DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Ancient Order of Pilgrims, out of Harris County. Now, you want to talk about building something from nothing — really building it — then pull up a chair, because this story starts in the shadow of the Civil War, when African Americans across this country were finding out that freedom didn't automatically come with a safety net. No insurance.
No loans. No institutions set up to catch you if you fell. That was the landscape.
Into Houston, sometime in the 1870s, walked a man named Henry Cohen Hardy. Jamaican immigrant. Educator.
And, as it turned out, somebody who looked at a problem and decided to solve it. In 1882, Hardy established the Ancient Order of Pilgrims — a fraternal organization built specifically to help Houston's African American community wrestle with the economic problems that hemmed them in on every side. Burial insurance, so a family wouldn't have to face grief and ruin at the same time.
Real estate loans, so folks could actually own something. And the thing grew. Lord, did it grow.
Chapters spread out — they called them sanctuaries — and members came from all economic levels. Every year, delegates gathered at conclaves to review the finances and hold elections. This wasn't a loose collection of well-meaning neighbors.
This was an organization with structure, with purpose, with momentum. By 1926, the Ancient Order of Pilgrims had about sixty sanctuaries. Sixty.
And the leadership decided it was time — time to plant a flag, to build something you could point to and say: we did that. They chose Houston. They hired Alfred C.
Finn, a noted architect, and what Finn gave them was something nobody in that neighborhood was going to walk past without stopping to look. The Pilgrim Temple Building. Four stories of brick, situated right at Bagby Street and West Dallas Avenue.
Triangular in shape — which is already a statement — with elaborate finishes and, if you can picture it, a rooftop garden sitting up top like a crown. This was not a modest building. This was a declaration.
And it filled up fast. The Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce set up inside, with O.K. Manning and Roscoe Cavitt as executive secretaries.
Madame N.A. Franklin's Beauty School operated there, run by Mr. and Mrs. J.H.
Jemison. The Houston Defender newspaper called it home, with C.F. Richardson as publisher.
The Askew Drug Store. Physicians. Attorneys.
All manner of businesses. Booker T. Washington High School used the ballroom and auditorium.
Sororities, fraternities, social clubs — they all came through those doors. For more than forty years, the Pilgrim Temple Building was a focal point for Houston's Black community. You want to understand what that means — not just a building people rented space in, but a center of gravity for an entire community's civic, economic, and social life.
Now, here's where the story gets complicated, the way real stories do. The Ancient Order itself folded in 1931. That's a hard fact, and there's no dressing it up.
But within a year — 1932 — a man named G.A. Kennedy revived the mission under the name the Progressive Order of Pilgrims. That's the kind of resilience that doesn't make the headlines but probably should.
In the early 1960s, the group sold the building. And later, it was razed. Gone.
That triangular brick tower with its rooftop garden — gone. But here's the thing about a place that meant that much to that many people: the business owners who once occupied it were still working, years later, to preserve its memory as a historic site. Because some buildings, even after they're gone, refuse to stop standing.
Henry Cohen Hardy came to Houston as an educator and ended up building an institution that sheltered a community through the hardest of times. That's a legacy that outlasted the walls.
What the marker says
After the Civil War, African Americans faced difficulties finding insurance or securing loans. In the 1870s, Jamaican immigrant Henry Cohen Hardy came to Houston, where he was an educator. Hardy established the Ancient Order of Pilgrims in 1882 to help solve economic problems faced by Houston's African American population. The fraternal organization provided burial insurance and real estate loans. It soon branched out with chapters called sanctuaries. Members came from all economic levels. Each year delegates met at conclaves to review finances and hold elections. By 1926, with about 60 sanctuaries, the order chose to build a headquarters and office building in Houston. Officers hired noted architect Alfred C. Finn. Located at Bagby Street and West Dallas Avenue, the four-story, brick Pilgrim Temple Building was triangular in shape and featured elaborate finishes and a rooftop garden. In addition to the order's headquarters, it housed the Houston Negro Chamber of Commerce, O.K. Manning and Roscoe Cavitt, executive secretaries; Madame N.A. Franklin Beauty School, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Jemison, proprietors; the Houston Defender newspaper, C.F. Richardson, publisher; Askew Drug Store; and offices of physicians, attorneys and various businesses. Booker T. Washington High School, as well as sororities, fraternities and other social clubs used the ballroom and auditorium for functions. The temple was a focal point for Houston's black community for more than 40 years. The Ancient Order folded in 1931 but was revived as the Progressive Order of Pilgrims in 1932 by G.A. Kennedy. In the early 1960s, the group sold the building, later razed. Business owners who once occupied it now work to preserve its memory as a historic site. (2006)