Masonic Temple of Fort Worth

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, Fort Worth has always had a taste for doing things with a certain... intention. So when the Masonic Temple Association of Fort Worth decided they needed one place, one single meeting place to bring all their member bodies together under the same roof, they didn't cut any corners.

They handed the job to the Fort Worth architectural firm of Wiley G. Clarkson and Co., and what those designers drew up was something worth talking about. The building was completed in 1932, and it did not arrive quietly.

Neo-Classical styling, they called it, but with Art Moderne influences woven right in; old world gravity dressed in the sleek confidence of a new century. You look up and there are Ionic columns running along the upper story, the kind of columns that have been saying 'this matters' since ancient Greece. And then there are the doors: Monel bas-relief doors.

Monel. Not just any metal, mind you; the marker says Monel, and whoever specified that knew exactly what they were asking for. This building was meant to last, meant to carry weight, meant to say that every body gathering inside deserved a place that rose to the occasion.

One roof. One temple. All of them together.

That's what Fort Worth built in 1932, and it's still standing there on the skyline, making its case.

What the marker says

This building was constructed for the Masonic Temple Association of Fort Worth provide a single meeting place for all member bodies. Completed in 1932, it was designed by the Fort Worth architectural firm of Wiley G. Clarkson & Co. The Temple exhibits Neo-Classical styling with Art Moderne influences and features upper-story ionic columns and Monel bas-relief doors. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1984.