DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Houston's got layers — and one of those layers goes back to 1870, when twenty-two Master Masons sat down together and decided this city needed something more. Houston was growin', and they knew it.
So on May 11, 1870, those twenty-two men put their names to a petition and sent it up to the Grand Lodge of Texas, requesting a charter for a brand new lodge. The place where they gathered to make it official? The hall of Holland Lodge No. 1 — Houston's very first Masonic Lodge.
That's where Gray Lodge No. 329 was constituted, right there in the house of the oldest lodge in town. That makes Gray Lodge No. 329 Houston's second oldest Masonic Lodge, and it's been standing on that legacy ever since. Now — the name.
The lodge was named for William Fairfax Gray. And William Fairfax Gray is worth a story of his own. He came to Texas as a land agent, and he was present at the Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1836 — the very convention where Texas declared independence from Mexico.
A man who was in the room for that. Then in 1837, Gray packed up his family and moved them from Virginia all the way to Houston. By profession he was an attorney, but he also served as clerk of the Republic of Texas House of Representatives and the Senate — in 1837 and 1838.
A land agent, a witness to independence, an attorney, a clerk of a brand new republic. When twenty-two Master Masons went looking for a name worthy of their lodge, they landed on his. Some names carry weight.
William Fairfax Gray's still does.
What the marker says
Founded in 1870, this is Houston's second oldest Masonic Lodge. On May 11, 1870, twenty-two Master Masons, in response to the growth in Houston's population, signed a petition requesting a charter for a new lodge from the Grand Lodge of Texas. Gray Lodge No. 329 was constituted in the hall of Houston's first Masonic Lodge, Holland Lodge No. 1. The lodge was named for William Fairfax Gray, who was in Texas as a land agent and attended the Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1836 when Texas declared independence from Mexico. Gray moved his family from Virginia to Houston in 1837. He was by profession an attorney, and served as clerk of the Republic of Texas House of Representatives and the Senate in 1837 and 1838.