Ector Lodge No. 687, A. F. & A. M.

The lodge's first home, Ravenna, was a young town that lost out to the railroad. The Handbook of Texas says it began as Willow Point, took its name from the ravines, and incorporated in 1887, the year the Masons petitioned for their charter. Ravenna College moved to Ector in 1889, the same year as the lodge. The Denison, Bonham and New Orleans reached Ravenna in 1891 and the town supported some thirty businesses, but the Texas and Pacific reached Ector in 1892. Ravenna's school was annexed by Bonham's in 1949.

What the plaque says

Ector Lodge No. 687, A. F. & A. M. This lodge began in 1887, when a group of Masons in the town of Ravenna joined together and petitioned the Grand Lodge of Texas for a charter. In 1889 the lodge was moved to the new railroad town of Ector, and in 1901 the name was changed to Ector Lodge No. 687. The membership met in several locations before moving to this building in 1980. Throughout its history, the lodge has maintained an active interest in the community and in charitable projects. Members of Ector Lodge have included area pioneers and prominent citizens. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 3.4 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 25 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• Ector Methodist Church — steps away
• Carson Cemetery — 2.2 mi
• Congressman Sam Rayburn — 3.8 mi
• Dr. Tom Douglas Spies — 4.4 mi