Masonic Temple Association of Fort Worth

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Now, Fort Worth has always been a town that does things big — and when its Masonic membership started growin' fast in the early part of the twentieth century, I mean growing dramatically, the kind of growth that fills rooms and then runs out of rooms entirely, something had to be done about it. Ten member bodies came together, and in 1929 they chartered the Masonic Temple Association of Fort Worth.

Ten organizations under one roof, or at least, one roof they were fixin' to build. The purpose was clear from the start: raise the funds, raise the walls, and give all those member bodies a single central meeting place to call their own. Now, you know how building projects go — they have a way of testin' a man's patience.

But these folks got it done. By 1932, the new temple was completed. Three years from charter to cornerstone to finished building, right in the teeth of hard times.

And what they built wasn't just brick and mortar. The Association has kept on doing what it set out to do — creating a common bond among its members, year after year. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can raise isn't a building at all.

It's what gathers inside it.

What the marker says

The Masonic Temple Association was founded as the result of dramatic growth in Fort Worth's Masonic membership during the early part of the twentieth century. It was chartered in 1929 with ten member bodies for the purpose of building and maintaining a central meeting place for those organizations. Funds were raised and the new temple was completed in 1932. Since its founding, The Masonic Temple Association of Fort Worth has helped to create a common bond among its members. (1984)