Alvarado Masonic Lodge No. 314 A.F. & A.M.

Duane's take

The way this marker tells it, here's the story of the Alvarado Masonic Lodge as Duane sees it. Now, if you want to understand a town, really understand it, you look at what its people built before they built anything else. In Alvarado, Johnson County, what they built was a lodge.

The Alvarado Masonic Lodge No. 314 A.F. and A.M., chartered in 1869, stood up under the leadership of three men: A. J. Chambers, J.

C. Weaver, and Joel Higgins. Three names worth remembering, because from the very beginning, these men and the lodge they led were thinking bigger than themselves.

Here's the part that gets me. That first lodge building, before the town had much of anything else to call a school, it opened its doors as a classroom. Not a temporary measure, not a stopgap.

The lodge didn't just talk about education; it administered local school efforts outright. And out of that commitment, in the 1870s, came the Masonic Institute. Then, as the years turned, it grew.

It became the Alvarado Normal Institute. Then it became Alvarado High School. One seed, three names, and a whole generation of Texas children better off for it.

The lodge didn't stop at its own county line, either. It lent its support to the Masonic Home and School in Fort Worth, and in 1946 it hosted the Grand Lodge of Texas meeting; which, if you know anything about the Masons in Texas, tells you the kind of standing this lodge had earned. Among its members you'll find William Balch, the founder of the town itself, and J.

H. Wright, Alvarado's very first mayor. Men who built the community were also the men who showed up at lodge meetings.

And here's the thing: the lodge didn't stop. It continues to aid the community through its many programs, right on into our own time. Some institutions fade.

Some endure. The Alvarado Masonic Lodge No. 314 picked up its gavel in 1869 and, far as anyone can tell, hasn't put it down since.

What the marker says

Alvarado Masonic Lodge No. 314 A.F. & A.M. Chartered in 1869, the Alvarado Masonic Lodge began under leadership of A. J. Chambers, J. C. Weaver and Joel Higgins. From its earliest years it offered strong support of local education. The first lodge building provided classroom space, and the lodge administered local school efforts, establishing the Masonic Institute in the 1870s. It later became Alvarado Normal Institute and then Alvarado High School. The lodge has also supported the Masonic Home and School in Fort Worth and hosted the Grand Lodge of Texas meeting (1946). Civic leaders who were also lodge members include town founder William Balch and first mayor J. H. Wright. The lodge continues to aid the community through its many programs. (2003 )