goods, gasoline engines and auto supplies into his new garage. "About the busiest place in town these days is the garage of Leech & Gruwell," The West Branch Times reported on August 31, 1911. 'They are busy from daylight to dark with their first floor space well filled with machines waiting for repairs in a more or less degree. It is seldom that an auto passes through town without at least a stop for gas or oil or mostly for some other repair"

The Masons had been busy ordering furniture for their new lodge rooms and temple from E.L. Hollingsworth, a local furniture dealer. A formal dedication ceremony was scheduled for November 23, 1911, to show off the temple's lodge rooms, library, dining room and kitchen. The 350 persons who attended the gala affair were most impressed, as was West Branch Times Editor F.E. Corbin, who placed the value of the new building at $9,000. 'There does not seem to be anything lacking in the appointments," Corbin wrote. "The rooms are handsomely finished. The floors are covered with costly Wilton rugs, and other furnishings are in conformity. It is a beautiful temple the Masons have created, and it will long stand as a monument to the progressiveness of this substantial, prosperous and wholesome little city."

When the West Branch Commercial District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the building at 105 North Downey Street housed Rex Hardware, the last in a series of stores that sold hardware and furniture after Bert Leech's garage closed down. The second-story Masonic temple and lodge rooms were then vacant, but intact. The Masons dedicated a new lodge building near North Sixth Street in West Branch in October of 1979.