Albert Lea's architectural history is reflected in a group of notable downtown buildings, including Firemen's Hall and Masonic Lodge at 147 North Broadway, built in 1909-1910 with the upper floor housing the Masonic Lodge; the rest of the building later served as the Idle Hour Theatre, space for youth groups, health organizations, and clubs sponsoring public events, was remodeled extensively in 1981 for the Albert Lea Community Theatre, was used as an emergency hospital during the flu epidemic of 1920, and was named the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center in 2008 after local actress Marion Ross. Other important structures include the Albert Lea Post Office at 141 South Newton, built in 1936 by architect LeRoy Gaarder with expressive stonework and classical lines; the First National Bank Building at 139 South Broadway, built in 1902-1903 in a classical commercial style with decorative archways and recessed windows; the Rivoli Theater at 224 South Broadway, built in 1916 by Dr. William Bessesen in the French Classical style for his wife, Madam Bessesen, to present her operatic talent and teach voice lessons; and the Freeborn County Courthouse at 411 South Broadway, built in 1887 in Richardsonian Romanesque style with a great tower and sculpted dog faces facing outward in all four directions. The Albert Lea State Bank Building and Henry J. Harm Jewelry Store at 201 and 211 South Broadway, both built in 1922, featured terra cotta, marble, and rich ornamentation, while the Southern Minnesota Gas and Electric Company Building at 100 North Broadway, built in 1923, showed strong Italian influence in a typical prairie-town commercial office design. City Hall at 202 North Broadway, built in 1903 as a police station and fire house, had Romanesque arches and originally included a brick half circle and tower; the Syndicate Block at 244 South Broadway, built in 1888, was a Romanesque structure later altered by the removal of deteriorated and roof elements; the Carnegie Library at 146 West College Street grew from the Albert Lea Library Association's efforts and an Andrew Carnegie grant before construction in 1903; and the six-story Home Investment Building, later called the Hyde Building and now the Lea Center, was completed in 1917 and remains the most sizable landmark of the downtown area.