DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — and it's a story worth hearing. Now, Fort Worth researchers didn't just wake up one morning and agree on this site. No sir.
It took many years of debate before they finally pinned it down in 1957 as the location of the city's very first Masonic lodge. Years of debate. Which tells you right there that Fort Worth has never been a town that lets anything go easy.
The group itself organized in 1854, received its charter the following year as Fort Worth Masonic Lodge No. 148, A.F. and A.M., and for a while they just rented space — the way you do when you're new and still figuring things out. But by 1857, they were done rentin'. Construction began on their own hall, a red-brick building, two stories, facing west, with a bell tower over the main entrance.
Plain in appearance, the marker tells us — but plain doesn't mean small. That building signified something. Progress.
Civilization. Two words that carried real weight on the Texas frontier. Now picture where this thing was sitting.
The site had been donated to the lodge by one Middleton T. Johnson, and at the time, it lay outside the city's populated area entirely. About four blocks east of the public square, built on unplatted land beyond the old fort grounds, well outside the business district.
They built their hall where the city hadn't quite gotten to yet. The second floor was a single room — lodge functions only. The ground level was divided into two rooms: a school run by the Masonic group, and space available for public meetings and church services.
One building doing a lot of work for a young town. And then there's the bell. In 1871, a lodge member named Lawrence Steel sold the lodge an English-made bell — cast around 1782, give or take — and that bell became known as the Masonic bell.
It rang to announce stagecoach arrivals. It rang to warn of fires. It rang to call children to the start of the school day.
One bell, doing the work of a whole town's nervous system. For more than twenty years, the lodge called this place home. But by 1878, they had outgrown it.
The Masons moved to a new building at Second and Main, and this site passed into the category of things you have to argue about for years before anyone agrees on what happened here. Lodge No. 148 never stopped growing, though. It went on to spawn an additional fifteen lodges in Fort Worth.
Fifteen. That first plain red-brick building on unplatted land — that bell tower facing west into a city that hadn't arrived yet — turned out to be the seed of something the town is still living with today.
What the marker says
After many years of debate, Fort Worth researchers identified this site in 1957 as the location of the city's first Masonic lodge. For more than twenty years, lodge members met in a two-story hall at this location. The group organized in 1854 and received its charter the following year as Fort Worth Masonic Lodge No. 148, A.F. & A.M. Members initially rented space for meetings and began construction on their own lodge hall in 1857. The new building offered space for lodge functions on the second floor, which was a single room, and the Masonic group operated a school on the ground level. The first floor space was divided into two rooms and was available for public meetings and church services. Donated to the lodge by Middleton T. Johnson, the site of the lodge once lay outside the city's populated area. The hall sat well beyond the old fort grounds, and even at about four blocks east of the public square it was built on unplatted land outside the city's business district. Although plain in appearance, the red-brick building signified progress and civilization. Its two stories faced west with a bell tower over the main entrance. In 1871, Lawrence Steel, a member, sold the lodge an English-made bell (c. 1782) that became known as the Masonic bell. It rang to announce stagecoach arrivals, fires and the start of the school day. By 1878, the Masons had outgrown their lodge hall at this site, and they moved to a new building at Second and Main. Lodge No. 148 has continued to be a strong presence in the community, spawning an additional fifteen lodges in Fort Worth. (2006)